The term NFT stands for “non fungible token”. Wat does NFT mean? First of all: It is a digital identifier for various file formats.

This makes it possible to verify own digital content in tomorrow’s digital world. This can be works of art, music, but also objects or properties in digital worlds.

The thought of this may be unimaginable, but it is already a reality: In the Metaverse game “The Sandbox,” a six-digit US dollar amount was paid for a piece of land in order to become Snoop Dog’s neighbor.

A digital world that can be individually designed becomes a world in which digital files become investments.

And thus the ownership of digital objects suddenly takes on a value. But apart from a virtual possession in video games: But why would anyone want to own digital objects?

–

The application areas of NFTs

A major advantage of NFTs is that the history around ownership and payment transactions related to each object are transparent and cannot be falsified.

Think about it: today, cars, furniture, watches, apartments and much more change hands, with a great deal of bureaucracy involved. And in connection with art, it is the case that in some cases the previous owners are not even known. And that’s where NFTs come in. With non fungible tokens, intransparency in connection with ownership is history.

And it is not only in connection with ownership that NFTs will decisively change everyday life. Profile pictures on social media can no longer be duplicated. How often do you hear that profile pictures are simply misused? The fact that images are irrefutably signed via smart contracts on a blockchain means that ownership and even use of that image can be restricted to one person.

NFTs on social media. A way to make social media more secure. Foto: Marten Bjork

Let’s look even further at everyday situations and bureaucracy. The smartphone has already made a lot of things easier in our lives, but it is still noticeable in everyday life that technology is still ahead of us in many areas. Anyone who is annoyed today at a police checkpoint for having forgotten their driver’s license at home will be able to tell their grandchildren about it in a few years. By then, however, they will already be able to show all official documents in their possession by cell phone. And if the cell phone should ever get lost, you lose the device, but never the property that you can prove with it.