The acronym NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. It’s a part of newer blockchain technology that claims ownership of a digital asset. An example token that claims ownership of an asset in its most basic terms would be a deed for a house would be a sign of ownership that the house belongs to you, where a bitcoin is the title of ownership of the value of the Bitcoin.
Fungible means something that is easily traded such as a physical currency, like handing over a twenty-dollar bill. Passing several dollars for goods and services is very fungible. So saying the Token is Non-Fungible would mean something that is not easily tradeable, in this case, the ownership of Intellectual Property or in the case of our interest – webcomics, social media posts, and digital art. An NFT does not prevent you from exercising your copyright and making more similar art, merchandise, prints, or otherwise. However, selling the same piece of tokenized digital art would make you considered an art thief in the cryptocurrency exchange world.
Though the concept has been around for a while, the following tweet has been making its rounds amongst webcomic circles and has brought a new awareness of the situation.
Many creators have been voicing their valid concerns that NFT may undermine the content, the artist. and yet another way people may be exploiting artists who have an online presence.
The following Twitter thread by @glitchkidjulie gives an excellent deconstruction of how NTF blockchain works, its overall nuances, and its overall detrimental effects on the environment.
Twitter user Woona (@lunagamer128) has compiled an extensive Pastebin of known NFT tokenizer Twitter accounts to ban and help prevent potential NTF IP theft.
Like many other cryptocurrency trends and questionable speculation practices there’s a good chance it may not be going away any time soon. Not everyone is averse to our adopting the currency of our new robot overlords.