It’s easy to miss the storefront that is home to the “world’s first NFT vending machine” in Manhattan’s financial district. Squished between a sandwich shop and a tailor, the windows are bathed in pink neon light, with glowing letters that announce “NFT ATM.” When you walk through the entryway, you enter a tiny booth with the vending machine, filled with rows of little paper cartons, looking almost like cigarette packs. There are only two products: a “color” for $5.99 and a “party pigeon” for $420.69.
I was here to spend some of the Guardian’s money on an NFT, or non-fungible token. NFTs are based on a blockchain feature called the “smart contract,” which is kind of like a virtual vending machine. Send some of your crypto to a smart contract, and it’ll print a unique token – basically a digital receipt – that says you now own this cat pic. Anyone else can still right-click-save and share Mr Whiskers, but you’ll know, and anyone else looking at the blockchain will know, that the image is yours. Or so the logic goes.
