Potential of NFTs

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are seeing growing interest and going mainstream after the first fully-digital NFT artwork by Beeple was put on sale last month at the major auction house Christie’s. Meanwhile, American rock band Kings of Leon announced three perks in the form of NFTs, including a special album as well as exclusive audiovisual art. LeBron James’ shot sold for $74,000 on the booming NBA Top Shot platform. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is testing out NFTs by selling his first tweet, and the highest bid is $2.5MM as of this writing.

What are NFTs? 
NFTs are unique tokens similar to cryptocurrency but represent digital assets such as artwork, music, gifs, and other forms of content. The logic behind it is that once you purchase it, the NFT is fully yours to own and control, just like a physical item. Although it’s easy to think that anybody could copy and save a piece of digital artwork on the internet, it is the long-lasting proof of ownership of the piece of artwork through the NFT ledger that is the icing on the cake for buyers. In real-life scenarios, it is equivalent to the intangible pride of owners of valuable artwork who allow their paintings to be displayed at museums for public viewing. 

What it means for artists
NFTs are a welcome new piece of technology for digital artists and creators because they can truly say each piece of artwork is one and only, authenticate artwork, and get paid the right prices for art without middlemen taking a significant portion of the selling price. 

Future potential
At the moment, NFTs mainly transact within the Ethereum blockchain, and platforms that aid the transaction including MakersPlace, Rarible, or Opensea, often charge high fees to transfer ownership. But it’s safe to say that the NFTs game is still early and the possibilities going forward are limitless. Not only are we likely to see more consumer-facing products paired with NFTs but also an abundance of marketplaces and showcase venues that will emerge to entice users to engage with NFTs.