Technological progress is not limited. It won’t slow down because some people are worried about the future. We should all pay attention to determine the best path for society in our own opinions, but even then, few of us can even enact change. Still, understanding these changes in human society is incredibly important.
Progress is far from a straight line, and the advancements are happening quicker than we can correct the path. One of the newest technologies that is changing the way we think about civilization is blockchain technology. Below is the difference in blockchain assets like cryptocurrency and NTFs, as well as the significance that they have in the wider culture.
Blockchain Ledgers
Blockchain is a distributed public ledger that is completely immutable, meaning no one can change it. This is a database that has a list of transactions, each of which is called a block. Now it is possible for people to mint, buy, sell, trade, and invest in intangible assets. These assets are minted as tokens to represent their rarity and value. This technology hasn’t just made it possible to verify and do business over digital assets, but it has also raised a lot of questions about the impact this will have on the global economy and human civilization at large.
Minting Tokens
To make a digital asset legitimate to sell, it needs to be minted. This means that a token is created from the digital file, document, or content. Minting occurs in a ledger and within a blockchain market. You also need to have a token wallet, which plenty of apps and companies provide. Minting tokens is essentially authenticating the asset as legitimate. Tokens come in two options, fungible and non-fungible respectively.
Fungible & Non-Fungible
Fungible tokens can be recreated. This means that they are not unique. There can be a certain amount of them created, but they are not unique. Famously, bitcoin has a cap on the number of coins that will ever exist. Cryptocurrency, in general, is minted as a fungible token that isn’t unique. Non-fungible tokens, on the other hand, are known colloquially as NTFs.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is encrypted currency created by minting fungible tokens in a blockchain ledger. Whether the coin is limited by number overall like Bitcoin or by the number per year like Ethereum, the amount of the coin available and the fluctuation of the cryptocurrency market itself determines how much the coin costs. Of course, the wider economy and financial markets have an impact on cryptocurrency, but what makes this form of currency truly unlike anything else is that it is completely deregulated.
Since, inherently blockchain ledgers are public and unregulated by governments and financial institutions, the powers that be struggled to find the best ways to regulate and control these currencies. It has proved to be very difficult. Some countries have banned Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency while others have floated the idea of creating their own. This is all still very much in the air. Only time will tell what happens to cryptocurrency on a wider global financial scale.
NFTs
Of course, NFTs are non-fungible to cryptocurrencies fungibility. When you are minting an NFT, you are creating something completely unique. This makes an odd and enticing opportunity to mint unique digital assets. This can be anything. It can be a song, an album, a photo, a movie, a gif, a meme, a set of data, anything that can be verified as unique. After the content has been authenticated by a ledger, you can mint the token, put it in your digital wallet, and sell it when you want. All the information is encrypted in the blockchain.
Blockchain technology is just beginning. It is one of the most interesting and society-altering advancements of recent years. However, it isn’t so radical if you really think about it. It is a simple technology, allowing civilians to do simple things. Governments and financial institutions don’t like it, but why would they?
Whether it’s Bitcoin worth millions of dollars or an NFT that is a joke worth nothing, what this technology implies is a lot more than you think it might. For now, tokens are not bound by any market, making their value sometimes arbitrary, but as the freedom of consumers come into play, who knows how blockchain will evolve to be the platform for the sale of digital assets.
