NFTs On-Chain vs Off-Chain: What is the difference ?

[AntoineNFTs]

The craze for NFTs is only growing. But how do you navigate among the various projects already on the market?

It is above all important to note that two of the NFTs coexist:

- NFTs stored in the blockchain, for which the entire content of the digital artwork is recorded, bit by bit in a block via a transaction. Thus this work of art becomes immutable and perpetuated by the fundamental principles of the block chain.

- NFTs stored outside the blockchain, for which only an "ipfs: //" type link is recorded in the block chain, the image associated with this NFT will be stored in a decentralized file system called IPFS. But here we are moving away from the very concept of the blockchain, the integrity of the digital image then depends on the proper functioning of IPFS. The transactions to exchange these NFTs on the blockchain are actually transactions that allow you to exchange IPFS URLs, you only really have one URL on your account.

We therefore distinguish between "On Chain" and "Off Chain" NFTs, based on two different technologies, and not having the same guarantees as to their durability. It is so expensive to store data in a blockchain, that most projects use IPFS, with a few exceptions, often NFTs exchanged for the most expensive amounts. These "On Chain" NFTs are often small images like crypto punks.

However, there are collaborative projects allowing the development of much larger works of art, such as TheMasterPiece, this project (themasterpiece.art) allows everyone to participate in the creation of an "On Chain" work. of 33 million pixels, stored in the Flow blockchain. This achievement becomes possible thanks to the community of participants who can buy one or more pixels for a few cents and register their own drawing. These pixels are all "On Chain" NFTs whose data contains position and color. Thus the cost of transactions and storage of TheMasterPiece are distributed among a community of investors, amateur or enlightened artists. When a quarter of the work is constituted, the community will be free to exchange the pixels held at a free price, via a smart contract, offering a decentralized NFT market of a new kind, and one allowing the work to constantly evolve over time.

[IvriMayer]

I am prefering On Chain projects such as Autoglyphs

[AntoineNFTs]

It is weird to know that people investing on Off-Chain NFTs are in fact buying an ipfs:// URL pointing to a numeric content stored outside of the blockchain