A couple of days
ago, the musician Grimes sold some animations
she made with her brother Mac on a website called Nifty
Gateway. Some were one-offs, while others were limited
editions of a few hundred – and all were snapped
up in about 20 minutes, with total takings of more than
US$6 million.
Despite the steep price tag, anybody
can watch or (with a simple right-click) save a copy of the
videos, which show a cherub ascending over Mars,
Earth,
and imaginary
landscapes. Rather than a copy of the files themselves,
the eager buyers received a special kind of tradable
certificate called a “non-fungible token” or NFT. But