In 2017, a painting reputedly by Leonardo da Vinci - Salvator Mundi - sold for $450 million.

In 2021, an artwork by Beeple - Everydays: the First 5,000 Days - sold for $69 million.

Similar headlines, different contexts. But the latter made waves because it was a digital artwork.

While art historians obsessed over da Vinci’s painting to make sure it wasn’t a copy, Beeple’s artwork could be duplicated identically with just a right-click + copy + paste. So it can’t be worth anything, right?

Digital art has always suffered from this problem...until recently. A new technology called NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) has changed that.

NFTs are like stamps of authenticity for digital assets. They’re based on blockchain technology, and in the next 3 minutes, you're going to understand why there’s so much hype around them. The term ‘Non-Fungible’ sounds complex, but it really isn’t.

Non-Fungible items are just those that cannot be substituted because they contain something that makes them unique. Most physical assets are non-fungible – the device you’re reading this on, the notebook on your desk, or a painting by da Vinci. 

Since non-fungibility implies uniqueness, it also implies scarcity. And an asset that becomes scarce usually sees its value increase. You probably intuitively understand this phenomenon with physical assets, but it's equally applicable to digital assets.

Thanks to blockchain-based authentication by NFTs – digital assets like art, audio tracks, gifs, videos, and even Tweets can now be converted into non-fungible entities - each with a unique identifier. 

Creators can then sell these to the highest bidder - sometimes for their utility as assets, and other times for the bragging rights they come with.