NFT stands for non-fungible token. Non-fungible means nonreplaceable, therefore whatever token you're holding is quite literally one of a kind. In simpler words, it's basically a digital piece that you can have ownership over through blockchain. It'll still be available for the public to view it, but you'll be its owner. Basically owning an NFT is like owning a talking dog or a flying car, everyone gets to pet your dog and fly your car, but you'll be the one with the paperwork proving that they're yours.
NFT technology was around since 2014, but it only saw the great light of fame and money till the last year of 2021. Where a single tweet, Jack Dorsey's first tweet ever was sold for about 2.9 million dollars. After that, it has been a surge in NFT creation and dealing. Collections started being made and sold to the highest bidder, numbers so big that they may make or break your bank account.
The bored ape yacht club is one of the most famous and prestigious NFT collections in the world. People like Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, Paris Hilton, Eminem, and Neymar Jr all own a token produced by this club. After purchasing a bored ape NFT, you get a discord server link with every bored ape holder. So for the average price of $200,000, you yourself can be in a discord server with Eminem and Steph Curry.
In the beginning, the general Idea about NFTs was that they're about art, about people owning a piece of digital art. But with time you can see that it's more about ego than art, about ownership and pride. However, if you look deeper, you'll find out that NFTs are pure business. Let's take the boring ape yacht club, for example, holders of its tokens all have access to one discord server where they get to chat with each other. Each one of the people on that server is worth at least 1 million dollars and is willing to throw about $300,000 just to have access to that server with others just like him. Therefore NFTs are not about art, they might be about ego, but they're definitely about access and business.
Gary Vee, the guy with the beenie who used to work at a Vinyard and now is an author, speaker, and internet personality are one of the biggest supporters of NFTs. For anyone who is interested in getting involved with tokens, I recommend his videos, his work, and his knowledge. 50 hours of homework, from YouTube, Twitter, and Discord. That's what Gary recommends. Do 50 hours of homework before even considering buying an NFT.
Nothing in this world is flawless, and neither are NFTs. Their carbon footprint is a bit heavy on mother earth because every type of crypto transaction requires massive amounts of energy due to the high-end computers required to sell, trade, and store cryptocurrency. It has been reported that the power necessary to make all these transactions, is enough to power a small country like Nigeria for a whole year. This power consumption can be translated into carbon emissions since most of the electricity used is coming from fossil fuels and not renewable energy sources. Because of this, some artists like Joanie Lemercier, stopped dealing with NFTs after he realized that the sale of six of his pieces would consume enough energy to power his whole studio for 2 years, in just 10 seconds.
And now I leave you to ponder the questions, are NFTs the future of art? Or are they just a passing craze? Are they the evolution of art? Or the finale blade in mother earth's back?
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