WTF is an NFT?

If you are wondering WTF is an NFT, and you have tried to listen to financial experts talk about it but it still makes about zero sense, don’t worry – you are not alone.

Even though some of us have been in this space for a while now, NFTs are actually still very new to the world and lots of people are trying to figure out what the heck they are, and how to get some.

Here’s my TL;DR on NFTs. …

To make a long story short, NFTs (aka “non-fungible tokens”) are digital assets.

Since each NFT is unique and NON-fungible — versus “fungible” (which basically means interchangeable and able to replace or be replaced by an identical item, like Bitcoin, Shib or ETH) — NFTs are used to represent and authenticate ownership of unique digital items.

Do you remember when Christie’s auction house sold its first piece of NFT-linked digital art by digital artist Beeple for $69 million? That was a historical, non-fungible moment.

But, besides Beeple-style art, which is probably one of the most well-known NFT examples, there are all sorts of items that can be NFTs that don't look like art at all:

• Domain names
• Music / songs
• Virtual real estate
• Video game pieces
• Birth certificates
• Citizenship records

In other words, anything paper - or a contract - can do, an NFT can do better.

NFTs can only have one owner at a time and they’re secured by crypto blockchains. When you buy an NFT there is a contract on the blockchain that says you are the owner. There is no questioning who owns it. Nobody can modify the record of ownership. So, NFTs fix lots of problems – including sibling rivalry if you, say, are a musician with a little brother who likes to steal your mashups and tell the kids at school he made them. Lock that music down as an NFT and he’ll never swipe again. :-p Here is an example of a music NFT by Vult Lab and Into The Meta's very own CJ Trax.

Here are some other NFT examples:

• Pudgy Penguins and Bored Apes
• Unique digital artwork
• Sneaker in a limited-run fashion line
• In-game items
• Digital collectables
• Domain names
• Event experiences

NFTs can be anything that is unique, digital, and needs provable ownership. It might sound odd, but even one of your tweets could be an NFT if you minted it! (Side note: “Minting an NFT” is what you are doing when you publish your item to the blockchain.)

At first, it sounds weird, yes, I’ll admit that I was confused at first, too. But when you start thinking about it, NFTs make a lot of sense.

From Netflix and Disney to Coca-Cola and Chevy, lots of major players are making their way into NFTs. Check out these stories on big brands in Web3 by Vult Lab and Into The Meta's Simon Mwebaze.

Want to learn more? Start browsing OpenSea. It’s one of my favorite NFT marketplaces, and it's pretty easy to browse.

Let me know how it goes!

Cheers,

KAC