The No-Tech Introduction to NFTs

Let’s skip the tech talk and go straight to how NFTs work in practice and impact our daily lives by enabling ownership of digital assets

NFT avatars and art from my own and others’ collections

Still trying to make sense of these NFTs you keep hearing about? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’m often asked about NFTs, what they are, how they work, and why they matter. You’ll find plenty of explanations of how the blockchain, smart contracts, and all that stuff works. You won’t get that from me though.

First of all because I’m not techy enough to explain it. Second of all, and most importantly, we won’t talk tech because it doesn’t matter. Sure, if you want to be a blockchain developer or create your own smart contracts, you need to understand all of it. For most of us though, it’s simply not important.

Instead, let’s talk about how NFTs impact our lives as regular consumers, the different kinds of NFTs that are out there, and how they work in practice.

First up, let’s set the stage by talking about the world before NFTs.

The world before NFTs

In the digital world, we’re used to files being easily copied and shared indefinitely. You can simply duplicate your text document, PDF, image, or video, and send it to as many…