A picture of an adorable kitten, a song or a GIF you see on social media are all NFTs. This type of token is like the digital form of a stamp, a portrait or some other collector’s item. However, they’re created and “put on display” on the Internet and not in a museum. 

NFTs are thriving at a rate of knots. In the art world, several crypto artists are turning heads with pieces only for display online.  But that's just the surface of it... So, what are NFTs and why are they so popular?

What does “NFT” mean? 

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are genuine copies of digital or physical assets in the blockchain network. They use the same technology as cryptocurrencies and can be traded; however, they aren't mutually interchangeable.

Digital copies for collectors

NFTs popped up years ago on Ethereum, a blockchain platform. Its first collectables were CryptoPunks, created in 2017, followed by the Crytokitties video game for trading virtual kittens. That spurred a bona fide revolution in the gaming world. Nowadays, such digital creations are being considered actual works of art and sold by auction houses.

This year alone, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet was auctioned off as an NFT for over 2.9 million dollars. Several other digital works of art have also been sold, such as the collage Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which went for 69 million dollars at the renowned auction house, Christie’s.

Because non-fungible tokens are stored on a blockchain, they can't be destroyed or counterfeited. Blockchain records each transaction in a decentralized manner on different databases.