Written by Nayantara Singh, a grade 7 student

As we progress through the 21^st century, everything is becoming digital. Things like technology, artificial intelligence, travel, currency, and education are changing at a fast pace. Just when the world came up to speed with concepts like cryptocurrency and the metaverse, the next revolutionary, confusing idea enters the picture. It’s all over the internet and exploded basically overnight.

Yup, you guessed it. I’m talking about NFTs.

So, what are they?

First things first, NFT stands for non-fungible token. You’re probably thinking, what does that mean? Hear me out. Non-fungible means that it is a one-of-a-kind object, that cannot be replaced. Each NFT is different, as compared to cryptocurrency, where, for example, one bitcoin is no different from any other, and all have the same value.

Right, so non-fungible. But what exactly is an NFT?

Getting to that. An NFT could be anything digital, like a gif, drawing, video, music, etc. which you can then sell. They are usually paid for using tokens of a cryptocurrency called ‘Ethereum.’ Once a person purchases the NFT, they now own the rights to it. So, they can trade and sell it, post it, use it as their profile, etc.

So, what is the point of buying NFTs, again? Can’t everyone just save the image for free?

Well, yes……but not exactly. NFT’s are, say the digital version of art collecting, for example. Once you buy it, you own that digital artwork/video/gif. Yes, other people can save the file for free, but they then own a copy of the file, the buyer owns the original. It’s kind of like you get bragging rights: and also you can post and use the NFT.

 If you don’t understand, think of it like this: If I make a drawing, only one person gets to keep the original. But, I can photocopy it and make prints of it. The prints are the equivalent of saving the image for free, and the original file is the NFT.

Ok, got it. But does this stuff actually sell?

For millions of dollars! One of the most expensive NFTs by an artist called Beeple, was sold at Christie’s Auction house for $69,000,000 (you read it right, 69 million!)It was a piece titled, ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days.’ Another popular NFT is the Bored Ape collection, which was supposed to sell for $300,000, but accidentally sold for $3,000 instead. Check the number of zeros!

The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, even sold his first tweet for 2.9 million! Even kids are selling NFTs, and we did an Instagram live with Teresa Melvin, one of the biggest kid NFT artists. So, hey! If you’re a digital artist, consider NFTs. It might just be your big break 😉

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