ELI5 Explain native assets at higher level?

Question

Is anyone capable of providing a high-level explanation of how NFT works in Cardano from a traditional blockchain point of view (ERC721, Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, etc), as I'd be very interested in understanding enough to decide going forward with Cardano for a project?

I've read the https://developers.cardano.org/docs/native-tokens/minting-nfts and believe that I understood a bit of it, but got a few questions.

• The Policy ID can be used to identify a collection of native assets (NFT)? E.g. I can query the blockchain and find every single native asset by Policy ID?
• The amount field* for the Policy ID has to be defined, there can't be unlimited supply?
• Policy time locking, how to determine amount of slots in terms of time? Can be average, I guess the slots are computed so depends on the blockchain usage?!
• The Policy ID signature is the mint-authority/controller/admin "wallet address"?
• Does a Policy ID allow us to set multiple signatures (mint-authorities/controller/admin)? Guess that's what the https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/blob/c6b574229f76627a058a7e559599d2fc3f40575d/doc/reference/simple-scripts.md is for where keyHash is the wallet address and the type "sig" as in "signature"?

Thank you!

Answer 1

ELI5 for Native Assets from a traditional blockchain point of view (ERC721, Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, etc):

Native Assets are like Pokemon cards: All the needed information and features pertaining to the asset is directly on the individual card and can be interacted with freely.

ERC-standard tokens(eg. ERC-721) are like Pokemon game cartridges for GBA: There's a minimum information available on the cartridge casing but it is completely useless unless you plug it into a GBA console. The GBA console is needed to interact with the cartridge and everything it offers. The GBA console is to the cartridge what the EVM is to ERC-standard tokens (which are not tokens but rather programs/smart contracts with balances and permissions).

Other things

Policy ID for Cardano Native Assets is similar to contract address for Ethereum ERC tokens

The Policy ID can be used to identify a collection of native assets (NFT)? E.g. I can query the blockchain and find every single native asset by Policy ID?

This is how much you want to mint in a given transaction, you can mint ad infinitum so long as you execute mint transactions via Native Scripts while the Policy is open OR via Plutus scripts per the logic.

The amount field* for the Policy ID has to be defined, there can't be unlimited supply?

A slot is currently = 1 second, isn't dependent on usage.

Policy time locking, how to determine amount of slots in terms of time? Can be average, I guess the slots are computed so depends on the blockchain usage?!

The Policy script signature is the Verification key hash of the mint-authority/controller/admin, so not wallet address. (Wallet address is derived from a different combination of keys).

The Policy ID signature is the mint-authority/controller/admin "wallet address"

Yes you can set multiple required signatures for a policy script.

Does a Policy ID allow us to set multiple signatures (mint-authorities/controller/admin)?

keyHash != wallet address. it is the hash of the verification keys. and yes "sig" means "signature"

for where keyHash is the wallet address and the type "sig" as in "signature"?