Last year, William Shatner put up items for sale on blockchain, including memorabilia from his acting career, made available in the form of virtual trading cards. The cards cost a dollar apiece, which are available in packs of either five or 30. Featured in the collection are photos from his Star Trek days and an old dental X-ray plate. One of the rarer ones included a headshot picture of him from the 2000s. As many as 7,000 five-card packs were sold out in nine minutes, and 3,000 30-card packs were all gone within three.
Later in an interview, Shatner revealed what he realized—non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the future. This digital currency, which works on the exact decentralized mechanism as cryptocurrency, seems to be on the road to unprecedented growth. It’s at this time that many start thinking about jumping on the NFT bandwagon. However, it might be helpful to take a step back and first ask if investing in NFT is worth all the hype. If you’re the kind who knows better not to sail uncharted waters unprepared, this article is a must-read.
All about NFTs
As one blockchain industry leader puts it, NFTs are basically “decentralized certification.” The term non-fungible means unique or irreplaceable, so NFTs put something of value on an item to mark it as original and differentiate it from any existing copy or replica.(1)
Here’s an example: just this February, the creator of the viral Nyan Cat meme made a remastered version and sold it for 300 Ethereum (or close to USD$600,000). Anyone can create a copy or make their own version, but whoever bought it with NFTs possesses the original. The NFTs encode the artwork with data to verify its authenticity among the countless copies found on the internet.
Like Shatner’s trading cards and the remastered Nyan Cat, NFTs are popular in the art and entertainment scenes. They can put value on anything, from an item a celebrity used to own to a simple tweet or lyrics from a song. Because of this, people seem to be rushing to invest in NFTs. And if you’re one to do so, don’t forget to check out this guide on how to buy NFTs, among other things.
