A Beginners guide on how to store NFT asset

By: Obinna Tony

A Beginners guide on how to store NFT asset

July 21, 2022 9:43 AM

After you have obtained your NFT, the next step is to store it. Imagine you own an artwork that’s worth a million dollars like Monet or Van Gogh, you will want to secure it in the best space possible. These artworks are similar to non-fungible tokens. They are valuables and need to be stored in a secured way. This NFT might not be in the same league as works from the greatest artists, but they are worth it. So, when you learn how to store your non-fungible token, it might be for your great benefit.

 

As non-fungible tokens are getting great visibility and a lot are becoming high value in recent times, there has been an influx of investors and this has made it vulnerable to hackers that want to steal digital artworks or people’s credit cards for their use. Prior, hackers had stolen assets worth thousands of dollars from accounts on the NFT marketplace, Nifty Gateway. The platform blamed it on the lack of two-factor authentication which allowed hackers to get in easily and they detected users’ credentials and stole their credentials.

 

What types of storage are available to be used to store NFT?

It’s ideal to prioritize your security when dealing with your NFTs. If you don’t care, your digital art becomes susceptible to hack, fraudulent activity through exchange or single points of failure. Blockchain-based storage instead of centralized storage is better secured and gives owners total control of their property. It’s not ideal to keep your NFTs in your wallet. Though a wallet guarantees access to investments held on the blockchain through a private key.

 

It's very important to store your NFT in offline solutions for cold storage. It assumes storage in a platform that is not connected to the internet and therefore is less vulnerable to unauthorized access, internet attacks and other vulnerabilities that are associated with internet devices. 

 

When you are looking for an NFT storage, it’s pertinent that it's compatible along a series of chains and with a different marketplace where NFTs are bought as well as sold. Most NFTs are Ethereum-based, so it’s required that the wallet is compatible with the Ethereum blockchain.

 

Ways to store NFTs

There are various storage methods that has been used over time to store NFT assets, in this section we would be looking at the three proven methods to store your NFTs.

 

Software Wallets

It’s simple to create this. Due to their user-friendly interface, software wallets are a great choice for a lot of people used for storing digital assets. There are arrays of options in the NFT marketplace for software wallets and many of them can either be operated through mobile or the web. Metamask software is simple to set and has standard security for storing your NFT. Metamask as well as others are susceptible to attacks and have been previously hacked. It’s important to use original and approved apps.

 

InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)

This is a peer-to-peer (P2P) hypermedia protocol which lets users store and save their decentralized NFTs off-chain, hence decreasing the possibility of hacking. The advantages of IPFS make it a better secure storage option for your NFTs. Files stored on IPFS cannot be tampered with or censored and no changes can overwrite the original. If a hacker generates a CID hash, you are going to be notified of the false data on your end.

 

Cold Storage Hardware Wallet

Hardware wallet that supports cold (offline) storage, and helps NFT holders to increase the security of their wallet. In this scenario, private keys used to access users’ digital assets are saved in a secured hardware wallet that can’t be hacked but rather on the web. The hardware offers extra security by allowing two-factor authentication. So, it’s impossible to hack and steal content without physically holding the wallet device.

 

In conclusion, owning an NFT shouldn’t be a problem for you while trying to look for how to save it due to security reasons. There are various ways to save your NFTs as well as different options that offer tight security. From the most expensive to the least expensive. Hardware wallets are the most expensive but the increased security they offer is ideal to help NFTs stay secured, while collectors make the right choice.