Why are so many people captivated by the blockchain and crypto world? It’s an infant compared to the traditional financial world; a little unsteady on its feet, still growing and trying to figure things out. Yet it’s thrilling to watch it evolve, to discover new realms and possibilities it’s crashing into, to witness it disrupt and break down traditional rules and barriers.
To see its potential in making your wildest imaginings and dreams real – virtually real. And recently, more and more people are beginning to take notice of a particularly exciting, relatively new trend: non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The advent of blockchain and cryptocurrencies opened the gates to making value transfer accessible to anyone, anywhere. Then DeFi, decentralized finance, entered the scene in 2020. Suddenly, blockchain technology had expanded to more complex financial use cases, from trading and insurance to savings, loan, and more. Incredibly disruptive and with limitless potential, it’s no wonder DeFi became the biggest craze in 2020.
But while the large majority kept their eyes on DeFi, a shining dark horse has been growing in the shadows. NFTs are tokenized versions of an asset, digital or otherwise. They represent non-fungible assets like collectibles, artwork or real estate – items in the world that are unique and rare.
This is what makes them special and appealing. Currencies, whether traditional fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or stablecoins, are fungible and more easily interchangeable. They are what they can buy you. A dollar note in your pocket can be exchanged with the one in your mate’s, a bitcoin can be traded with another bitcoin without any loss of value. But NFTs are different, you can’t exchange them the same way you do with fungible assets since no two NFTs share the exact same unique properties and attributes.
NFTs experienced their first rise to fame in 2017, when a game built on the Ethereum blockchain called CryptoKitties incited hundreds to collect, exchange, and even breed virtual cats. No two cats in the game are the same, and the game was appealing enough to move millions of dollars and attract thousands of beginners to the crypto world.