I’m beginning to think that there’s a competition, devised by some secret society, to see what’s the most ridiculous thing people will spend money on.

First there was bottled water. I can see arguments for it in a small amount of cases but, in most developed countries, it’s one of the biggest cons of all time. Let’s get some tap water, bottle it, and sell it at a 64900% markup! Yes, that’s the profit margin at average prices.

And that’s before we start on the environmental cost.

Then came cryptocurrencies. I’m not denying for a minute that people have bought these and done well. Indeed, some have done very well. Ultimately, however, you’re buying some data code that you store on your PC in the hope of selling on. It has no intrinsic value and isn’t backed by anything. All rather strange, in my opinion.

Now we have NFT’s and I just can’t get my head around the idea of these.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a non-fungible token is a kind of digital certificate. It’s a complicated piece of code that’s attached to a digital item to prove ownership. That it could be an image, a video clip, an audio recording or anything really.

Think of it as a kind of certificate, with security features, announcing you as the rightful owner of something. You can buy these or create them yourself.

And then you can sell them. For money. Lots of money.

An artist called Beeple has created a piece of art every day since May 2007. He put them together and sold the resulting image with it’s NFT for a cool $69 million. Yes, you read that correctly.

He’s sold other single images for up to $6.6 million each.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO and co-founder of Twitter, sold the first ever message on the platform for $2.9 million. Five simple words.

Now, here’s the thing. The tweet still exists on Twitter. It can be viewed, screenshot and shared by anyone. Ownership of an NFT doesn’t automatically confer any other rights to you.

Much in the same way that buying a piece of art from a gallery means that you own it and can display it, you can’t then reproduce or except any copyright from it.

That, is what I can’t get my head around. Ultimately, you’re purchasing a series of 1’s and 0’s.

It’s a burgeoning market and growing faster by the day. However, it’s one that I think I’ll refuse to dabble in… mostly because I don’t understand it. I’ve tried reading up on the concept but I got lost after blockchain and Cryptokittes. Seriously, you can buy and sell virtual pets?

The current top 10 highest value NFT’s can be seen here. Except it to be out of date by the time it’s posted!

If you’re the owner of an NFT, please let me know why I should be trying harder to understand and get involved. I’d love to know.