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Understanding Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Overview, Opportunities, and

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 Understanding Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs):
Overview, Opportunities, and Challenges

Ahmad A. Rabaa’i,a) Xiaodi Zhu,b) and J.D

Jayaramanc)

Department of Finance, New Jersey City University, New Jersey, United States
a)
Corresponding author: arabaai@njcu.edu
b)
Electronic mail: xzhu@njcu.edu
c)
Electronic mail: jjayaraman@njcu.edu

Abstract. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have received a great deal of media attention and are gaining popularity. NFTs are
fledgling, unique, and blockchain-enabled cryptographic digital assets that represent objects such as artworks, music,
collectibles, and in-game items. NFTs allow for new ways to consolidate, manage, code, transfer, and store digital materials.
Despite the significant potential impact on present decentralized marketplaces and future commercial opportunities,
research on NFTs is relatively limited. This paper seeks to contribute to the scholarly literature on NFTs by establishing a
conceptual understanding of NFTs, their applications in various industries, and their primary adoption challenges. The
paper also reviews the primary technological components of NFTs and explains how blockchain and smart contract
technologies contribute to the NFT’s uniqueness. Fruitful future research directions are also discussed in this paper to
advance NFTs scholarly literature.

Keywords: Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Digital Assets, Tokens

INTRODUCTION

Technological innovations have revolutionized our society and the way we value things [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Since
2021, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained significant traction, attracting significant interest from both the
industrial and scientific communities [8, 9, 10]. NFTs are the most recent in a long line of creative, inventive, and
tradeable digital assets enabled by a blockchain technology [8]. As defined by [11], an NFT is “a unit of data stored
on a blockchain that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable, while offering a unique
digital certificate of ownership for the NFT”. NFTs are known as “non-fungible”, because the token represents
something distinct that cannot be replaced for other NFTs [9]. NFTs are an example of how a technological invention
is altering the concept of property ownership, as they provide options for new sorts of ownership while restricting
possession and control [12]. That is, NFTs are emerging digital phenomena that combines innovative ways of tying
content creation to blockchain applications to offer a new way of verifying, for example, artworks, footage or videos
of sporting events [13].
NFTs were first generated in 2014, combining art and technology [14]. The goal of developing such NFTs was to
let artists better govern and protect their work by demonstrating authenticity and ownership on a blockchain [15]. The
debut of two projects, CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties, in 2017 marked a significant milestone in NFTs [16, 17]. Both
projects, CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties, are deployed on the Ethereum blockchain to digitally store, preserve, and
authenticate ownership [14]. As a nod to the early days of Bitcoin’s Cypherpunks, the Cryptopunks project laid the
groundwork for what we now know as NFTs [17]. The CryptoPunks project has developed over 10,000 unique
automatically generated digital characters, collectible punks (6039 males and 3840 females) [10]. Three Cryptopunks
were sold at $11.8, $7.6, and $7.6 million dollars, respectively [11]. The CryptoKitties project is a collection of graphic
paintings depicting virtual cats that are utilized in a blockchain game that allows players to buy, breed, and sell them
on Ethereum [11]. These rare cats are auctioned off at astronomical prices, with the highest price reaching over 999
ETH (equally 3M USD) [10]. In March 2021, an NFT artwork, ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’, of the infamous
digital artist Beeple, was sold at Christie’s for over $69 million [18]. This was followed by the release of NBA Top
Shot Moments, a virtual trading card/highlight clips, which enabled fans to acquire officially-licensed short videos of
top NBA moments [9]. In 2021, NBA Top Shot popularity surged due to headline-grabbing transactions such as the
LeBron James highlight [14]. According to NFT Market Quarterly Report Q1-2022 [19], the total volume of NFT
sales in Q1 of 2022 was almost $16.5 billion compared to $14.5 billion in Q4 of 2021.
Despite the fact that NFTs have a major potential impact on today’s decentralized markets and future economic
opportunities, scholarly research on NFTs is still limited [9, 10, 13]. Currently, research on NFTs focusses on security
aspects, protocols and standards [10], environmental impacts [12], copyrights and intellectual property issues [20],
market trends [11], stakeholders and ecosystem [13], specific NFT collections, such as CryptoKitties [21], or single
NFT market place, such as Decentraland [22] and NBA Top Shot [23], the pricing of NFTs and their relationship with
cryptocurrencies [24], and the implications that NFTs have on a specific industry, such as artwork [25], advertising
and marketing [26], sports management [14], and surgery [27]. Given the rapid growth of NFTs in different industries,
this paper aims to contribute to the scholarly literature on NFTs by establishing a conceptual understanding of NFTs,
their applications in various industries, and their primary adoption challenges. The paper also reviews the primary
technological components of NFTs and explains how blockchain and smart contract technologies contribute to the
NFT’s uniqueness.
This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of NFTs. Section 3 discusses the main
technological components behind NFTs, followed by an overview of the NFTs’ marketplace in Section 4. Different
NFTs’ use-cases are presented in Section 5. Section 6 discusses the main challenges surrounding the adoption of
NFTs. The paper concludes in Section 7 with future research directions.

OVERVIEW OF NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFTS)

To better understand NFTs, it is important to distinguish between non-fungible and fungible token or asset.
Fungibility refers to “the equivalence and distinguishability or uniqueness of an object (or lack thereof)” [14]. Fungible
tokens, which are the most common in the blockchain realm, are tokens that have the same qualities as any other and
can thus be readily replaced by any other token with the same features [17]. Fungible tokens, such as cryptocurrencies,
equities, and commodities, are interchangeable and can be used in typical economic transactions. A $100 bill, for
example, is equal to any other $50 note; they are simply two pieces of paper with the same value; also, a $100 bill can
be divided into five $20 bills, ten $10 bills, or any other combination of currencies with a total value of $100 [14].
That is, a fungible token may be exchanged for another of the same kind [28]. NFTs, however, cannot be traded in a
like-for-like fashion such as fungible cryptocurrencies or traditional currencies [24].
According to [14], NFTs “represent a reconceptualization of scarcity in an era of digitalization, allowing digital
content to be simultaneously both rare and abundant”. NFTs are fledgling, unique, and blockchain-enabled
cryptographic digital assets that represent objects such as artworks, music, collectibles, and in-game items [8]. NFTs
enable innovative mechanisms to consolidate, manage, transfer, code, and store digital assets [13]. NFTs are known
as “non-fungible”, because the token represents something distinct that cannot be exchanged for other NFTs [9]. NFTs
are coded, or ‘minted’, on a blockchain, which offers a digital certificate of ownership for a specific digital asset [8],
and can readily be viewed by anyone [17]. As such, when someone “mints” their digital asset, they essentially create
a certificate (i.e., a smart contract) that exists on the blockchain (such as Ethereum), which prevents its reproduction
or deletion [9], and allows them to easily prove the existence and ownership of digital assets such as videos, images,
arts, event tickets, and so on [10]. While a digital asset may be part of a token, that is on the blockchain, it is often
only the token that is on the blockchain, which can serve as a certificate of ownership or provenance; especially if the
digital asset is too large [9].
Tokens are defined as “digitally scarce units of value the properties and circulation of which are prescribed via
computer code” [29]. The process of transforming a physical or virtual asset into a digital representation (a token) that
can be traded is known as tokenization [14]. [30] stated that “tokenization represents a form of digitalization of value
and, just like the Internet enabled free and fast circulation of digitized information, the blockchain is allowing the
“almost free” and borderless flow of digitized value”. Tokens are a type of computer code that serves as a digital
representation (of something) on the blockchain. This digital representation can comprise the digital object itself, its
digital fingerprint (or so-called hash), and the metadata, which both describes the tokenized object’s chosen attributes
and serves as a pointer to the tokenized real-world object [10, 31].
 Tokens are minted to specify the smart contract, the rules that govern it, the monetary policy, and the characteristics
of the token that it issues. Token standards are used to ensure that tokens are consistent and compatible across different
blockchains [10]. Ethereum has grown in prominence over time, and most NFTs are currently issued on this blockchain
[32]. The abbreviation ‘ERC’ (Ethereum Request for Comments) is used to specify Ethereum token standards. Below
are the main token standards, which will have a great impact on the ongoing NFT schemes according to [10].
ERC-20 introduces the notion of fungible tokens, which can be issued on Ethereum after certain conditions are
met [10]. ERC-20 tokens are smart contracts that offer a lot of functionality and flexibility. ERC-20 tokens work
similarly to traditional cryptocurrencies, yet they are still tokens. ERC-20 is distinct from other cryptocurrency
standards in that it is linked to Ethereum and may only be utilized within that network [32]. This standard makes all
tokens the same (in terms of both type and value) [10]. That is, every token is equal to every other token.
ERC-721 is the most widely used token standard; it is where it all began [33]. This standard introduces a non-
fungible token standard [10,31]. It is used for single NFTs, in other words, it generates non-fungible tokens for single
assets. The token has a lot of meta-data and can keep track of all transactions. Every NFT in this standard has a tokenId
address that is unique, cannot be deleted or duplicated, and can be priced separately [31, 33]. It's used to 1) register
copyright ownership, such as an artist’s digital art production, and 2) facilitate royalty payments linked with each
resale of the NFT, because it can keep track of transaction history [32].
ERC-1155 is an Ethereum blockchain universal token standard that works with both fungible and non-fungible
tokens [10]. Using this standard, users can use the same tokenId and smart contract to register fungible (ERC-20) and
non-fungible (ERC-721) tokens. This standard was created in 2018 for games, where fungible tokens may represent
in-game collectibles and exchangeable assets, while non-fungible items might represent in-game collectibles [33]. The
capacity of ERC-1155 to transfer many assets in a single transaction gives it an advantage over ERC-721 and ERC-
20, allowing for significant network congestion reduction and cheaper transaction fees (known as gas prices) [32].
However, because the assets utilized in an ERC-1155 smart contract have their own transaction histories that are
unrelated to ERC-1155, this standard cannot store transaction history [32].
As NFTs have become high-valuable rare assets with significant sentiment value, it is vital to understand how
NFTs are being stored. NFTs are either minted to hold the digital content file or to hold a reference to the digital
content [9]. Blockchain-based storage is decentralized, and unlike centralized digital asset storage, it is far more secure
and gives property owners complete control over their digital assets [34]. Yet, because the blockchain’s storage space
is restricted, the file size allowed can be quite small [10,31]. As a result, storing NFTs on the blockchain directly is
expensive. Furthermore, once your digital asset is online, it is susceptible to hacker attempts [34]. Offline cold-storage
wallets like Ledger or Trezor are the most safe and recommended means to store NFTs [35]. In this method, NFTs are
saved on a hardware that is not connected to the internet, making them less vulnerable to illegal access, cyber-attacks,
and other weaknesses that plague data stored on the internet [34].

NFTS’ TECHNOLOGY
The key technological components of NFTs are discussed in this section. These elements are the cornerstones of
a fully effective NFT scheme [10].
Blockchain
Blockchain technology was first introduced in the Bitcoin application by Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2008, and it has
subsequently been employed in a variety of areas [36]. Blockchain is defined as a “decentralized, transactional
database technology that facilitates validated, tamper-resistant transactions that are consistent across a large number
of network participants called nodes” [37]. Through its own distributed nodes, a blockchain provides innovative
technical solutions, without relying on a third party, to handle network data storage, verification, transmission, and
communication [38]. Participants in a blockchain can reach consensus and reliably transmit trust and value at a low
cost due to the blockchain’s smart mathematical cryptography and distributed algorithm [45].
Blockchain is a digital ledger system that maintains the integrity of a collection of registers and records [43]. When
the recorded transactions are accepted, the blockchain uses a global distributed digital network that does not allow
modifications or amendments [43]. This constraint is enforced through the use of an immutable cryptographic
signature known as a hash function, which ensures that each block has its own unique fingerprint generated by a
mathematical formula [43]. This means that if one block in a chain was modified, it would be obvious that it had been
tampered with [39]. The development of blockchain technology can be generally classified into three stages: The
application of digital currency in the 1.0 stage, the application of smart contracts in the 2.0 stage, and the
programmable blockchain 3.0 stage [40]. Currently, blockchain technology is in its second stage of development, with
the majority of blockchain applications being small-scale local apps with few substantial industry- or eco-level
applications [38]. However, blockchain technology’s distinct characteristics have begun to expand across a variety of
industries [41] including payments, elections, power, supply chain, property, health, food, waste management, identity
management, collectibles, legal contracts, and many others [42].
Smart Contracts
Since the launch of Ethereum-based blockchain technology, smart contracts have grown in popularity [38]. A
smart contract is defined as a “computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract” [43]. Smart
contracts can help in the development and deployment of distributed business applications [44]. A smart contract is a
self-executing and self-verifying contract between different parties that is written directly into the system and
distributed over the blockchain network without the need for human intervention [42]. When certain conditions are
met, the terms and conditions included in smart contracts will be automatically enforced [38]. As a result, in a no-trust
contracting context, they can build trust among parties [45]. [46] stated that “smart contracts can store data objects
and define operations on the data, enabling the development of DApps to interact with blockchains and provide
seamless services to the application users”. When compared with traditional contracts, smart contracts, according to
[44], have the advantages of lowering transaction risk, lowering management and service costs, and boosting business
process efficiency because they are often deployed on and protected by blockchain. Self-containment, fraud resistance,
integrity, non-physicality, and disintermediation are additional characteristics of smart contracts [42]. When compared
to traditional software systems, these characteristics improved smart contracts functionality, uniformity, efficacy,
accountability, auditability, and correctness [47].

THE NFTS MARKETPLACE

As previously stated, minting NFT is the process by which a digital asset is added to the Blockchain [48]. NFTs
are tokens that are “minted” after they are produced [20]. That is, an NFT begins with the registration of ownership
of a digital asset on a blockchain, most commonly Ethereum. After that, the digital asset can be sold, with ownership
changes and the bitcoin payment received being recorded on the blockchain [10, 20, 47]. The NFT market organizes
items into collections, which are groups of NFTs that share some common characteristics. Collections can take many
forms, from packs of collectible cards to selections of artworks to virtual locations in online games [11].
The NFT market grew at an exponential rate in 2021. This growth was attributed to a number of high-profile NFT
sales as well as the debut of numerous new projects [48]. An NFT artwork, ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’, of the
prominent digital artist Beeple, sold at Christie’s for over $69million [18]. Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter) sold the first
tweet ever for $2.9 million [49], and The New York Times sold an NFT of an article for US$560,000 [50]. According
to NFT Market Quarterly Report Q1-2022 [19], the total volume of NFT sales in Q1 of 2022 was almost $16.5 billion
compared to $14.5 billion in Q4 of 2021. Furthermore, the total number of sales was 7,447,473 with 1,172,235 buyers
and 816,027 sellers. Finally, the total profit (during resell) was approximately $3.33 billion with an average price of
$1,057.
There are a variety of online marketplaces that offer a venue for purchasing and selling NFTs. OpenSea, for
example, is the largest marketplace for digital assets, according to [51], with over 200 categories of items offered.
Sports NFTs, virtual worlds, trading cards, decentralized domain names, utility NFTs, digital art, digital collectibles,
and more can all be traded on the platform. OpenSea has over 1 million active users as of the first quarter of 2022. On
the second day of 2022, the platform made $243 million in sales. According to latest OpenSea figures, the average
daily trading volume of this major marketplace has exceeded $260 million so far in 2022, with a monthly sales volume
of $2 billion recorded in January 2022. Another example is Decentraland, a metaverse-style NFT marketplace that
allows users to buy and sell land parcels, wearables, and unique names, transfer Decentraland assets to another user,
and explore the globe via a map to see who owns what, existing wearables, and claimed avatar identities [52]. Between
December 2020 and December 2021, Decentraland’s city grew by 3,300%. MANA, Decentraland’s token, has
reflected this rise. Its value has increased by more than 4,100% in the last year. The project’s fully diluted market cap
is $6.5 billion at the time of writing [53]. Also, thousands of NBA fans from around the world flocked to NBA Top
Shot, an NFT trading platform for buying and selling digital short clips of NBA highlights. Over 7.6 million great shot
moments have been collected in this marketplace, allowing newcomers, veterans, and rising stars to join the roster
[10].

NFTS’ USE-CASES
NFTs are one-of-a-kind tokens that can be traded just like real-world items [14]. The rising infrastructure and
possibility for innovation in the field of NFTs can foster their adoption in a variety of industries [9]. NFTs can give
multiple stakeholders a new means to develop, commoditize, verify, share, and store digital content, which will benefit
many segments of the ecosystem [13]. They can be used to generate and represent digital artwork and collectibles, or
they can be used to establish a real-estate database that uses electronic deeds for ownership that are handed between
owners with minimal to no transaction costs. While non-physical art is often connected with NFTs, there are various
other forms of NFTs, including:
Collectibles: The very first sort of NFTs to be released [54]. Cryptokitties, unique digital kittens that became
popular among collectors in 2017, were the first instance of NFTs being considered as collectibles [55]. People can
trade virtual versions of trading cards on the market and keep them just like keeping the real ones [56]. There are other
collectibles on the market right now, like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cryptopunks, Cat Colony, and Meebits.
Artworks: The most popular and sold NFTs. NFT artworks are a one-of-a-kind combination of technology and
imagination [55]. These are mostly digital artworks that come with a public certificate of authenticity and ownership
from the digital ledger where they are kept [54]. These NFTs were created as a way for artists to sell their best works
online as if they were actual items [56].
Sports Memorabilia: Sports Memorabilia is the most popular NFT categories, with the NBA Top Shot being the
most well-known NFT in this category [54]. These are short videos of historic sporting events, such as game-changing
slam dunks or game-changing touchdowns [56]. The LeBron James Dunk, Throwdowns (Series), a clip showing
Lakers player LeBron James dunking the ball, is one of the most well-known NFTs in this category. It was one of the
most expensive Sports Memorabilia NFTs ever, selling for nearly $380,000 [54].
Gaming: In the gaming industry, the most prevalent types of non-fungible tokens are in-game items, which provide
the capability of ownership records for in-game items, allowing in-game economies to thrive [57]. NFT has piqued
the interest of game designers, who are making extensive use of it [55]. The game Axie Infinity was the first NFT
video game asset, and games like CryptoKitties, Gods Unchained, and Sorare quickly gained popularity among video
game players [54].
Other use-cases of NFTs include event ticketing, domain names and identity [57], memes and real world assets
[55], music, media, fashion, virtual land and miscellaneous online items [54]. Beyond these use-cases, the future of
NFTs hold different opportunities to disrupt various industries, such as the hospitality industry [58], advertising and
marketing [26], entrepreneurship [8], financial markets [59], surgery and medicine [27], and intellectual property and
patents, voting, supply chain [60].

NFTS’ CHALLENGES
As the popularity of NFTs develops, and trading NFTs becomes accessible to anybody with an internet connection
[9], new challenges emerge. The most pressing challenges are the ambiguities around legal rights, economic
incentives, and the blockchain technology’s environmental impact [61]. This section will explore these challenges.
First, while it is argued that “NFTs might be able to democratize art” [62], with some exceptions, there is no
evidence that NFTs, when compared to other forms of online monetization, improve artists’ struggles to make a living
[63]. Second, as the digital world has grown, so has the volume of NFT transactions, resulting in a significant increase
in cyber security and fraud risk [20]. NFT exchanges and wallets are the most common targets of cyberattacks against
NFTs [64]. Unlike NFTs, controlled exchanges and marketplaces such as OpenSea do not employ blockchain
technology [65]. As a result, they are unable to take advantage of decentralized technology such as peer review systems
for detecting and resolving issues [64]. Thus, they are vulnerable to security weaknesses, hacks, and breaches.
Third, customers are liable for paying mining costs, known as “gas fees”, in addition to the NFT price when
purchasing NFTs [66]. The gas fee is paid to the miners that validate blockchain transactions, and it is sent as the
transaction price by the sender to the miner’s address [67]. According to [66], depending on NFT traffic and time of
day, these “gas fees” can often outweigh the cost of the NFT, creating significant transaction barriers. Fourth, because
NFT tokens are created, issued, and traded on the public blockchain, they face the same environmental challenges as
other blockchain-based projects [12, 17]. Since most NFTs are based on proof-of-work blockchains, they require a
significant amount of energy to maintain them, which has been criticized due to their environmental impact [61]. As
a result, a number of artists who had previously embraced NFTs as a means of showing and selling their work have
decided to take a step back, cancel scheduled artworks, or investigate more sustainable options. [17]. Therefore, rising
concerns about energy consumption and environmental implications associated with NFTs and proof-of-work
blockchains create additional barriers to NFT adoption [66].
Fifth, concerns related to privacy. The majority of NFT transactions are conducted on the Ethereum blockchain,
which provides pseudo-anonymity rather than complete anonymity [20]. In the NFT system, the state information and
instruction code in smart contracts are fully transparent, and any state and its changes are visible to anyone [10]. Sixth,
even in the most evolved legal systems, there is nothing that the law can do to assert ownership of a digital asset
utilizing NFTs [66]. In fact, just because you possess the NFT, doesn’t mean you can enforce that ownership over the
digital asset represented by the NFT [66]. Finally, intellectual property rights challenges. Currently, when an NFT is
purchased, the owner simply receives the rights to use it, not the intellectual property rights [20]. For instance, if an
owner buys a digital art or collectible NFT, in most cases, (s)he is only buying the right to display a piece of digital
art linked to the NFT, while the copyright of the artwork remains with the artist, unless the copyright is explicitly
specified by including a copyright transfer within the underlying asset represented by the NFT [66]. In most
circumstances, this also means that the artist retains intellectual property rights [17].

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

The NFTs sector is rapidly expanding and the quantity of NFTs currently in circulation has increased rapidly across
various sectors. While still in its early phases of acceptance, NFT development has been defined by advancing beyond
legacy stages and into exploration, with continued progress toward exploitation [13]. This paper has discussed NFTs,
provided different examples of their current and future use, and identified various opportunities and challenges for
NFTs’ stakeholders. The emerging nature of NFTs opens different avenues of future research. First, the NFT
phenomenon could be further explained using different established technology adoption theories such as the Unified
Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model and innovation resistance theory (IRT). Second, future
research should empirically investigate the viability of NFT as a new business model. Third, future research should
investigate and address the aforementioned challenges of NFTs. Finally, future studies should delve deeper into the
NFT ecosystem, its players, and their interconnections.

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