NFT
An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique digital token that represents ownership of a specific digital object, be it a work of art, a piece of music, a video, a domain, or an anonymous number. According to Tonstat more than 11M NFTs have already been issued on TON blockchain.
NFT standard at TON
The NFT standard is a list of rules to which an NFT token must conform. They are proposed and accepted by the community.
In essence, each NFT is a separate smart contract that records the owner, metadata, and transfer mechanism. The metadata consists of an image, NFT name, description, content reference, and attributes.
Multiple NFT tokens can be combined into collections. Each collection is also a smart contract, which records the owner of the collection, numbered NFTs that belong to the collection, and has methods to retrieve the NFT content of the current collection.
An important difference between the NFT standard in TON and the NFT standard in Ethereum is that in TON the smart contract system is distributed, so it is possible to calculate the address of an NFT that belongs to a collection by its number. In Ethereum, on the other hand, addresses are stored centrally in a single smart contract of a collection.
NFT-Royalties
NFT royalties are a way of ensuring that royalties are paid regardless of where the collection was deployed or where the NFT is sold. Originally, the NFT standard did not have a royalty mechanism. But it was expanded by creating a new standard. This standard provides for the implementation of parameters that can be obtained on-chain: the address of the royalty recipient and its share. A description of the standard can be found at GitHub. To see where NFT is sold and what the royalty percentage is, go to TON NFT Explorer.
SBT
SBT (Soul Bound Token) is an NFT that cannot be transferred to another. It is implemented so that the standard function to change ownership will always be rejected. It also includes additional mechanics for proof of ownership and certificates that can be revoked by whoever issued it. In addition, the owner of the SBT can burn the token. SBT is used like a certificate. A description of the standard can be found on GitHub.
Compressed NFTs (cNFTs)
Compressed NFTs (Compressed NFTs, cNFTs) — is an experimental format that can be used to build very large collections while saving time and the cost of gas per minte. Such coins can be stored both «on-chain» and «off-chain» — for example, on a cloud server (outside the blockchain).
The way it works is that a cNFT is generated as a regular NFT in the blockchain itself the first time it is interacted with, with the authenticity of the NFT being verified using a special Merkle proof (the common hash of all NFTs is stored in the collection contract).
NFT Usage
- Buying and selling art, Telegram numbers, domain names;
- NFT tickets, e.g. NFT tickets to The Gateway Conference;
- Creating a ranking, e.g., SBT for contributing to TON community;
- Authorization, such as implemented on the Playmuse website;
- In-game items, such as those implemented in Tonrare game.
NFT Marketplaces at TON
There are several popular marketplaces on TON platform where you can buy, sell, and trade NFTs: Getgems, Fragment, TON Diamonds, Disintar.
Minting and Burning NFTs
To mint an individual NFT or an entire collection of NFTs, you can use service from Getgems.
There is a special address for burning NFTs on the blockchain, by sending to which full access to the NFT is lost.
NFT issuance can also be done programmatically. There is a step-by-step instruction for this.