newscientist.com – By Chris Stokel-Walker – Non-fungible tokens promised to revolutionise the concept of ownership using the blockchain technology behind bitcoin, but the market seems to have all but collapsed.
The world went ape for digital drawings of primates in 2022. In 2023, we got bored.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, were touted as a revolutionary technology that would upend the concept of ownership – and, more broadly, the global economy. These digital identifiers of ownership are stored on the blockchain, the same technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but for most people the phrase calls to mind strange images sold at high prices.