NFTs Explained: Market, Value, and the End of Material Chauvinism

In March 2021, during the NFT boom, Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sold 'Everydays: The First 5000 Days' for $69 million at a Christie's online auction, making it the sixth most expensive artwork ever. The sale brought NFTs to mainstream attention, alongside skepticism about the value of digital files. An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a certificate of ownership recorded on a blockchain, typically Ethereum, linked to a digital file. Buying an NFT does not grant commercial rights unless specified. Value is determined by community status, rarity, and speculation, not artistic merit. Collections like CryptoPunks (10,000 algorithmically generated pixel characters) have seen secondary market booms. Money laundering is a concern. The article argues that skepticism stems from 'material chauvinism'—the bias that tangible objects have more value than intangible ones. Digital objects have physical support in remote servers. Exclusivity remains a challenge: anyone can copy the digital file, but the blockchain certifies unique ownership. As people spend more time in virtual worlds, digital authenticity may surpass physical certificates.