It is easy to think of the NFT industry as a quirky and controversial extension of the art industry. Artists can make millions of dollars through NFT sales, but can NFTs be used for something more elusive? More specifically, can you use NFTs to hide data, or is this simply impossible?
What data is stored in NFTs?
NFTs are not just digital images or videos. Rather, they are tokens that prove ownership of a digital artwork. So a given NFT will not contain the image or video file of the artwork being purchased. Rather, NFTs are more similar to typical cryptocurrencies (although they are non-fungible).
Within a given NFT you will find metadata, which mainly provides information about other data. Examples of NFT metadata include the NFT’s name, description, and transaction history. The NFT metadata is likely to often refer to the location of the image, video or other valuable item in question. For example, a given NFT may contain the URL or IFPS hash leading to the artwork’s location.
But can you store other types of data in an NFT? Is it even possible to hide data in these digital assets?
Can you hide data in an NFT?
To answer this question, we need to explore steganography. This is the process of hiding one file inside another. Steganography has been around for thousands of years, long before the NFT industry existed.
Early examples of steganography date back to ancient Greece, but the digital age gave this technique a new medium through which it can function. Even cybercriminals can use steganography to hide malicious files.
Because digital images are made up of thousands of tiny pixels, each containing about eight bits (or one byte), they can be very useful for hiding additional data. So digital artwork can be used to hide data. In this sense, various steganographic techniques can be used to secretly store data in a given image file.
The most common steganography method is known as Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganography. As the name suggests, this technique involves hiding data in the least important bits of an image file. But let’s not delve into the different types of steganography right now, because we have another important question to answer: where do NFTs come into this?
Don’t forget that NFTs are tokens, not images. It’s easy to confuse the symbols themselves with the digital artworks they relate to, but these are two very different things. Therefore, you cannot use steganography on a literal NFT. However, data may be somewhat hidden within certain types of NFT.
This is where secret NFTs come into play.
What are secret NFTs?
Secret NFTs were developed by a company known as Secret. Secret NFTs can be developed on the Secret network, unlike many NFTs that are built on the Ethereum blockchain.
The privacy levels of these NFTs can be adjusted by the user, and both public and private metadata can be stored within. So when a secret NFT is created, the developer has the option to add private metadata if they wish.
This private metadata is not critical, but may offer benefits to the NFT owner. For example, a developer can hide a campaign link, video file or multiple images from the eventual owner. So, in the specific case of secret NFTs, data can be hidden.
But secret NFTs aren’t just useful for digital art. This type of NFT can also be used in games, paywalls and even in ticket sales. Although this is a fairly new technology, it seems to hold some promise for the future.
NFTs can hide data in certain scenarios
It is safe to say that not all NFTs can hide data. While NFT artwork can certainly be used to hide files via steganography, NFTs themselves must be designed in a specific way to allow the storage of private metadata. But this is possible, and may become more widespread in the technology industry in the coming years.
