NFTs Are Playthings of the Rich, not Democratizing Art

NFT stands for ‘non-fungible tokens’ - a digital certificate of authenticity verifying ownership of an asset. NFTs are tokens that can be added to a digital ledger called a blockchain. This way, records of ownership cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. This allows for the creation of smart contracts, whereby ownership is historically tracked, and the original owner of the token can be rewarded every time it changes hand. An example of an NFT at work is that of digital artist Beeple, who put his art collection for sale online in early 2021.