Book Description

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have blossomed into an area of immense cultural, investment, and academic interest, and this groundswell of fascination with non-fungible digital tokenization has been accompanied by a variety of attitudes towards their function, purpose, and potential. Some advocates perceive NFTs to be revolutionary in character, reshaping notions of the construction and preservation of unique assets in the digital realm. At the same time, a notable number of skeptics and detractors view the NFT movement as a passing and overhyped fad at best, and a disingenuous ploy in the digital economy at its worst. Given the diversity of views that have emerged in a comparatively brief span, this book draws upon rich academic perspectives on NFTs from a variety of disciplines, including: computer science, cultural studies, mathematics, sociology, linguistics, mass communication, economics, and finance. The book teases out nuances in how NFTs can and should operate, while also pointing to the potential that these non-fungible assets wield in the digital sphere, along with countervailing arguments against their conceptual and functional salience, and perhaps some dangers that they pose. The book considers the longevity and viability of NFTs as sociocultural, technological, and economic phenomenon, while offering estimates of future paths that NFTs might take in each domain and weighs the opposing narratives and strikes balanced assessments of the legal, cultural, technological, economic, and political role of NFTs in modern society. With its panoramic display of analysis on NFTs, the book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers across a wide number of subjects.