A twelve-year-old coder from London is cashing in on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Benyamin Ahmed launched his NFT collection in July and sold out in nine hours — earning 80 ether in one day, which is worth $255,000. The young coder has earned $350,000 to date and is expected to earn well over $400,000 by the end of August.
NFTs are anything digital — in Ahmed’s case, it’s digital artwork. NFTs are connected to blockchains, which stores data. Think of it as a bookkeeper.
Ethereum blockchain is a public blockchain that cannot be changed or altered in any way. Ether is similar to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or dogecoin. It cannot be corrupted. The data is protected — the blockchain consists of transactions that are saved in a specific order. Ether powers the Ethereum blockchain.
“I first learned about NFTs earlier this year,” Ahmed said. “I got fascinated with NFTs because you can easily transfer the ownership of an NFT by the blockchain.”
The young boy learned computer programming from his father, who is a web developer.
Ahmed’s first collection featured 40 pixelized avatars called Minecraft Yee Haa. Ahmed said he created the Minecraft Yee Haa “after spending too many hours playing Minecraft.”
His second collection, Weird Whales, cost him $300. The money that Ahmed spent went toward gas fees, which protects the artwork with a special code — a blockchain. The NFTs consist of 3,350 pixelated whales with unique characteristics similar to CryptoPunks, one of the first NFT collections to hit the internet.
“My brother and my dad were very excited and fascinated at how they came out,” Ahmed said. “We did some work on the website and the smart contract and posted a thread on Twitter.”
Ahmed’s father is working on trademarking Weird Whale and his upcoming projects.
“When people buy Weird Whales, they’re investing in me and my future,” the coder said. “If I carry on as I’ve been, I might end up like other tech entrepreneurs out there like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.”
Ahmed, who doesn’t have a bank account, is considering opening a bank account for tax purposes.
“I plan to keep all my ether and not convert it to fiat money,” Ahmed said. “It might be early proof that, in the future, maybe everyone doesn’t need a bank account and just has an ether address and a wallet.”
The savvy coder is working on another NFT project that he believes will be more successful than his other collections. The NFTs will have a meme building block.
“I think memes have significant value in this space, as a lot of projects have some kind of meme-link to it,” Ahmed said. “I think memes play a big part in this space.”
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