Why a JPG file of the Mona Lisa is not an NFT

As recently as a few years ago, most people had never heard of an NFT. This year their trading volume is expected to reach USD 35 billion. This is a rapid development - yet another example of how fast technology can progress in the 21st century. But what exactly is a Non-Fungible Token and why does it create such excitement in the cryptocurrency world? There is no shortage of witty remarks criticizing the idea of creating a token to represent a picture that can be digitally copied by just about anyone. But there is much more to the world of NFTs than just copying and pasting. Let me explain why and what that means for the future of business.

Nearly every third Greek (29%) currently owns some kind of cryptocurrency, with 12% owning one at some point in the past - according to the recent PayPal survey on the state of e-commerce. This statistic seems to indicate that more than 2 in 5 Greeks have interacted with the digital assets and it's the highest number among the surveyed nations which shows that the local consumers are clearly very interested in the cryptocurrency.

This is a space that is going to get only larger, but - as with every new technology - it can also be very confusing. At first, cryptocurrencies were a misunderstood innovation, but they found a better understanding when they were compared to existing ideas, such as cross-border transfers. However, many users struggle to find a similar comparison for NFTs. Although many people are hearing about NFTs, not many can understand what exactly this is, where it comes from and what kind of future it can provide, and what difference there is between an NFT and a simple JPG of the Mona Lisa downloaded from Wikipedia. That is something I am going to try to expand on in this article.

How much...