NFTs are on the blockchain.
Thats true in some cases.
If thats all of your understanding of NFTs, those assets may be in danger.
The NFT assets can be stored on-chain or off-chain.
The blockchain is just one of the places where your NFT assets are stored.
Right-click-save arguments aside, even the most devout NFT evangelist will say that an NFT constitutes proof of ownership.
The non-fungible token can be compared to an art provenance.
Its proof of who owns that asset now and even who has owned it in the past.
Most of the NFT assets are hosted off-chain.
But what if the centralized providers hosting those assets shuts down?
How Are NFTs Stored?
It turns out that not all NFTs are created equal.
The way that an NFT connects to the asset itself can make all the difference.
NFTs exist on blockchain where they usually serve as an identifier for an asset that exists elsewhere.
Increasingly, NFTs are being minted to reference assets on IPFS.
NFTs and Centralized Servers
Just about everything on the web exists on a centralized server.
One of the loftiest goals of Web3 is to make the web more open and interoperable.
Thats not to say that the decentralization community isnt being honest.
Transitioning to a truly open and decentralized web isnt a thing that happens overnight.
But NFTs representing digital content on centralized servers can be risky until another solution is found and scaled.
Content stored on a centralized server is at the mercy of the organization that owns and operates that server.
If the organization closes its doors or just abandons the initiative, it can simply shut those servers down.
However, the asset that NFT represents will now essentially be an error page.
This has already happened.
FTX operated servers that hosted NFTs so when FTX went bankrupt, that art disappeared, as reported byDecrypt.
There are also similar exampleswhen NFT games shut down.
Self-Contained NFTs on the Blockchain
Some NFT assets are entirely stored on the blockchain.
However, NFTs werent designed to contain large amounts of information.
For example, thegas fees for transferring Ethereumtokens can become prohibitive.
Operating somewhere between blockchain and the current internet, IPFS was designed to preserve humanitys history.
Content stored on IPFS gets a Content Identifier (CID).
Are Your NFTs Safe?
Unfortunately, where an NFT directs to is essentially carved in digital stone.
And, according to a study byYourNFTs, over half of all NFT projects rely on centralized servers.
This is particularly true for projects with larger NFT collections.
ClubNFT offers risk portfolios identifying which NFTs are stored where, and helps collectors navigate protecting NFTs when possible.
How to Manually Check Your NFTs
Every NFT has a token ID.
This opens a dropdown menu and one of the fields isToken IDpopulated with a number.
The number is usually a link.
Click that link and see what happens.
Chances are, you might already have an NFT that brings up a dead website.
You may be wondering if you cant avoid all of these problems and solutions by justright-click-saving NFT art.
Isnt that a way to back it up?
Thats a way to preserve the art itself if thats what you want to do.
So you could store art this way, but you cant sell and trade it this way.
The Future of NFTs
Are we heading toward an NFT Apocalypse?
Some NFT projects have already gone under.
That may not mean that all NFT projects will.
Ethereum, the blockchain that most NFTs are minted on, is particularly good at adapting its protocols.
They may come up with a way to make NFT content more permanent.
