A Web3 collector doesn’t want their NFT to link them to a Dropbox folder to view their unique content. Nobody wants to be an anonymous armadillo in Google Drive viewing content that they now supposedly own. Of course, you could host your content on your own server like an AWS S3 bucket. But, that requires significantly more technical background than what you want to deal with. And, this is very important to understand, if you as the NFT creator ever stop hosting the file on Dropbox or your server, the link to the content for the NFT collector becomes worthless. The NFT “token” itself will still exist on the blockchain but the file it is supposed to represent won’t be there. This means the URL link embedded in the NFT ends up going nowhere and proves nothing about what was bought. This is antithesis of NFTs!

What about security? How can you as an NFT creator secure your file links in a way that equals the security of the NFT itself?

Today’s Web2 URLs can’t secure anything about what your NFT files are supposed to be. This makes the NFT it is attached to worthless.

Cryptographic Hashing and Why Your Tokenized Art Collection is Worthless Without It

Using Web2 methods, your NFT files can easily be swapped out, counterfeited or corrupted without the collector being any wiser. Watch the video above or read conlan.eth’s blog below to learn more about the problem:

do this by leveraging a complementary NFT technology called IPFS.

1. Unlike most file hosting options today, Pinata is purpose-built to store and manage files publicly where Dropbox and Google Drive are not.
2. Additionally, Pinata isn’t a social media platform. This means that when you store files with us, we aren’t running ads. This provides a better Web3 experience for all.
3. Pinata can handle any file format. This means you can create NFTs of images, video, music and more. You can even create Unity NFTs!
4. For creators, Pinata is as simple as moving files around on your computer but better. Files on Pinata can be managed at a global scale without the technical requirements of running your own server.
5. Finally, Pinata has the advantage of content-addressability. This allows NFT creators and collectors the ability to prove what the file is unlike with Web2 URLs. You can watch our video “Why NFTs Shouldn’t Use URLs” to learn more about why this is. Another advantage of content-addressability is that it allows the transfer of files between owners which can be read about in our blog, “Who Is Responsible for NFT Data?”. If you want, you can create and check your file’s content-addressable CID below: