An honest look at NFTs

If you’ve been paying attention around the ol’ Internet lately, I’m sure you’ve seen someone talk about an NFT, or at least how much money is being spent on buying up various NFT items at auctions.

But what, exactly, is an NFT? (Non-fungible Token)

Thankfully, this recent article by Anil Dash at the Atlantic is a good, no-BS, look at the technology, and where the idea came from. Anil has some thoughts about where it started, what the hope was for it, and also how it’s been corrupted by profiteers. It also describes pretty perfectly what I feel myself about blcokchain to start with, it’s an interesting idea, with lots of theoretical uses, that no one has found a popular use for beyond trading cryptocurrencies, which also seem to only exist to be traded.

I recommend going to read it, and also follow some of the links, especially when Anil points to some of the environmental impacts all of this has as it is constantly in search of more power to keep running all of the complex computing resources necessary to keep track of it all. Those matter, and they should be part of your thinking when you start thinking about buying an artists NFT. (Also yes, make sure it’s actually the original artist selling you the NFT, that also seems to be an issue)

So, if you have questions about what the heck people are talking about when they talk about an NFT, go take a look and do some reading. You might learn a thing or two.

Follow these topics: Tech