NFTs are contemporary archival systems

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Fiat currency is fungible, a dollar is the same as any other. NFTs carry distinctive and irreplaceable data, which cannot be interchanged. Amongst this data is information about the provenance, authorship and ownership of the token. It is written into the blockchain forever, and cannot be tampered with. In this sense, the token archives itself at the moment of creation.

Archival theory tells us that effective archiving depends on principles like authenticity, provenance, original order, appraisal, and fixity.1 2 3 While blockchain technologies were not created as archives, they incidentally address many of these major concerns, by embedding key metadata in each record.

See also: Think Again; Protect your toaster from cyber-attack.

  1. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/archives-basics/archival-theory 

  2. https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/introduction-to-archives/a/2 

  3. https://libguides.uprm.edu/archival-practice/fundamental-principles