A non-fungible token is simply a unique digital asset. Assets like bitcoin are fungible, meaning that all bitcoins are the same and completely interchangeable. An example of a non-fungible the token would be a piece of art. I can have two of the exact same pieces of digital art but each one is entirely unique. The example below shows two NFTs from the crypto-artist Josie. Her two pieces, might look the same but are entirely unique to the blockchain. Now, where did this technological phenomenon come from? The history of NFTs and the man who first created one, Kevin McCoy, began on May 3rd, 2014. He minted his non-fungible token “Quantum," way before the crypto art market exploded. Quantum is a pixelated image of an octagon filled with denoting circles, arcs or other shapes which share the same center, with larger shapes surrounding smaller ones and hypnotically pulsing in fluorescent hues. As of today, the one-of-a-kind “Quantum” art piece is on sale for seven million dollars.

1. History of Non fungible token
In Brief:
A non-fungible token is simply a unique digital asset. Assets like bitcoin are fungible, meaning
that all bitcoins are the same and completely interchangeable. An example of a non-fungible
token would be a piece of art. I can have two of the exact same pieces of digital art but each
one is entirely unique. The example below shows two NFTs from the crypto-artist Josie. Her two
pieces, might look the same but are entirely unique to the blockchain.
Creation:
Now where did this technological phenomenon come from? The history of NFTs and the man
who first created one, Kevin McCoy, began on May 3rd, 2014. He minted his non-fungible token
“Quantum," way before the crypto art market exploded.
Quantum is a pixelated image of an octagon filled with denoting circles, arcs or other shapes
which share the same center, with larger shapes surrounding smaller ones and hypnotically
pulsing in fluorescent hues. As of today, the one of a kind “Quantum” art piece is on sale for
seven million dollars.

3. McCoy is exceptional. He and his wife Jennifer have established themselves over many years
as first-rate digital artists. "The NFT phenomenon is deeply a part of the art world," says McCoy.
"It emerged from the long history of artists engaging with creative technology." Their work has
historically been bought by enthusiastic art collectors, however — rather than entering into
public bidding wars, McCoy prefers to sell at a gallery or one on one. Their work "Every Shot,
Every Episode" is on display today and can be viewed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Anyone, from artists to entrepreneurs, art advocates, corporations, authors, videographers,
social media personalities, and even average Joes and Joannas, can create an NFT. No
experience is necessary, and as long as someone can prove they created or legally own the
content, they can mint an NFT. To get started on Portion, check out this step-by-step guide on
how to create an NFT via either Ethereum or Palm.
Colored Coins
This journey is a long story with many people, artists, and projects involved, so let’s dive in.
Colored coins:
The idea of NFTs emerged from what is called a “colored coin”, initially issued on the Bitcoin
blockchain in 2012-2013. Colored coins are tokens that represent real-world assets on the
blockchain and can be used to prove ownership of any asset, from precious metals to cars to
real estate, even equities, and bonds. Although not as sophisticated, this original idea was to
use the Bitcoin blockchain for assets like digital collectibles, coupons, property, company
shares, and more. They were described as new technology and gave raw possibilities for the
future prospects of utilization.
● Counterparty:
In 2014 Robert Dermody, Adam Krellenstein, and Evan Wagner founded Counterparty, a peer-
to-peer financial platform and distributed, open-source internet protocol built on the Bitcoin
blockchain. Counterparty allowed asset creation and had a decentralized exchange, thus
providing a way for users to create their own tradable currencies. It had numerous ideas and
opportunities, including meme trading without counterfeit issues.
Counterparty partnered up with the team creators of Spells of Genesis. The Spells of Genesis
game creators were not only pioneers for issuing in-game assets onto a blockchain via
Counterparty, but they were also among the first to launch an ICO. The creators helped fund the

4. development of Counterparty by introducing their own in-game currency called BitCrystals.
Trading Cards on Counterparty
In August 2016 new trends began to emerge. Counterparty teamed up with Force of Will, a
popular trading card game, and launched their cards on the Counterparty platform. Behind
Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic, Force of Will was the 4th ranked card game in North America
according to sales volume. Their entrance into the ecosystem, where they had no prior
blockchain or cryptocurrency experience before, signaled the value of putting such assets on a
blockchain.
● Rare Pepes on Counterparty:
In 2016, memes entered the blockchain. In October of 2016, memes started to make their way
onto the Counterparty platform. People started to add assets to a particular meme called “Rare
Pepes.” Rare Pepes are a meme featuring an interesting frog character that has acquired an
intense fanbase over the years. What started out to be a comic character named Pepe the Frog,
has now steadily become an internet sensation as one of the most popular memes. By early
2017, with Ethereum gaining prominence, Rare Pepes started to be traded there as well.
Portion's Founder, Jason Rosenstein, along with Louis Parker, ran the first live Rare Pepe
auction which was held at the inaugural Rare Digital Art Festival. CryptoArt was born with the
Rare Pepe Wallet and it was the first time creators around the world could submit and sell their
own artwork. It was also the first time digital art could have intrinsic value. As Rare Pepes
trading picked up, John Watkinson and Matt Hall, the creators of Larva Labs, created unique
characters generated on the Ethereum blockchain. No two characters would be the same and
they would be limited to 10,000. The project name,Cryptopunks, was referenced to an
experiment with Bitcoin in Cryptopunks by Larva Labs
ERC20, the most common Ethereum Token Standard, has rules that allow tokens to interact
with each other, but is not the best for creating unique tokens. Enter, ERC721, which had a
purpose to be the standard for NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, assists in tracking ownership
and movements of individual tokens from a single smart contract.
The seemingly underground movement that was taking the crypto community by storm has
slowly been transitioning into more mainstream art. This transition reached an inflection point in
Valentine’s day 2018 when artist Kevin Abosch partnered with GIFTO for a charitable auction.
The partnership led to a $1M transaction of a beautiful piece of CryptoArt called The Forever
Rose.
Mr. Abosch continued to raise the stakes when he started using a combination of the Ethereum
blockchain with his blood in a project called “IAMA Coin”. Abosch has not been the only artist
adopting this exciting form of expression. It has slowly been gaining traction with artists excited
to push their creative boundaries.
● NFT market
The NFT market is more efficient and more liquid than incumbent methods of transferring
assets. Numerous platforms have surfaced online, each hosting differentiators for creators and
collectors alike. The main area of disruption is focused on limiting centralized fees where
traditional art brokers, auction houses, often take up to 40%. Opensea is considered the largest
marketplace for art, music, domain names, collectibles, and trading cards. Mintable's platform
has its main focus on making the minting process super straightforward for the creators. Portion
is positioning itself to be an NFT platform that bridges NFTs, DeFi, and DAOs where the holders

5. of the governance token the community — are in charge. Other platforms like Niftex allow users
to buy fractions of NFTs or “shards,” which are ERC20 tokens representing a piece of the full
NFT.