How to Store NFTs?
This advice applies to non-fungible tokens or NFTs that aren't only art pieces but can represent anything from a music video/audio to creative image or digital personal identity documentation, car or homeownership, and academic titles, among other things.
To avoid losing access to personal investments, learning how to store non-fungible assets may be a necessary discipline.
Without blockchain, assets could be replicated or duplicated. However, the distributed ledger allows NFT artists to establish ownership of their assets, which cannot be duplicated due to the immutable nature of blockchain.
As the money that flows into NFTs reached $2.5 million (NFT of the first-ever tweet of Jack Dorsey), it becomes crucial to store NFTs properly. Keep reading to understand how you can store NFTs safely to stay away from scams in the virtual world of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and stablecoins.
Why do NFTs need to be stored properly?
Non-fungible tokens have become high-valued unique assets in recent months; hackers stole thousands of dollars worth of assets from accounts on the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.
Consumers' absence of two-factor authentication, according to the company, made it easier for hackers to spot customers' passwords and take their valuables.
Hackers target investors attempting to steal digital assets or credit card information in order to acquire wealth. While cryptocurrency wallets have traditionally only been used to store crypto assets, with the advent of NFTs, new forms of crypto wallets have been developed specifically for storing NFTs.
What type of storage methods are available for NFTs?
If you keep your private keys with an exchange, it means you have exposed yourself to possible hacks that may occur. The same is true in terms of NFTs too.
Compared to centralized storage of digital assets, blockchain-based storage is decentralized, and it is far more secure and gives property owners complete control over their assets. Furthermore, it offers a variety of options for greater peace of mind.
It's important to understand that NFTs and cryptocurrency are not stored in your wallet. On the other hand, a wallet uses a private key to guarantee access to the investments housed on the blockchain.
Despite being a private key, since the asset is exposed online, it is vulnerable to hacks too. As a result, it's critical to preserve and save NFTs in offline solutions for cold storage, which entails storing data on a platform that is less vulnerable to unauthorized access, cyber-attacks, isn't linked to the internet, and thus other vulnerabilities common to data stored on the internet.
Purchasing a cold storage hardware wallet like Ledger Nano X and transferring the digital assets there is the best option to store NFTs offline. However, because the wallet remains offline, hackers and keyloggers will not acquire access. However, each hardware wallet comes with an ID and password for enhanced security.
A mobile wallet like Trust wallet is another option for beginner NFT collectors. NFT assets based on Solana, Polygon, and Ethereum can be stored using the Trust wallet.
On your mobile device, MetaMask also gives you access to a DeFi and NFT browser. MetaMask is really easy to set up and utilize. You can use your browser to access it or download it as a mobile wallet. This will allow you to stay up to date on market developments without having to carry your laptop or utilize a standard web browser.
It's critical to ensure interoperability across multiple chains and with the marketplace where NFTs are bought and sold when selecting NFT storage choices. You should also ensure that the wallet has a user-friendly interface and robust security. Because most NFTs are Ethereum-based, it's essential to check if the wallet is Ethereum-compatible.
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) allows users to store their decentralized NFTs off-chain since it is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol, reducing the risk of being hacked.
IPFS uses content-based addressing instead of traditional location-based addressing to modify how information is disseminated worldwide. For example, when you upload a file to IPFS, it is divided into smaller chunks, hashed cryptographically, and given a unique fingerprint called a content identifier (CID).
Pinata is an NFT wallet built on IPFS, which was founded in 2018 and now has over 45 million files and 70,000 users worldwide. Even though it isn't the most common storage solution, it can gain popularity, particularly among developers, because of its improved security.
Key takeaways
Based on the above key points, please take care of the following things: