A new insufferable era of the internet is dawning. Web3 has emerged as the catch-all term for anything blockchain, crypto or metaverse-related. Its inexorable entry into the public consciousness has been propelled by the celebrity enjoyed by tech moguls, and the myth that these innovations will catapult us into a utopia free of the tyranny of things like governments, central banks, social networks, brands or anything ‘centralised.’
In the collective mania of the crypto scene, there is one invention more futile, wasteful and logic defeating than the rest: non-fungible tokens (or NFTs). I was astonished to discover that ‘fungible’ is a real word, the etymology of which can be traced to medieval Latin: Fungi vice means to ‘serve in place of.’
