NFTs

The Rembrandt Heritage Foundation wants to open a virtual Rembrandt museum. To raise money for it, the foundation will sell 8,000 digital pieces of the Night Watch for 200 to 300 euros each in cryptocurrency. They are not just selling digital images of fragments of the masterpiece, but Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs - unique properties that cannot be copied. Ownership is also recorded in a database.

As far back as the late sixth century BC, the Greek philosopher Parmenides declared, “nothing comes from nothing.” In the digital era, every two or three years now, apparently unprecedented phenomena seem to come from nothing and yet appear to have the power to revolutionize the world and the law. A few years ago, it was Web 2.0, then Cloud Computing, Blockchain and Web 3.0.

The Metaverse can be understood as a parallel virtual world, where users can interact through their avatars and perform different activities. In this sense, within the Metaverse, users can create original content or share content that can be susceptible of being protected by copyright. 

Ahh, NFTs. I’m not a fan of art ownership through collectible tokens. There are just too many instances of art plagiarism. But according to Sandra Ro, CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council, things are just getting started in the world of NFTs, and it goes far beyond art. At this year’s TNW Conference, Ro shared an insider perspective of where we are with NFTs and where we’re going.

What is the metaverse? In the simplest of terms, it is a virtual space in which users are and will be able to interact and connect with each other in myriad ways – gaming, collaborating, shopping, and exploring – without leaving the comfort of their couch. Some of this functionality already exists in gaming platforms.

Will our favourite artists be able to live forever on the stage?

It was a technological feat that made history, wowed audiences, and brought a dead rapper back to life. In April 2012 at the Coachella festival in California, Tupac Shakur took to the stage with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. He’d been dead for 16 years, killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. But this was Tupac the hologram, foul-mouthed and lifelike, performing before a “shocked and then amazed” crowd.

John Lennon's eldest son Julian is selling several pieces of music history from his personal collection.

However, he will keep the physical items as each piece of memorabilia will be sold as a non-fungible token (NFT).

Items being auctioned include a black cape worn by his father in the film Help! and handwritten notes for The Beatles song Hey Jude.

NFTs have been touted as the digital answer to collectables, but critics have warned about risks in the market.

The abbreviation of ‘non-fungible token’ tops a shortlist also including pingdemic, climate anxiety and metaverse

In a year that has seen the musician Grimes sell a collection of digital artworks for almost $6m (£4.4m), and the original photo behind the 2005 Disaster Girl meme go for $473,000 (£354,000), Collins Dictionary has made NFT its word of the year.