Anyone can buy a Vincent van Gogh print, however only one person can own the original.
A NFT is a non-fungible token that is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and, subsequently, not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, music, and other types of digital files.
A lot of the current excitement is around selling digital art:
- CryptoKitty #896775, a digital cat bought for the equivalent of $172,000;
- A 50-second video by Grimes was sold for $390,000;
- Artist Beeple sold a collage of his digital artwork titled The First 5000 Days which was sold at Christie’s for $69 million; and
- Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, sold an NFT of his first Tweet for just under $3 million.
Another example of the popularity of NFTs comes in the form of sports with the NBA’s NBA Top Shot. Being called the “next level collectibles,” NBA Top Shot allows users to trade virtual clips of some of the league’s biggest stars.
In a nutshell, you are buying an online version of a product and it says you own it, but you do not own the real thing. To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Vincent van Gogh print, however only one person can own the original.
NFTs are designed to give you something unique and that cannot be duplicated, are considered to be a form of digital investing, and is thought of as an "asset" as opposed to a currency.
All information and summaries are intended as informational only regarding legal trends and news. Nothing should be taken as legal advice or legal opinion and readers should seek out advice from legal counsel prior to acting on information provided by this blog.
