The tech space has been abuzz the last few years with all things crypto, and with bitcoin hitting an all-time high edging a little over $50,000 earlier this year, it seems there’s no slowing things down – bigger services are starting to accept crypto as a payment option too helping to expand it further, from online entertainment at bingo sites like these to even buying your next car from Tesla, bitcoin is everywhere.
When newer opportunities in crypto become available then, it’s no surprise that it excites a huge number of people – the latest comes from the Ethereum blockchain in something called NFT’s – whilst the theory is quite simple, the idea behind it is a little more confusing, and even if you follow it closely it still may not make all that much sense. Think of a unique item, something like the Mona Lisa, it’s one of a kind and whilst it can be replicated and reproduced, there will always be the one original – whilst it will always be a piece of art by Leonardo da Vinci, the painting can be sold to a new owner, and NFT’s work much in the same way but for digital items instead – the original can be sold to a new owner, even if the original is already existing across the internet.
The water is a little muddied in the online space though – how do you guarantee what you’re receiving is an original given how widely it can spread online? And how do you prevent different claims for reproductions or other claims that a different NFT is the original – there have already been huge sales in the space with well known pieces of art as well as new publicly available content, so it is already a little difficult to follow just what is what, and for such a young market that could be a problem for those getting involved, but as mentioned, all things crypto raise a lot of excitement regardless.
The uses of NFT will evolve overtime, and whilst for now may just be used for digital collections it could certainly be repurposed, but much like any other new market there will definitely need to be strides taken to ensure protection for consumers and for the artists as it could certainly already look to be a huge risk of improper activity from scammers or those looking to take advantage – with huge sums of money on the line, it won’t take long for a story to emerge for this – so are NFTs for you? Right now, it may be worth waiting to find out how the market changes.
