Just 100 years ago, the concept of telecommunication seemed impossible to the world, let alone cellular devices that can browse the world wide web. The newest addition to this internet revolution is the concept of the NFT, or the non-fungible token. There has been a building curiosity surrounding this idea with many doubts and uncertainties, but what exactly is an NFT? What is the idea behind it? Why should people care about what appears as such a useless thing? 

First, it is important to understand the legitimate definition of the NFT. The current wave of NFTs pertains to digital art. You can buy a piece of digital art on a certain platform and buy and sell those pieces for Ethereum coins. As explained by Forbes, “An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos.”

The reason why NFTs have become so popular is that this is a new way to represent real-world items like artwork and real estate. “Tokenizing” these real-life assets makes buying, investing, selling, and trading more efficient through the internet and can reduce the probability of fraud. NFTs can be secured by storing them in a Cold Storage Hardware Wallet which allows for all of the data to be stored offline. All of the data is also password-protected to provide another layer of security. 

Now that we understand what an NFT is, what is the catch? Why has it become so popular and what is the idea behind it? Ever since cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have become popular with the international trading market, this also brought attention to the world of NFTs. Thanks to the help of top celebrities like Gary Vee, Logan Paul, LaMelo Ball, and Mark Cuban, NFTs have reached a variety of audiences and have become more widespread across the internet. Nowadays, merely owning a certain NFT is a status symbol and shows a property investment. 

For example, some random user online created the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a series of digital art that displays the same monkey in a certain pose with different clothing and facial expressions. The prices of these pieces of digital art can reach up to the tens of millions of dollars. 

Maybe the idea of buying into one of these NFTs may sound like a sound investment, but it is also important to note the NFTs that are not so publicized and are worth mere pennies on the dollar. The world of NFTs is a dangerous game to play, so only if you have loads of cash to gamble with would it be smart to invest. Because much of the value of these NFTs is based on public clout, something that is vulnerable to change, the prices fluctuate daily. One day, an NFT may be worth a few hundred thousand dollars while the next day it can drop to a thousand. However, the opposite also applies here where an NFT may start at a few hundred dollars and can increase to a few thousand. Such a volatile game may make you think twice about investing in NFTs. 

At the beginning of this NFT revolution, it was mainly met with criticism at the idea of tokenizing and investing in such strange pieces of digital art. The volatility of this game also made it very unpopular. However, with its popularization from celebrities and public figures, many people became attracted and decided where to put their money to gamble. Although many people have lost money from investing in NFTs, others have been much more successful. 

There have been numerous people who have made millions of dollars through this concept. One example comes from a 12-year-old girl named Nyla Hayes. By making and investing in digital NFT artwork, she has accumulated over $5.7 million dollars in Ether cryptocurrency. This shows how no matter how young you are, the internet can change people’s lives. For any student at Barstow who wants to try their hand in the NFT world, the sky’s the limit.