NFT: What is it ?

NFTs are the latest cryptocurrency phenomenon to go mainstream. NFTs have captured the world’s attention. A Christie’s auction house even sold the first-ever NFT artwork for a whopping $69.3 million. 

So what are NFTs?

It’s a non-fungible token (NFT), a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger (blockchain). NFTs can be associated with easily-reproducible items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files as unique items.

In the simplest terms, NFTs transform digital works of art and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets that are easy to trade on the blockchain.

Although that may be far from simple for the uninitiated to understand, the payoff has been huge for many artists, musicians, influencers and the like. For example, Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sold for $2.9 million, a video clip of a LeBron James slam dunk sold for over $200,000 and a decade-old “Nyan Cat” GIF went for $600,000.

One of the original NFTs came from a digital trading game, on the cryptocurrency platform Ethereum : CryptoKitties.This game allows people to purchase and sell virtual cats that are both unique and stored on the blockchain.