What is the deal with NFTs?

by Jordan Corts

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A non-fungible token, also known as an NFT, is a form of digital art that began exploding as early as 2020.

First, to understand what an NFT truly, is we have to go to the start when NFTs first started. The year was 2014, and Kevin McCoy and Anil made the first known NFT. It was a video filmed by McCoy's wife, and reportedly sold for $4 on a market known as Counterparty; it was called “Quantam."

NFTs went generally unnoticed, remaining in bitcoin's shadow for many years: that is, until Crypto Punks were made. Crypto Punks were made after another NFT known as “Rare Pepes" gained traction on the Etherium Blockchain. Creators Matt Hall and John Watkinson began creating ten-thousand NFTs. Now Crypto Punks are some of the most notorious NFT’s out there, each one selling for millions of dollars. This brings us to modern day where we know of numerous NFTs such as the “Bored Ape Yatch Club, '' “Cryptopunks," and “CryptoKitties," which quite admittedly have funny names.

These collections have all had millions upon millions of sales, and are all located on the most popular marketplace named “Open Sea,” which made numerous records such as making their owners the first NFT billionaires.

This new wave of NFTs and crypto-currencies have sparked many celebrities to buy NFTs such as Eminem, Grimes, Snoop Dog, and many more.

While all of this sounds nice in concept, many people don’t believe that they will last. Is that a fair assumption, or is it just biased commentary? I believe NFTs are here to stay, like bitcoin; however, it will almost definitely drop in value, as it’s currently a trend, but that’s just speculation.