When an NFT (non-fungible token) is sold, the buyer is not acquiring the underlying digital picture. Instead, the buyer acquires a crypto token that serves as proof of ownership of the digital picture in question. 

You might as well have given your money to a random individual on the internet if you didn’t have the valid token. This explains the entire premise of these tokens’ “non-fungibility.” Furthermore, because it is kept and accessible through the blockchain, its uniqueness can be easily verified, and no two identical non-fungible tokens may exist. 

Having said that, many people have attempted to manufacture an NFT, but false or forged NFTs are easily identified since they can always be tracked back to the original creator’s address.

You could try to counterfeit the token by making your own, but it would be far too simple to detect a fabrication. Why? Because it cannot be traced back to the address of the original developer. 

Can non-fungible tokens be readily replicated or falsified if they are in picture or video format? The straightforward answer is no, and here’s why. 

All information about the original picture associated to the token is contained inside the metadata of each token. The connected picture cannot be switched since the metadata is unchangeable.

Minting an NFT

Assume you wish to acquire one of the well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs. BAYC is a collection of 10,000 ape NFTs, each with its own token on the Ethereum network. In addition, each ape has a unique Token ID that ranges from #1 to #10,000. 

Back on subject, if you want to buy a BAYC NFT and make millions of strangers on the internet jealous, the first step is to create an account on OpenSea using a browser plug-in called Metamask. 

To buy a BAYC token, you must first have an Ethereum wallet, which also serves as your “account number”. Once you pay for the token, the unique bored ape token is transferred to your Ethereum wallet, presuming you have enough ETH in your wallet.

Having said that, anyone on the blockchain can simply verify that you hold the token because it is in your wallet. 

To check if the BAYC token you want to buy is genuine, you can simply read the specifics of each NFT on OpenSea, including the “Contract Address” and the token ID. 

Every NFT project on the Ethereum blockchain has a Contract Address, which is the wallet address of the original developer. For those who are interested, here is BAYC’s original address: 

That being stated, if the item you wish to buy does not come from the Contact Address shown above, you are dealing with a forgery of a BAYC NFT. 

Meanwhile, you may use the blockchain explorer “Etherscan” to determine whether an NFT is genuine.