At the end of last week, Olle Saloranta Strandberg visited eXpression Umeå to talk about NFT, cryptocurrency and the blockchain. Every chair in the Black Box was occupied and questions from the participants were pouring in afterwards. If you missed the event, you can watch the broadcast again here.
An NFT is a token that has become known in the art world to represent the ownership of a digital work. But an NFT can be used in completely different contexts. It could just as easily tokenise a car, a home, an identity - in fact, just about anything.
When Olle Strandberg hosted the first edition of eX Talks (a concept where narrower topics are discussed in a shorter format), it was clear that many people wanted to know more about this mythical subject.
Olle gave a broad picture of the NFT but spoke mainly from his perspective - that is, art. The ambition was to challenge common explanatory models and find new angles of approach. But initially, a common comparison was given on what can be considered interchangeable and what is not.
If I lend my car to one person and that person comes back with another car, there may be some confusion, maybe irritation or I may be very happy. But, at least it's not the same car I left. I think my car has a different value, affection value or some other value. It is "non-fungeble". On the other hand, if I lend a twenty-crown note and get back two tens, there is a "fungibility", says Olle Strandberg from Saloranta & De Vylder.
Non-fungeble token (NFT) means "non-exchangeable token". Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be exchanged for something else of equal value. Being non-fungible simply means that something cannot be exchanged - it is unique.
The strength is the technology behind it: blockchain. Which in principle makes it impossible to modify or copy - in this case - a certificate of ownership.
However, the development of blockchains has long received both praise and criticism.
A common criticism is that large amounts of computing power are required to carry out the encrypted transactions, which are verified by sophisticated mathematical algorithms. However, according to Olle, the field is evolving and there are already new methods of encryption that are less energy-intensive. The Etherium blockchain, often associated with NFT, is currently undergoing such a technological change.
But the exploration and use of the technology has only just begun. The benefits of what the technology can achieve when used properly have, according to Olle and many like him, only been touched upon. Some such interesting art-related projects were presented during Olle's talk.
The conversation afterwards was long. Many sat and discussed as the streaming company rolled up the last cords.
I don't think we've finished talking about NFT, blockchains and cryptocurrency.
