NFTs have recently exploded in popularity, used by celebrities, artists, and others all over the world. The concept of NFTs is complex, but breaking it down makes it easier to learn. 

Cryptocurrency

 “I learned about crypto from being a part of the investment club and doing some outside research on my own.”  said Rathul Anand (‘23), secretary of the Investing Club.

To understand NFTs, it is crucial to learn about cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency used to complete transactions anonymously without government influence. An NFT on the other hand is a non-fungible token, meaning that you can gain ownership of a digital art piece and sell it. The Nyan Cat is an example of this, which was sold for $600,000. NFTs can be in the form of images, memes, GIFS, or even tweets. 

The Future of NFTs

“NFTs and cryptocurrency are pretty up in the air right now and relatively new. Right now they both are also pretty volatile so not as safe of an investment as stocks or bonds. We can only wait and see what the future holds,” said Anand.

It’s hard to say whether or not NFTs will be the future for art and collectables. Due to the fact the investment is not fully developed, there are many downsides.

“Some of the downsides about NFTs are the fact that it doesn’t have any value like a US dollar, which is backed by the government. NFTs and cryptocurrency don’t have an institution backing them so they don’t have any physical value, just the value created by others, so that could be a bit risky,” said Anand. 

Because NFTs and cryptocurrency could be the future reality of our transactions and income, some believe learning it in schools may be necessary.

 “I have never heard of NFTs before and I think that’s partially because in schools we aren’t taught about cryptocurrency but I’m interested to know more about it. I know a bunch of celebrities are creating their own NFTs and selling them,” said Leila Brown (‘22).

Other students are quite skeptical about its success in the future.

“I know NFTs are when you assign value to these digital art pieces. For me, I think that’s weird because we are creating something that is valuable out of nothing. I understand you can exchange some of these NFTs for money but there are so many other things we can assign money and value to that aren’t digital,” said Jonah Wang (‘22).

Whether or not this new form of currency will stick, educating our society to be knowledgeable in popular forms of currency is important for furthering the advancement of this country.