What is an NFT?

A NFT or Non-Fungible Token represents ownership of a digital or physical asset on the blockchain. On the Ethereum blockchain, these assets are implemented as smart contracts which contain the code and information relating to the digital or physical asset being represented. The most well-known example of an NFT is CryptoKitties, which was recently acquired by Axiom Zen for $12 million USD. In this blog post, I’ll explain how NFTs work and why they represent something unique in blockchain technology that we haven’t seen before.

Definition:

A non-fungible token, also known as a unique token or simply NFT (sometimes pronounced enft), is just what it sounds like – a digital asset that exists as one of a kind. If you’ve ever played any type of game where players trade digital assets like Pokemon cards or other in-game items, then you’re already familiar with these.

Brief History:

Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a token on a blockchain that doesn’t represent ownership in anything. Whereas most cryptocurrency tokens have a singular purpose and make their value through utility, non-fungible tokens are meant to reflect unique properties or items. An example of NFTs would be things like CryptoKitties which are used to collect, buy, sell, trade or breed virtual cats using Ethereum smart contracts. Other examples include game assets that come from video games, furniture for real estate agents to show property off, artist work portfolios, stamps with very specific qualities, etc.

Basically if you can think of something with a serial number – you could create an NFT for it! This means there are near endless possibilities for applications – in theory at least…more on that later.