What are NFTs? Non-Fungible Tokens
In more primitive times, merchants traded goats for wheat, shelter, and goods. As time went by, we graduated to more refined currency, introducing gold coins, and eventually paper money. With the digital age upon us, the prominence (and popularity) of digital currency has arisen.
Content creators, gamers, and online personas pounced on the opportunity to trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A decentralized digital currency that enabled individual ownership rather than relegating ownership rights to ‘Big Tech’ corporations? In 2019, it was wishful thinking, a fever dream. But now? NFTs are the future.
What are NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are pieces of unique data stored in blockchain, a digital ledger. NFTs are decentralized digital assets which are not interchangeable (unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin), however, relegate copyright ownership to creators. Therefore, through NFTs, ownership rights are deemed inalienable.
The democratic shift towards digital currency and NFTs has decentralized digital art ownership. Whereas ‘Big Tech’ and record labels previously owned other people’s work, NFTs enable individual ownership rights through the cryptographic transaction process of blockchains.
Many critics have denounced NFTs. Environmentalists claim the digital asset increases our carbon footprint. Academics allege that NFTs facilitate copyright infringement, as digital markets cannot effectively regulate and assign copyright ownership to creators. Buying and selling NFTs is a risk. There is no doubt about it.
Considering the emerging digital frontier facilitates enables transactions that are 100% online, the danger is paramount.
Creators can be thwarted, their digital art branded as a seller’s intellectual property. The unregulated digital market of NFTs and digital currency is a daunting prospective for many. However, as we enter a digital age in which brands, transactions, and socializing transitions online, perhaps it is time we embrace the digital future before us.
NFTs are the future. Since its’ inception, non-fungible tokens have enticed content creators and influencers. As artists have cowered under a monarchical system, in which intellectual property and ownership rights have been relegated to towering agencies, record labels, and ‘Big Tech,’ NFTs provide a shining solution. The digital currency enables users to own their intellectual property unlike ever before.
As more musicians, artists, and public figures, such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and artist Mike Winkelmann, sell NFTs, the future is promising.
While navigating an unregulated digital market can prove uncertain and risky to skeptics, the path towards a digital future is indisputable.
Years to come, our lives will shift online. Our transactions, interactions, activities, and more will become increasingly virtual, as we wade into The Metaverse, Web 3.0, and a spectrum of alternative digital landscapes.
Digital reality is becoming a present reality with every chime of the clock. NFTs, cryptocurrency, and digital currency is only one step towards true realization.
