Investors, musicians, artists – today, everyone is talking about NFTs! In the first quarter of 2021, NFT sales soared over $2 billion, so it is about time we start realizing its success rate. However, as the popularity grows, it becomes necessary to start taking precautions by verifying the ownership of these digital assets as they can become vulnerable to fraud. If you are investing in NFT, here are the reasons why checking NFT ownership becomes crucial.
Why Do You Need to Verify NFT Transactions?
If you are not verifying the NFT transactions you make, there are a number of good reasons why this can lead to dangerous outcomes. Keeping track of every NFT transaction is necessary and here’s why:
- Get an Authenticity Check: If you track and validate your NFT transactions, you will be ensured that every token you sell, buy, or trade is authentic. This can happen by checking whether the transaction is correct, sent to the right person, and with the right amount.
- Verify Minted Content: Authenticating an NFT transaction gives you a chance to understand who, when, and how often the content was minted. This is important for verifying that you buy the real NFT rather than a knockoff.
- Keep a Track: Validating your NFT transaction will help you track who owned it before and who the current owner is. This is helpful as you can eliminate third parties like marketplaces and instead talk with the owner directly.
- Transaction Completion Confirmation: You need to verify whether the transaction was completed. If you skip it, you might accidentally buy too many tokens or miss out on buying, thinking the transaction is completed.
7 Ways To Check NFT Ownership
The open-source nature of blockchain is vulnerable to several NFT scams. Luckily, to protect you from these frauds, here are several methods you can use to verify NFT authenticity:
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NFT Metadata and Transaction History
A smart contract assists all NFT transactions by verifying ownership, managing transfers, linking NFT to other digital assets, or allocating automatic payments from sales. These contracts have unique metadata and IDs to identify the owner and creator of NFT tokens.In order to check this data, head over to the smart contract of the NFT and check its details. The details will consist of:
- The token ID of the NFT
- The collection’s token address
- Blockchain of the NFT
- Metadata status
- NFT’s encoding standard
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NFT Verification Service
If you have a token ID and contact address of an NFT, you can easily use verification tools that can process the data for you and verify NFT authenticity. These services are the most useful if you do not know how to code.Verification services are quick and easy to use; however, they are not foolproof. They cannot provide you with complete information on whether the work was stolen before turning into an NFT.
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NFT Digital Certificates
Like traditional certificates, even digital certificates offer a token of authentication for collectibles. NFTs with digital certificates have the owner and manufacturer’s name, owner’s digital signature, programming information, and production date. It also contains the NFTs serial number, status, and token ID.An NFT with a digital certificate will have metadata in the blockchain. This helps in verifying the certificate using a blockchain explorer. If the metadata exists, the NFT is authentic.A considerable point to note is that not all legitimate NFTs come with a digital certificate, and not all certifications are authentic. Hence, you should not solely rely on certificates but rather use them in conjunction with other methods.
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Owner’s Social Media and NFT Platforms
If you know who is the owner of an NFT, you can follow their socials and keep an eye out for new releases. When an NFT owner shares an announcement for a new release, they will also share the platforms in which they are available.This narrows your search, and you will be alerted if you see the same token on marketplaces that the artist does not mention.
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Whether You Can Sell the NFT Using the ID
If you are a seller, even you can have the right to verify your NFT ownership before selling it. You can do this by going to your marketplace profile and checking whether you have seller’s options like accepting bids, setting prices, or updating your display text. You can check all this if you have the NFT’s ID number.
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List NFT Numbers You Own
To get a clear understanding of how many NFTs you hold, you can request to see all the NFTs you own by making a list. Head over to the blockchain’s website and select the option of “Owned Numbers.” Paste your wallet address and hit “Query” to get a complete list of NFTs you own.
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NFT’s Selling Price
NFTs have particular values that are decided on various factors. This value is a mutual agreement that a buyer and a seller decide upon during a transaction. Hence, if you see an NFT priced lower than it should be, the chances are that it may be fraudulent.
As NFTs grow to gain more popularity, the need to verify their authenticity keeps increasing, as they are more prone to scams. You can use these methods and check NFT ownership with ease!
