NFT stands for non-fungible token. When a good or asset is fungible, it can be exchanged for another of the same type; it is not unique. Fungible assets include everything from dollar bills, common stock to bitcoins. Non-fungible items, on the other hand, are unique. Think baseball cards or land. Basically, NFTs are collectible digital items with limited supply that can be bought, sold, and traded using Blockchain technology. It is the Blockchain’s ledger that enables a non-fungible characteristic to be assigned to a specific digital asset. NFTs can be anything digital, like videos, photographs, audio files, documents, or even items within a video game. Essentially, NFTs make it easier for people to own and sell digital content. This can be a huge opportunity for digital creators and artists to monetize their content in ways there were never available to them in the past.

How does it work? 

Artists (or creators) most commonly mint their work on NFT marketplaces, including Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, SuperRare, and many others. An NFT is created by minting, which creates a smart contract that will be stored on the blockchain. Among the important information in the smart contract is the work’s creator, and who receives royalties each time the NFT is sold.

NFT issues and concerns

While NFTs have positively impacted many artists, however since it is an emerging space, the technology is evolving and the community is wrestling with various NFT issues, including the impact on climate change.

Future of NFTs

In the end, NFTs are here to stay and as the technology and community continue to evolve the technology the impact on various industries will be profound. The impact on gaming, art, music, real estate, collectibles, consumer goods, internet domains, and fashion. NFTs will also be the enabling technology for the future of the web as Web 3.0 gets built out. Finally, NFTs will have a profound impact on the way marketing and branding will be done in the future.