NFT’s are Taking over the Internet

Why is Electronic Art Selling for so Much?

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Recently, NFT’s have gained a lot of traction in the news and in the media with headlines of people buying seemingly ridiculous things online for extremely large sums of money. From buying pieces of electronic art to plots of land in video games, NFT’s are changing the landscape of the internet through changing the landscape of buying and selling art.  NFT stands for non-fungible token and it essentially means that it is one of a kind and cannot be replaced by anything. An example of something that is non-fungible is a one of a kind trading card as it cannot be traded for the same exact thing. At the highest level, NFTs join Ethereum’s blockchain as their system for operating. Ethereum is a separate crypto currency, such as bitcoin or dogecoin but it allows NFT’s to join its blockchain and thus make the things that they sell unique. Currently, the NFT’s that one can buy are expanding rapidly and reaching across all stretches of the internet. As of right now NFTs could be anything electronic (for example music or artwork) but a majority of the excitement is stemming from the opportunities to sell digital art. Just last week, a short, artistic video by artist Beeple sold for 6.6 million dollars. Another, record breaking piece of digital art sold for 69 million in Christies auction. The interesting thing about these NFT’s is that anyone could go to the work of art and just download it for free but that would remove its value as the actual value stems from that particular piece being assigned a value on the block chain making it unique. This causes many to believe that the entire thing is pointless, yet recently collecting NFT’s and flipping them has been an extremely lucrative business. This is creating intrigue among traders to attempt to flip blockchain art for a profit. These NFT’s are providing artists with a lucrative alternative to making money in an industry that typically makes that difficult. It also provides the consumer with essentially an asset which the consumer hopes will grow in value so that it can be sold for a profit. Although basically, NFT’s are selling for so much money as a result of their supposed “rarity” but in reality, they just provide the consumer with an extremely speculative asset which has no true intrinsic value in the real world.