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In that location'southward nothing like an explosion of blockchain news to exit you thinking, "Um… what'due south going on here?" That's the feeling I've experienced while reading well-nigh Grimes getting millions of dollars for NFTs or about Nyan Cat being sold every bit 1. And by the fourth dimension we all thought we sort of knew what the deal was, the founder of Twitter put an autographed tweet upwardly for auction as an NFT. Now, months after we get-go published this explainer, nosotros're however seeing headlines about people paying house-coin for clip art of rocks — and my mom still doesn't actually understand what an NFT is.

You might be wondering: what is an NFT, anyhow?

After literal hours of reading, I think I know. I also think I'm going to weep.

Okay, let's start with the basics:

What is an NFT? What does NFT stand for?

Non-fungible token.

That doesn't make it any clearer.

Correct, sorry. "Non-fungible" more or less ways that it'due south unique and can't be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and yous'll have exactly the same thing. A i-of-a-kind trading carte, notwithstanding, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you'd have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which StadiumTalk calls "the Mona Lisa of baseball cards." (I'll take their word for it.)

How do NFTs work?

At a very high level, most NFTs are role of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, merely its blockchain besides supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently from, say, an ETH coin. It is worth noting that other blockchains can implement their own versions of NFTs. (Some already have.)

What's worth picking upwards at the NFT supermarket?

NFTs tin can actually be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your encephalon downloaded and turned into an AI), just a lot of the current excitement is around using the tech to sell digital art.

You lot mean, like, people buying my good tweets?

I don't think anyone tin can cease you, but that'due south not really what I meant. A lot of the conversation is well-nigh NFTs every bit an evolution of fine art collecting, only with digital fine art.

(Side annotation, when coming upwards with the line "buying my good tweets," we were trying to think of something so silly that information technology wouldn't exist a real thing. And so of class the founder of Twitter sold i for just nether $iii meg soon after we posted the article.)

Exercise people really think this will become like fine art collecting?

I'm sure some people really hope so — like whoever paid almost $390,000 for a 50-second video by Grimes or the person who paid $6.6 million for a video by Beeple. Actually, ane of Beeple's pieces was auctioned at Christie'south, the famou—

Sorry, I was busy right-clicking on that Beeple video and downloading the same file the person paid millions of dollars for.

Wow, rude. But yep, that's where it gets a bit awkward. You can copy a digital file as many times as y'all want, including the fine art that's included with an NFT.

But NFTs are designed to give you something that can't be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, only similar with physical artwork). To put information technology in terms of physical art collecting: anyone tin purchase a Monet print. Just just one person tin own the original.

No shade to Beeple, but the video isn't actually a Monet.

What do y'all retrieve of the $3,600 Gucci Ghost? Besides, you didn't permit me stop before. That epitome that Beeple was auctioning off at Christie's ended up selling for $69 one thousand thousand, which, by the manner, is $xv one thousand thousand more than Monet's painting Nymphéas sold for in 2014.

*This concluding sold for $3,600, but the current owner is asking for $16,300.*

Whoever got that Monet can actually appreciate it as a physical object. With digital art, a copy is literally as good as the original.

But the flex of owning an original Beeple...

I recollect I remember hearing that NFTs are already over . Didn't the boom go bust ?

But surely you've heard of penguin communities?

P...Penguin communities?

Right, and then... people take long built communities based on things they own, and at present it's happening with NFTs. One community that's been exceedingly popular revolves around a collection of NFTs called Pudgy Penguins, but it'south non the only community built upwardly around the tokens. It could be argued that one of the earliest NFT projects, CryptoPunks, has a community around it, and at that place are other animal-themed projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club that have their ain clique.

Of course, the communal activities depend on the community. For Pudgy Penguin or Bored Ape owners, information technology seems to involve vibing and sharing memes on Discord, or complimenting each other on their Pudgy Penguin Twitter avatars.

What'due south the point of NFTs?

That really depends on whether you're an creative person or a heir-apparent.

I'm an artist.

Get-go off: I'thousand proud of you. Style to go. You might exist interested in NFTs considering it gives you a manner to sell work that there otherwise might not be much of a market for. If y'all come up upwards with a really cool digital sticker thought, what are y'all going to do? Sell it on the iMessage App Store? No mode.

Besides, NFTs take a feature that you lot tin can enable that will pay you a percent every fourth dimension the NFT is sold or changes hands, making certain that if your work gets super popular and balloons in value, you lot'll see some of that benefit.

I'm a heir-apparent.

I of the obvious benefits of buying art is it lets you financially back up artists you similar, and that'due south true with NFTs (which are manner trendier than, like, Telegram stickers). Buying an NFT besides unremarkably gets yous some basic usage rights, like existence able to post the prototype online or ready it as your contour motion picture. Plus, of class, there are bragging rights that you own the art, with a blockchain entry to back it up.

No, I meant I'm a collector .

Ah, okay, yep. NFTs can piece of work like whatever other speculative asset, where yous buy it and promise that the value of it goes up one day, and then you tin sell information technology for a profit. I feel kind of dirty for talking about that, though.

So every NFT is unique?

In the boring, technical sense that every NFT is a unique token on the blockchain. Merely while information technology could be similar a van Gogh, where there's simply one definitive actual version, it could also be like a trading menu, where at that place'south l or hundreds of numbered copies of the same artwork.

Who would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for what basically amounts to a trading carte?

Well, that's role of what makes NFTs so messy. Some people treat them like they're the futurity of fine fine art collecting (read: equally a playground for the mega-rich), and some people treat them like Pokémon cards (where they're accessible to normal people simply as well a playground for the mega-rich). Speaking of Pokémon cards, Logan Paul just sold some NFTs relating to a million-dollar box of the—

Delight stop. I detest where this is going.

*You've activated my trap card (which sold for $17,000).*

Yes, he sold NFT video clips, which are only clips from a video you can watch on YouTube someday you want, for upwards to $20,000. He likewise sold NFTs of a Logan Paul Pokémon menu.

Who paid $twenty,000 for a video clip of Logan Paul?!

A fool and their money are soon parted, I gauge?

Information technology would be hilarious if Logan Paul decided to sell l more than NFTs of the verbal aforementioned video.

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda (who also sold some NFTs that included a song) really talked most that. Information technology's totally a thing someone could do if they were, in his words, "an opportunist crooked jerk." I'1000 not saying that Logan Paul is that, just that you should be careful who you purchase from.

Are NFTs mainstream now?

Information technology depends on what you lot mean. If you lot're request if, say, my mom owns ane, the reply is no.

*The response from my mom when I asked her about owning NFTs.*

Simply nosotros take seen big brands and celebrities like Marvel and Wayne Gretzky launch their own NFTs, which seem to be aimed at more traditional collectors, rather than crypto-enthusiasts. While I don't recall I'd call NFTs "mainstream" in the way that smartphones are mainstream, or Star Wars is mainstream, they do seem to take, at least to some extent, shown some staying power fifty-fifty outside of the cryptosphere.

Merely what do The Youth think of them?

Ah yes, first-class question. We here at The Verge have an interest in what the side by side generation is doing, and it certainly does seem like some of them take been experimenting with NFTs. An 18 year-quondam who goes past the name FEWOCiOUS says that his NFT drops have netted over $17 million — though obviously most haven't had the same success. The New York Times talked to a few teens in the NFC space, and some said they used NFTs as a mode to get used to working on a projection with a team, or to just earn some spending coin.

Can I buy this article equally an NFT?

No, but technically anything digital could be sold equally an NFT (including articles from Quartz and The New York Times, provided you have anywhere from $1,800 to $560,000). deadmau5 has sold digital animated stickers. William Shatner has sold Shatner-themed trading cards (i of which was apparently an X-ray of his teeth).

*This i I like. Maybe not for $700, but...*

Gross. Actually, could I buy someone'due south teeth as an NFT?

At that place have been some attempts at connecting NFTs to existent-globe objects, often as a sort of verification method. Nike has patented a method to verify sneakers' authenticity using an NFT system, which it calls CryptoKicks. But then far, I haven't found any teeth, no. I'grand scared to look.

Look? Where?

In that location are several marketplaces that accept popped up around NFTs, which allow people to buy and sell. These include OpenSea, Rarible, and Grimes' choice, Nifty Gateway, just there are plenty of others.

I've heard there were kittens involved. Tell me about the kittens.

NFTs really became technically possible when the Ethereum blockchain added support for them as part of a new standard. Of course, 1 of the first uses was a game chosen CryptoKitties that immune users to trade and sell virtual kittens. Thank you, internet.

I beloved kittens.

Not as much as the person who paid over $170,000 for i.

Arrrrrggggg!

Same. But in my opinion, the kittens show that one of the well-nigh interesting aspects of NFTs (for those of us not looking to create a digital dragon's lair of art) is how they can exist used in games. At that place are already games that let you have NFTs as items. One even sells virtual plots of land as NFTs. There could be opportunities for players to purchase a unique in-game gun or helmet or whatever as an NFT, which would be a flex that about people could really capeesh.

At least it's not digital pet rocks... right?

In fact, there are people who are spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on NFT pet rocks (the website for which says that the rocks serve no purpose other than being tradable and limited).

Tin I cry on your shoulder?

Only if I can cry on yours.

Could I pull off a museum heist to steal NFTs?

That depends. Function of the allure of blockchain is that it stores a tape of each time a transaction takes place, making it harder to steal and flip than, say, a painting hanging in a museum. That said, cryptocurrencies accept been stolen before, so it really would depend on how the NFT is being stored and how much work a potential victim would exist willing to put in to go their stuff back.

Note: Please don't steal.

Should I be worried virtually digital art existence effectually in 500 years?

Probably. Chip rot is a real thing: prototype quality deteriorates, file formats can't be opened anymore, websites go down, people forget the password to their wallets. But physical fine art in museums is also shockingly fragile.

I want to maximize my blockchain use. Can I buy NFTs with cryptocurrencies?

Yes. Probably. A lot of the marketplaces have Ethereum. But technically, anyone can sell an NFT, and they could ask for whatever currency they want.

Will trading my Logan Paul NFTs contribute to global warming and melt Greenland?

Information technology's definitely something to look out for. Since NFTs use the same blockchain applied science equally some energy-hungry cryptocurrencies, they also terminate upwardly using a lot of electricity. There are people working on mitigating this result, but so far, most NFTs are withal tied to cryptocurrencies that generate a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. There have been a few cases where artists take decided to non sell NFTs or to cancel time to come drops later hearing nearly the effects they could accept on climate change. Thankfully, one of my colleagues has actually dug into it, and then you can read this slice to get a fuller picture show.

The NFT market has grown,
Equally eight-effigy auctions take shown.
The overall toll is
A worse climate crisis
For art you lot pretend that y'all ain.
— Limericking (@Limericking) March 15, 2021

Can I build an underground art cave / bunker to shop my NFTs?

Well, like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are stored in digital wallets (though it is worth noting that the wallet does specifically have to be NFT-compatible). You could ever put the wallet on a computer in an secret bunker, though.

What if I wanted to picket a Goggle box show that'southward somehow related to NFTs?

Believe it or non, you have options! Steve Aoki is working on a show based on a character from a previous NFT driblet, called Rule X. The show's site says that information technology'll exist an episodic series launched on the blockchain (the first short video is on OpenSea), and there are hundreds of NFTs already associated with the bear witness.

There's besides a show called Stoner Cats (yes, it's about cats that get loftier, and yes it stars Mila Kunis, Chris Rock, and Jane Fonda), which uses NFTs as a sort of ticket system. Currently, there's only one episode bachelor, but a Stoner Cat NFT (which, of class, is chosen a TOKEn) is required to scout it.

Are you tired of typing "NFT"?

Yes.

Update March 5th, viii:07PM ET: Added the news that Jack Dorsey was selling one of his tweets as an NFT because I originally made a joke and cannot believe it actually happened.

Update March 11th, 1:42PM ET: Added the news that Beeple'south piece sold for $69 one thousand thousand and added more information to the climate change section.

Update March 15th, 1:30PM ET: Added a link to our piece on the environmental impact of NFTs and updated some of the language to reflect some recent inquiry. Also added a poem.

Update March 25th, iii:20PM ET: Added note about Quartz and the NYT selling articles as NFTs considering over again it'due south something that I fabricated a joke well-nigh and and so really happened. Also updated the part virtually Jack Dorsey selling his tweet with the final price.

Update August 18th, 9:20PM ET: Added new questions and answers that accept cropped up over the course of 2021, like "are NFTs dead," "are in that location NFT-based Tv shows," and "are there clipart images of rocks beingness sold as NFTs?"