In a recent statement by Elon Musk on the Podcast, Joe Rogan pointed out that NFTs are not stored on the Blockchain. This has created a wave of controversy in the NFT community and whether Elon Musk is correct in talking about NFTs like that. Let’s learn about NFT Storage with Weakhand to see how NFTs are stored at the present time.
Before jumping into the article, everyone can refer to some of the following articles to better understand NFT Storage.
- What are NFTs? All about NFTs
- What are Ethscriptions? Inscriptions on the Ethereum blockchain
- What is Bitcoin Ordinals? Everything about Bitcoin Ordinals
What is NFT?
NFT is a Non-Fungible Token (non-fungible token) deployed on Blockchain and used to certify ownership and authenticity. NFTs can represent almost anything from digital art, memberships, in-game items, etc.
Each NFT will not be copied, altered or divided. If a user owns an NFT piece of art, blockchain technology will verify that it belongs to them. This means users can buy and sell it just like buying and selling tokens.
NFT Storage: Current Ways to Store NFTs
Before going into the types of NFT Storage at the present time, let’s learn about the main components of an NFT. Maybe people don’t know, each NFT consists of 2 main components including:
- Token id: This is the identifier implemented from Smart Contract.
- Metadata: This is the detailed content of the NFT such as: NFT name, owner, image or video on the NFT,… Metadata is linked to the Token id through the onchain information field tokenURI.
Components in an NFT
Normally, only the Token id part is stored on the Blockchain while the Metadata is stored outside the Blockchain to minimize storage costs, it can be a decentralized storage service on IPFS, Filecoin, Arweare,… or decentralized storage service. on centralized servers.
So the way Metadata is stored will determine what type NFT Storage is. The following are the current methods of storing NFTs, please find out for all users:
The first way to store: Offchain Data
For these storage methods, all Metadata will be stored Offchain on centralized servers. This can be dangerous for the NFT collection because when that Server is hacked or any other reason makes it impossible for us to access the Metadata, the path to the tokenURI will be broken. So even though NFT still exists on the Blockchain, we cannot access the visual data of NFT such as: NFT image, NFT name,…
Second way of storage: Semi-onchain
This is the storage method in which all Metadata will be stored on decentralized storage services such as: IPFS, Filecoin, Arweare,…. Certainly storing Metadata on centralized storage services This will make data more secure, but in return, storage costs will be more expensive than completely offchain storage.
This method of storage is also being adopted by many NFT collections at the present time. Such as: Azuki Collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Doodles,… store Metadata using IPFS.
Third way of storage: Calldata Storage
This is the storage method by which all data in the Metadata section will be stored in the calldata of a Transactions. This is how storage brings a new concept to NFTs on Ethereum called Ethscriptions, introduced by Tom Lehman with inspiration from Bitcoin Ordinals.
This storage will help NFT data be more secure and stored at a cheaper cost than traditional storage methods. However, in return, the maximum storage size is only 96kb so the data stored is mainly images.
Fourth way of storage: Hashed onchain
This is the storage solution used by the CryptoPunks NFT collection. By encoding CryptoPunks’ image and attribute data into a hash string, then storing them all on the Blockchain. Archiving in this way will further solidify the longevity of Cryptopunks’ images and properties, while ensuring that anyone can access and find them on the Blockchain.
Fifth way of storage: Fully onchain
This is the best storage method for NFTs at the present time in which all data in Metadata will be completely stored on the Blockchain. This helps NFTs fully inherit the highlights of the network it hosts, including:
- Decentralized storage
- Network security
- Transparency
This storage method is widely found and known on Bitcoin with Bitcoin Ordinals. In addition, NFTs on other blockchains can also completely apply this storage method, but there will be a major drawback and barrier: the cost of storing on the Blockchain is too high and in the long run, storing like this will causing the network to stagnate, affecting the performance of that Blockchain.
summary
In general, at the present time, most NFTs are stored using decentralized storage services such as IPFS, Filecoin, Arweare,… which in my opinion is quite reasonable. However, if an NFT collection is stored directly on the Blockchain, it will bring its own value but there is a big barrier of storage fees so not all projects can access it. Above is all the information I want to introduce in this article. I hope everyone understands the different storage methods of NFT Storage.
