A twitter account has just posted a profile picture worth USD 500,000. It’s set apart from a regular Twitter profile picture by the distinctive hexagon surrounding it. But how could a profile picture ever be worth USD 500,000? The answer lies in the new definition of luxury. For eons, luxury has meant exclusivity, the ownership of collectibles, and the enjoyment of finer things in life — a first-class ticket to New York, a penthouse in Paris, or a brand new Van Cleef & Arpels timepiece. But now, luxury has moved to the digital world, with ownership expressed through NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. In essence, an NFT denotes ownership of a one-off piece of digital property, such as artwork, trading cards, comic books, and more. This certificate of ownership is etched onto the blockchain, an indelible series of distributed ledgers that can’t be compromised. Once the preserve of innovators and early adopters, NFTs have now gone mainstream, with collectors piling in to acquire ownership of digital assets, and even regular consumers dabbling regularly in NFT art. The rise of the NFT and ownership of distributed assets is inextricably linked to the movement towards a decentralised Web 3.0, coupled with the rise of cryptocurrency and Decentralised Finance (DeFi). Twitter Gets Involved As NFTs enter public consciousness, social media platforms are jumping at the chance to innovate their offe...
