One thing I've only poked at lightly, as I have started messing about on the blockchain, are dApps -- most specifically tokens and collectibles. I want to dive deeper, because it's interesting AF.
There's a way in which the tangible/material and the not-as-much-so/abstract/digital intersect here, that's unprecedented and wildly interesting (and profitable, if that's your thing).
It's an economy literally built on the idea of a collection of things given value by scarcity and the desire of other people to add to their own collection. Like any collectible, ever -- toys, games, coins, trading cards, or any niche item of interest to any good geek.
Only, in this case: the items may or may not "exist" in meatspace reality and, with a little technical knowhow and a bit of style, utterly democratized (in that me, or you, or you, or you, as opposed to a toy company with licensing rights, for example, to create an action figure) could create a collectible that can have some value.
But let me back up for a second. I need to define my terms.
And gods help us, the best definition for what I'm talking about, the non-fungible token is from Wikipedia:
"A non-fungible token (NFT), also known as a nifty, is a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique; non-fungible tokens are thus not mutually interchangeable by their individual specification."
Breaking that down, it becomes clear.
-"special type of cryptographic token": it's a (usually, but not always digital) asset or commodity which lives on the blockchain, yanno, like cryptocurrency, and, in its way, is treated similarly to cryptocurrency in that you need some kind of wallet or receptacle, which can communicate with ledgers on the blockchain, in order to buy, trade, or store it.
-"which represents something unique": it's an asset unlike other assets, somehow. It's rare, singular. Collectible!
-"not mutually interchangeable by their individual specification": this asset is not immediately equal to others of the same type, which should make immediate sense to collectors. One baseball card is not the same as any other random baseball card, simply because they are both baseball cards. That's the non-fungible in non-fungible.
Things that are fungible are interchangeable based on what they are; the content is irrelevant. For example, 1 US dollar is always equal to any other (whole, undamaged, non-counterfeit) 1 US dollar. They are fungible.
Unless one specific US dollar becomes "special," somehow...it's signed by a celebrity. It was involved in some notorious crime. It's painted on by a famous artist. Something gives that specific dollar more/different value because that dollar has now become valuable (than just its fiat, fungible worth) to certain people for whatever reason. That US dollar jumps from fungible to non-fungible.
Here's the first really interesting part. Non-fungible tokens, for the most part, are DIGITAL. Like, you can't hold and fondle them in real life. They're FILES of data! Or images. Or skins, buckets of resources, mods, etc., in games.
Sometimes, they're material objects. Limited run items, like numbered coins which represent actual cryptocurrencies are an example.
But, for the most part, in our blockchain universe, these are abstract. You can't really pet your cryptokitties or motorboat your cryptotitties.
But. Somehow. We still want them.
We saw (should have seen) some of this coming way back in Second Life (remember???) and other games that created in-game currencies that were bought and sold using "actual" fiat currency, and in games which allowed you to build and sell items.
Right?
Here's the thing, though. Before (in the beforetimes, lol), there was no way to prove ownership or uniqueness of any particular digital item (watermarks, for example, in digital art. Nice idea. Do nothing for pirating). But a non-fungible token has an entry on the blockchain's ledger, and in the same way we can't doublespend cryptocurrency, can prove actions made on the blockchain, and so on, non-fungible tokens also interact with the blockchain in the same way, protecting the creator of the non-fungible and the owner of the non-fungible.
I can't sell one pair of cryptotitties more than once. I can't buy a singular cryptokitty more than once. Any attempt at fraud is (hypothetically) easy to prove by checking ledger action.
And, in the same way, you can verify authenticity.
If anyone else in the world possibly wants that singular asset, then, badda bing. It has value. Magically (OK, not really. Economics is not magic. But still.)
Very cool for games. But the implications for artists and for publishing is potentially staggering. And the fact that, like I said, anyone with some time, energy, and ideas could create a non-fungible token is cream on the cake.
Mmm, cake. Feel free to leave me a comment. And do let me know your thoughts and fave non-fungibles.