NFTs are often associated with an air of fixity around them. Within reason, non-fungible tokens hold the unique stance of endless adaptability with the promise of perpetual standing. The growth comes with its own sets of downsides and loopholes people will try to take advantage of. Though NFTs are notorious for housing and securing the record of the asset, which is impenetrable, this may not extend to the actual asset.
Yes, in theory, the asset can also be backed up on the blockchain, but due to the high storage and consumption restraints, the storage of the non-fungible token is a strenuous process. This being the case, most NFT owners overlook the case of securing the assets. Thinking the asset’s security is a given along with the record of its existence on the blockchain, but that’s not the reality. A plethora of threats faces the actual asset in the raw form as it exists not on the blockchain but rather on vulnerable links (HTTPS) and/or on interchangeable centralized platforms.
What Is Secured And What Is Not?
The assets record in the blockchain is secured. The ownership of the NFT with its metadata linking it to the owner is stored when the asset itself is left to fend for itself. Meaning the assets are traded and stored on centralized platforms as a result. Two factors are playing into this. One brings the storage cost consumption. It’s a known fact NFTs take up much energy. As a result, ends up costing much just to have the ownership minted and stored. Let alone the asset itself.
What Is A Decentralized Storage System?
- NFT default centralized asset storages are the websites and affiliate links that hold the digital objects with the metadata encrypted – cementing their existence and ownership in the blockchain.
- The metadata – links the assets that are stored in the blockchain. Due to this, the vulnerability of the asset rises, and it is left at the risk of security bound by any average content online.
- Centralized platforms are easily penetrated, as there are no stopping hackers from accessing these digital objects in a public URL.
- By this definition, if the assets are to be shifted into a decentralized network, their accessibility can be moved offline and isolated.
- This is where interplanetary file system storage comes into play.
- The decentralized platform works well to store NFT data through third-party channels, in the case of storage.
How Does An Interplanetary File System Work As A Decentralized Storage Unit For NFTs?
- The main elements of the IPFS one can take advantage of is the ease of access, retrieval, and longevity of the asset.
- The ease in access and sharing is achieved by hashing the data in the IPFS.
- The hash table encrypts the mapping keys that are evidently assigned to the assets.
- Since decentralized assets deal with digital assets, it’s easy to break them into blocks and encrypt them by breaking them apart.
- An NFT can be an amalgamation of aspects coming together, with some parts of them being modifiable.
- This is to say, the ease in sharing helps in only accessing and retrieving only the parts of the asset needed.
- CIDs are unique tokens assigned to the assets. This makes it easy to hash for further storage, retrieval, and sharing.
- A distributed hash table adopted by IPFS called libp2p is responsible for the interconnection between the metadata of the hashed file organization.
- This supports peer-to-peer connection and avoids the need to set up multiple accounts to connect many assets if present.
- Rather it enables multiplexing and accessing all the different files under one roof.
Concluding Thoughts
Investing in the NFTs is a bold and, frankly, an opportunistic move. So, why not secure your assets from attacks on weak links and rug pulls from ill-intent people. Many revenue-generating NFTs are being launched on prominent platforms with trending NFT collectibles. To start trading, investing, and most importantly, securing your assets.
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