Artists, celebrities, art collectors, even high school students… today, everyone has a keen eye for art and collectibles in the form of irreplaceable tokens. , also known as NFT.
Why shouldn’t they be! American digital artist Beeple just sold one of his NFTs for over $69.3 million, making it the third most expensive piece of art sold by a living artist EVER. All Beeple could tweet in his excitement was: “Awesome.”
The sale adds to the broader picture of our rapidly digitizing world and growing interest in digital art and collectibles.
The hype is that a few hundred thousand dollars has started to look like miniatures in the NFT world. And it’s no surprise that as art enthusiasts switch to NFT, so do hackers. So now is the time to learn how to secure NFT your.
Where there is money, there are hackers- NFT too
Have you ever wondered why there is less money today? Why do we no longer hear about Dali masked robbers and bank robbers with guns in hand to rob the rich and the poor?
Well, they don’t have to. In the age of the internet, all a thief needs is the right data and some computer skills to steal all the money they want.
We are seeing this transformation in the art industry as we move from physical to digital. Art thefts, art thefts or art naps…whatever you might call…will no longer require thieves to step off their comfy couches. Smashing glass to get into an art gallery, getting through a ventilator, and hanging from a military zipper strapped across your back just to steal a painting is all but outdated.
All an art thief now needs is the right information, your wallet’s private key or your account’s password, and that’s it. Say goodbye to your artwork.
And this modern art form began; The first victim is one of the most famous NFT marketplaces, the Nifty Gateway. Recently, some users claimed that their entire NFT collection was stolen while some reported that their credit cards linked to Nifty were used to purchase new NFTs. Apparently, Nifty noticed that none of the compromised accounts had 2FA enabled, or two-factor authentication.
A little knowledge on how to secure NFT would be immensely helpful
It’s understandable, the excitement… and how you can be intrigued to instantly buy new NFTs from a centralized marketplace. They make your life easy by allowing you to use your credit card to buy your tokens. But they also compromise your security by not allowing you to control your private keys.
You may not understand everything at first, but here is a basic explanation of how it all works to get you started.
Any cryptocurrency, including NFT, is stored on a blockchain, which is a ledger that no one controls centrally. And users who own crypto tokens actually own a private key that points to a specific amount of those tokens stored on the blockchain. That’s how the blockchain knows who owns which token or NFT and shows it on their wallet.
In addition, once an NFT transaction is performed on the decentralized ledger and assigned a different private key, no one can reverse the transaction. Not your key, not your NFT.
So, if someone gains access to your account in the marketplace and transfers your tokens to their wallet outside of the platform, it will not be possible to get your tokens back.
Therefore, the safest option is to store your NFTs in a wallet that gives you control over your private keys and provides you with the security of 2FA.
Are you ready to learn how secure NFT you can do it? Because we are certainly happy to help you with it.
Your NFT, Your Responsibility
If you’ve spent your hard earned money on NFTs, there’s no way you should take their security lightly. how to secure NFT how to protect your NFT, you wonder?
To get started, you must choose the right crypto wallet to store your NFTs. And there are 2 types of those wallets: software wallets (hot) and hardware wallets (cold).
Now, most NFT markets require you to have a software wallet, which is used to instantly create your account on the platform. These software wallets are connected to the internet, which exposes your private keys to some degree of risk, but they do regular transactions on dApp or NFT markets for that matter. That is more convenient. In addition, they are still much safer than buying NFTs with a credit card.
Hardware wallets, on the other hand, provide ultimate security by keeping your private keys disconnected from the Internet. But that makes it difficult to buy or sell NFT directly on marketplaces.
So which one should you choose? How about using a combination of the two to ensure optimal ease of use and security?
Ledger Nano is a series of hardware wallets that allow you to connect to trusted third-party hot wallets like MetaMask and MyEtherWallet. When you link your Ledger Nano to MetaMask, the private key controlling your NFT remains in your hardware wallet, hidden in its fortress of its secure factor chip, all while your hot wallet can Read your balance and help you manage it.
Thus, you can connect your MetaMask wallet to any NFT marketplace like Rarible or Open Sea and easily trade NFTs from the security of your Ledger device. Every time you want to perform an action, the MetaMask wallet will send a request to your Nano wallet, asking for your permission to approve. The transaction will only happen when you sign/approval the request with the private key in your hardware wallet.
This works like your bank sending you a one-time password on your mobile phone to approve transactions, but only this time with the immutable security of the blockchain. And as long as you have Nano and protect your recovery phrase, no one can steal your NFT.
Connect your MetaMask Wallet to Ledger Nano
If what we said above looks promising, here are the simple steps you can follow to connect your Ledger Nano to MetaMask:
Step 1. Connect the Ledger Nano to your computer device with a USB cable. Alternatively, open your MetaMask wallet in full screen mode on Brave or Chrome browser.
Step 2: Click on the top right menu of the MetaMask wallet, then find and click “Connect Hardware Wallet” in the drop-down menu.
Step 3: The next screen will show you all the hardware wallets that you can connect to MetaMask. Select Ledger and click connect.
Step 4: Then the window will show a list of Ethereum accounts you have on your device (create one if you don’t have one already). Select your desired account and click “Import”.
And just like that, you can manage and trade your NFTs from the security of your Nano hardware wallet.
Conclude
Just like with any new technology, sometimes getting started in the decentralized space can be overwhelming. It’s for most of us. But that doesn’t stop you from enjoying the ownership, privacy, control and financial freedom this technology offers you.
In case you are wondering… you can learn more about how to secure NFT, private key, blockchain, security and every new term you’ve come across in this article!
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Important Note: All content on the website is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice at all. Your money, the decision is yours.