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Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have become the new in thing that creatives are using to mint millions from blockchain technology.
The sale of NFT assets has roused the interest of many people, not exactly to buy them, but to understand them. Meme creators, digital artists, musicians and other classes that surf the internet have already made millions from the sale of these tokens.
In September last year, Benyamin Ahmed, a 12-year-old British Pakistani boy made about Sh44 million ($400,000) after launching his very own NFT project, Weird Whales. The young programmer wrapped up the project featuring 3,350 programmatically-generated pixel whales during school holidays and made a small fortune after his artwork went viral on Twitter.
This is a trend that Kenyans have also jumped on. Activist Boniface Mwangi took to Twitter to celebrate his son, Nate, who had successfully made his first NFT. The piece of art is titled #RockySwordmaster.
This is an impressive gesture as young Kenyans continue learning about the technology.
“The more people know about NFTs in Kenya the more likely more youngsters will create NFTs and sell them,” said Mwangi, encouraging other youngsters to embrace the craft.
The first notable NFT from Kenya was recorded when celebrated athlete, Eliud Kipchoge launched his own set of NFTs. His two set of NFTs included the digital representations of his career milestone.
The first piece for the NFTs was sold for 14.8837 in Ethereum currency, equivalent to Sh3.3 million at the time. The piece highlighted his 2019 moment when he put the INEOs world record running a full marathon under the two-hour mark. His second set sold for 3.1 in Ethereum currency, equivalent to Sh 691,600 then.
NFTs can be in form of files such as art, audio, videos, items in video games and other forms of creative work. However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible as it means it has unique properties so it cannot be interchanged with something else.
