If you possess a phone or any recent memory of this era’s virtual climate, then the rise of laser-eyed tiger icons and images of lions stoned out of their minds might ring a bell. NFTs have gained popularity since their endorsement by Elon Musk, who shared a 28-year-old meme on Twitter, where the artist subsequently sold it for approximately $20,000 after the image went live for two days. NFTs, otherwise known as non-fungible tokens, are a form of crypto tokens that have forced the internet into an uncomfortably tight chokehold and, despite its constant denials, refuses to let go of.
The “non-fungible” aspect of it originates from its non-interchangeable nature, unlike forms of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, which rely on a basis of mutual exchange to function. The “tokens” that are bought represent proof of possession. Lately, digital artists have benefited from the rise of NFTs by selling tokens of their pieces, such as the 18-year old artist FEWOCiOUS who sold their painting The EverLasting Beautiful for $550,000 as the highest bid.
The first time I was subjected to the concept of NFTs was earlier last year, when I was naïve enough to have no prior knowledge of Elon Musk selling his song about NFTs as an NFT for a totally modest cost of $69 million. My first thought was, “So, is he selling the rights to the track?” And when I learned later on that, no, he did not sell the rights to the track, and had in fact placed a “non-refundable token” over the song’s premise as a digital ledger, I wondered, “Did he, like, sell it with a purpose to remix the original?” And I was answered with a horrifying “nope” after hearing a song I thought was created in Garageband.
The process is like an adult version of Pokémon trading cards when you were a kid; you trade the equally valuable cards among your friends, while the super rare and shinier ones are sold by the hundreds on eBay. This allegorical tale of NFTs extends to just that: you have a digital photo of the super rare Pokémon card worth more than a month’s rent in Vancouver, except the individual rights are not technically yours, because all you have is the photo to prove that you own it, while the money you spent doesn’t necessarily prohibit the external duplication or copying of it.
Basically, that means anyone could take a screenshot of your super rare Pokémon card, and they would legally have the same acquisitional rights as Elon Musk and a deep fried iFunny screenshot. Save it as a PNG, JPEG, GIF, PDF — it doesn’t matter. There is no copyright infringement because the copyright does not exist.
This is the equivalent of spending $100,000 to write your signature on the Mona Lisa in invisible ink. This act of claiming a digital deed serves a sole purpose in providing some granduitious vindication that — hey, you can do something with this grotesque amount of money, and no one will stop you, because why would they? Your carbon footprint tethered to blockchain transactions is actively testing the environmental limits of the Earth, and a single generated NFT of a monkey smoking a blunt is producing enough energy consumption to bake three pies (340 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy) — but, I mean, you got the funny monkey Twitter icon, dude.
