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What The NFT

NFT Safety

Staying safe in the world of NFTs.

Protecting Your NFTs

One of the most important daily wallet safety habits you can get into is ensuring that you disconnect your wallet from all sites once you have finalised the specific transaction that required you to connect. This can be verification of an NFT you own, or minting from a website, or even just linking it to Opensea. This ensures that no malicious entities can access your wallet from a connection left active.

Another form of wallet safety is in protecting both your hot wallet and your hardware wallet. Keeping both safe is extremely important, so let’s discuss the best ways to do exactly that:

1. Hot Wallet Safety:
Your MetaMask wallet comes with a very important and cryptic password – which is known as a seed phrase. Your seed phrase should never be shared with anyone or stored in a digital platform that could be stolen by cyber criminals. Instead, you should write your seed phrase on physical pieces of paper and stored somewhere safe that you’ll remember. If you lose this seed phrase or give it away, your wallet is lost forever.

2. Hardware Wallet/Cold Wallet Safety:

Whether you have a Ledger or a Trezor, a physical hardware wallet is the best solution for NFT and crypto safety. You are the sole person who manages the assets inside your cold wallet, so keeping it safe is key. Place your wallet somewhere only you know and remember, and out of reach from any children or pets. It’s important to note, you should only purchase your hardware wallet directly from the company website to avoid any previous tampering on the device. Again, if you lose this, you lose the contents of your wallet forever.

 

Discord hacks are one of the most common NFT scams out there.
Most scammers will approach you by sending you a direct message pretending to be a team member. Usually, this is the entry point of all scams. Project team members will NEVER DM you first or ask for your seed phrase, so it’s best practice to assume everyone is a scammer until proven otherwise. Also remember to always use official sources only and read carefully what you are signing. Never mint from links sent to you in a direct message.

Always use Two-Factor Authentication Security for your Discord Account :
To increase your account’s security, you can set up your two-factor authentication by clicking the gear icon, then go to “My Account”. In there, you will see the “Enable Two-factor Auth.” Once you click the button, you will need to download Google Authenticator or another authenticator app on your mobile device. Once done, you can now link your phone number to act as a backup method to get your 2FA codes. You can read more about setting up 2FA in detail here: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/219576828-Setting-up-Two-Factor-Authentication

Close your Direct Messages :
Another preventive measure is to close your DMs which prevents anyone from DM-ing you unless you add them as a friend. On the desktop app, click on the gear icon on the bottom corner next to the microphone and headphone icons (click on your display photo on mobile).

After clicking the gear icon, navigate to the “Privacy & Safety” section. In there, you’ll find “Server Privacy Defaults.” Once turned off, no one can DM you unless you add them as a friend.

Researching NFT Projects

To understand what a good NFT project is requires one to consider what is encompassed in the definition of “good.” For different people, this can mean different things, and what is good for one may not be that appealing to others. 

Generally speaking, however, a good project is one that has staying power and provides the owner with some benefit over the long term (either financial, or other tangible benefit) including beautiful art, access to a community, access to other perks such as discounts to events and merchandise, early access to events or NFT launches, support services, potential financial and/or NFT benefits also.

Without setting a framework for what makes a good NFT project, the following things are generally more likely to lead to successful projects, that those in the NFT space wish to be part of:

Doxxed and Experienced Team:
A team that has shared their true identities and experience will often (though not always) give project holders confidence about a project’s trajectory. When things are not going so well, it is harder for a doxxed team to completely walk away from a project compared to one that is anonymous.

Exceptional Art or Utility :
Grouping these two seems natural. Some projects have spectacular art styles that live as brands and aim to do so over time, and others have utility, such as access to a website or online tool, or a community that shares alpha (intel) on projects, for example. These are not mutually exclusive either. There are projects that have both great art and utility, and these are the ones that tend to succeed over time.

One that has a roadmap and goals/ values that you can support :
The feeling you get when you are supporting a cause or a movement that means something to you is not easily replicated.

Sound Financials :
Is the project going to be able to do what it intends on doing? Are the plans too ambitious based on support/ community activity? Do the numbers add up? Having a project that has a way of continuously fulfilling its roadmap, adding roadmap items, being able to do what is shown on the roadmap and execute to a high degree are all benefits to holders of projects that are well run.

A Strong Community :
Having a community of holders and followers that are passionate about a project can lead to a feeling of being part of something fun and exciting. Where there is demand from those on the outer to be on the inner, those lucky enough to be part of a project’s holder base are able to reap the reward of being known as a holder not just within that community, but other projects aspiring to be at the same level.

 

Having a community of holders and followers that are passionate about a project can lead to a feeling of being part of something fun and exciting. Where there is demand from those on the outer to be on the inner, those lucky enough to be part of a project’s holder base are able to reap the reward of being known as a holder not just within that community, but other projects aspiring to be at the same level.

Another thing to remember is that the “Community” of holders determine the price point of the NFTs. The projects will do all the work in executing roadmap initiatives but at the end of the day, the price of the NFTs on the secondary market are determined by the holders. 

While the above factors are not necessarily the only determining factors for good NFT projects, a lot of very healthy projects have most, if not all of the above traits. But as usual, with anything in the world of NFTs, it is always important to Do Your Own Research (DYOR)

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