Most people think that NFTs are stored in your wallet and some don’t know where are nfts stored.
NFTs are stored on the blockchain and each NFT has a unique token ID that points to the specific smart contract. The smart contract is stored on different blocks on the blockchain. But can also be saved on the web file sharing system.
You might feel new to this information or might be new to the nft space. Don’t worry let me tell you in the detail.
Where are NFTs stored?
To understand first we have to understand that NFT itself is a digital representation of digital art that claims that this unique art is recorded on the blockchain. When we mint an NFT we do not directly store our digital art on the blockchain, we only store its smart contract that has all the information about our NFT on the block system of the blockchain and a unique token ID is assigned to the smart contract.
It means that your NFT is unique and nobody can copy it. Digital arts can not be directly stored on the blockchain because it costs a lot so only smart contracts are stored on the blockchain. The digital art and NFT metadata are stored off the chain. Websites and interplanetary File Systems (IPFS) are used to store NFT’s metadata.
When I purchase my NFT, where does it go?
When you purchase your NFT it doesn’t transfer anywhere but the ownership of that NFT will be changed. So the NFT will remain on the blockchain, but your wallet address will be the new owner, in the smart contract of that NFT. It means that ownership of NFT with the old owner’s wallet address is replaced by your wallet address. The smart contract is also transferred to your wallet and you became the new owner. If this is confusing let me give a real-world example.
If you buy land in real estate, the land will be transferred to somewhere else, No. You will sign a paper with the seller (current owner) and become the new owner of that land. So you signed a contract and now that land belongs to you. Now you keep the papers of that land as well. So this is how NFTs work but all the process happens on the smart contract and in a decentralized manner. I hope you understand now.
Does that mean that you don’t store your NFTs in your wallet?
To become an owner of an NFT, the smart contract and unique token Id must be transferred to your wallet. Your wallet and smart contract both exist on the blockchain. Your wallet points towards your NFT. The wallet is secured by a private key and to access your NFTs you must access your wallet through the private key.
Due to the fact that you are solely responsible for controlling your wallet address via your private key, you are now the only owner of the NFT. An NFT cannot be used without the wallet address where it is stored.
An NFT can only be purchased, sold, traded, or burned by having access to the wallet address.
Is it possible to store NFT data on a blockchain?
The contents of NFT files are stored on the blockchain. Because the use of a Base64 encoding (a binary-to-text encoding scheme) and SVG files (allows images to be compressed using mathematics rather than pixels – and therefore achieves an extremely high level of compression).
Because SVG uses mathematical formulas based on a grid, the image is shown how it should appear and the file does not take up as much space as other file formats. Blockchains are able to store NFTs primarily for this reason.
After purchasing, where can you see your NFT?
After purchasing you can see your NFT in different ways on different platforms. If you purchase your NFT on the Ethereum network so it is important to keep in mind that Ethereum network transactions may get stuck and take a while to complete.
OpenSea:
On OpenSea, once an NFT has been purchased, that NFT can be viewed by clicking on your profile. It will automatically show as ‘collected’ once the NFT has been purchased.
Etherscan
On Eherscan.io you can only check your NFTs if they are minted on the Ethereum blockchain. There is no better decision than to use Etherscan.io to view your and others’ NFTs in a transparent and accurate manner.
MetaMask:
With MetaMask mobile application, you can see your collected NFTs by clicking on NFTs. In the browser MetaMask extension, NFTs are not currently shown.
Other Wallets:
If you have other wallets than opensea no matter what blockchain you are using for your NFTs. Your wallet should display the current collection of your NFTs. This is probably the best option to see your NFTs.
Other Marketplaces
There should still be a possibility to view your NFT if you have purchased it on another NFT marketplace (other than OpenSea) or if you click on your profile or wallet after purchasing it on another NFT marketplace. This can only be done once a transaction has been completed.
How to store NFT securely?
Where the cryptocurrency is involved how it is possible that scams do not exist in that place? Blockchain technology is secure but there are always some hackers who take the advantage of loopholes. Your NFTs are stored on the blockchain that doesn’t mean that your NFTs are 100% secure. Let me tell you two ways how to store NFT securely.
Offline wallet:
Offline wallets or hardware wallets are the best way to keep your NFTs secure. Hardware/offline wallets are not like online wallets like metamask. If you purchased any NFT and want to store it in a hardware wallet. You can buy an NFT using your online wallet like metamask and when it will be transferred to your online wallet you can transfer it to your hardware wallet.
Keep your hardware wallet offline and save the security keys of your wallet somewhere offline. Just make sure that there is no access open to your hardware wallet from any online resource. This wallet is used for long-term holding on NFTs. If you want to sell your NFT you can transfer your NFT to your online wallet and make a trade.
Online and Offline wallet:
If you are an NFT day trader or buy/sell NFTs more frequently. You may have found the above suggestion not so effective. So if you buy and sell NFTs more often you don’t have to transfer each NFT to your hardware wallet. You can make trades from your online wallet like metamask but do not forget to keep your recovery phrase offline. You must save your secret recovery phrase physically and offline. You can write your security phrase on 2 to 3 different papers and save them on different secure places like cupboards. Make sure that nobody has access to them. If you want to hold NFTs for a long period you can use the above-mentioned method of offline wallet.
Conclusion:
So the conclusion is NFTs exist on the blockchain and our wallet also exists on the blockchain. If you purchase the NFT the ownership of NFT will be replaced with your wallet address. You can check NFT on blockchain like Etherscan, in your wallets, and in your marketplace, as I have explained above. You can increase the safety of your NFTs using an offline hardware wallet. If you have any further queries or suggestions do not hesitate in the comments.
