NFT Conceptual Overview

Non-fungible token functionality is part of the NonFungibleTokensV1 amendment to the XRP Ledger protocol. You can use these functions on the NFT-Devnet now, but they are not yet available on the production Mainnet.

The XRP Ledger offers support for tokens, also known as IOUs. Such assets are, primarily, fungible.

Fun·gi·ble /ˈfənjəbəl/ (adj)

1. able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.

Fungible tokens can be easily traded between users for XRP or other issued assets on the XRP Ledger's decentralized exchange. This makes them ideal for payments.

A good example of a fungible item might be a postage stamp. If you are standing around in 1919 and need to send a letter by airmail, you would purchase a 24-cent stamp and affix it to your envelope. If you lost that stamp, you could use a different 24-cent stamp or use 2 10-cent stamps and 2 2-cent stamps. Very fungible.

But since you are standing around in 1919, you might be offered 24-cent airmail stamps where the aeroplane on the stamp is accidentally printed upside down. These are the world famous “Inverted Jenny” stamps. Only 100 were circulated on a single sheet of stamps, making them extremely rare and sought after. The current value of each mint condition stamp is appraised at over $1.5 million dollars.

Those stamps cannot be replaced by just another other 24-cent stamp. They have become non-fungible.

The XRPL Labs team has created a framework that supports non-fungible tokens (NFTs, or “nifties” in the vernacular). Non-fungible tokens serve to encode ownership of unique physical, non-physical, or purely digital goods, such as works of art or in-game items.

NFT Extensions

Extensions to the XRP Ledger support two new objects and a new ledger structure.

The NFToken is a native NFT type. It has operations to enumerate, purchase, sell, and hold such tokens. An NFToken is a unique, indivisible unit that is not used for payments.

The NFTokenPage object contains a set of NFToken objects owned by the same account.

You create a new NFToken using the NFTokenMint transaction.

NFTokenOffer object is a new object that describes an offer to buy or sell a single NFToken.

You destroy an NFToken using the NFTokenBurn transaction.

NFToken Lifecycle

You create a NFT using the NFTokenMint transaction. The NFToken lives on the NFTokenPage of the issuing account. You can create an NFTokenOffer to sell the NFToken, creating an entry to the XRP Ledger. Another account can accept the NFTokenOffer, transferring the NFToken to the accepting account’s NFTokenPage. If the lsfTransferableflag is set to true (0x000008) when the NFToken is minted, the NFToken can be traded multiple times between accounts. The NFToken can be permanently destroyed by its owner using the NFTokenBurn transaction.

Reference

• NFToken data type
• Ledger Objects
  • NFTokenOffer object
  • NFTokenPage object
• Transactions
  • NFTokenMint transaction
  • NFTokenCreateOffer transaction
  • NFTokenCancelOffer transaction
  • NFTokenAcceptOffer transaction
  • NFTokenBurn transaction

API Methods

• account_nfts
• nft_sell_offers
• nft_buy_offers