The NFT Canon is a go-to resource for artists and creators, developers, corporations and institutions, communities, and other organizations seeking to understand or do more with non-fungible tokens.
It’s a curated list of readings and resources on all things NFTs (inspired by the a16z Crypto Canon), and is organized from the big picture of what NFTs are and why they matter to how to create, collect, build on top of and with them — including FAQs, ecosystem overviews, and various applications such as art, music, gaming, DAOs, social tokens, community tokens, and others.
We will continue to update this as more people try out new things, share their work, or publish resources for learning about NFTs. [If you have suggestions for quality pieces to add, please let @smc90 know.]
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Life Is Non-fungible: The Evolution of Ownership, Assets, and Us — ownership is deeply human; collectibles for self-expression, identity, money, trade
by Roham Gharegozlou
https://youtu.be/u894J50AqOs
NFTs and a Thousand True Fans — evolution of the internet and better economics for creators
by Chris Dixon
https://a16z.com/2021/02/27/nfts-and-a-thousand-true-fans/
Stories, Scarcity, and Mimetic Desire — how NFTs turn millions of stories into scarce assets
by Nick Tomaino
https://thecontrol.co/stories-scarcity-and-mimetic-desire-c4a344fa74e1
NFTs invert the ownership model of media — offering creators, their audiences, and developers who build for them a viable alternative to platform-driven monetization
by Jesse Walden
https://variant.mirror.xyz/T8kdtZRIgy_srXB5B06L8vBqFHYlEBcv6ae2zR6Y_eo
NFT subculture — properties of disruptive subcultures
by Denis Nazarov
https://d.mirror.xyz/OQrTGdbiDDKs-7it-URF2NYRG9xLMYEQcNnET8fah3I
Creators, communities, and the gray space in the middle where they meet — the next evolution of communities (belonging and stakeholders); how creators can create their own markets; programmable art
by Nichanan Kesonpat
https://www.nichanank.com/blog/2020/10/9/gray-space-in-the-middle
Proof of passion — connecting the history of the social internet to NFTs today
by Tal Shachar and Jonathan Glick
https://tals.substack.com/p/proof-of-passion
Crypto changes value, NFTs change society — how NFTs change internet, work, economics, business models
by Andrew Steinwold
https://andrewsteinwold.substack.com/p/crypto-will-change-value-nfts-will
Crypto fundamentals and NFTs — eras of the web, blockchain architecture, last decade in crypto;
rise of NFTs, future of NFTs
by Patrick Rivera
[link to presentation in Google Slides]
A beginner’s guide to NFTs — what they are, why they’re interesting, applications
by Linda Xie
https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d
What is an NFT? — properties of blockchain-based non-fungible tokens
by Devin Finzer
https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/#What_is_a_non-fungible_token
All about NFTs — the what, why, and how of NFTs, their applications, and process as well as common questions & misconceptions
by Jesse Walden, Linda Xie, Sonal Chokshi
https://a16z.com/2021/03/27/nfts-explainer-faqs-hype-reality-innovation-crypto-creator-economy
8 Reasons why crypto art > art — and the new economy of digital creativity
by Scott Belsky
https://scottbelsky.medium.com/the-furry-lisa-cryptoart-the-new-economy-of-digital-creativity-6cb2300ea081
Demystifying NFTs — ‘monetized memes’, NFTs tokenize all the things, authenticate the world
by Naval Ravikant
https://twitter.com/naval/status/1378954767863443461
What Critics Don’t Understand About NFTs — the paradox of certain digital goods; NFTs’ value don’t convey anything resembling traditional ownership
by Jonathan Zittrain with Will Marks
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-show-value-owning-unownable/618525/
NFTs, the trend — overview, projects, players, lessons, haters, opportunities
by Dru Riley
https://trends.vc/trends-0050-non-fungible-tokens-nfts/
The new magic of NFTs — the cases, the elements of crypto, and how it’s about so much more
Katie Haun interviewed by Tim Ferriss
https://tim.blog/2021/02/24/katie-haun-transcript/
NFTs
by Saturday Night Live
https://youtu.be/mrNOYudaMAc
NFT metadata — on-chain, off-chain, storage, more
by Devin Finzer
https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/#Non-fungible_token_metadata
Do You Really Own Your NFT? — data storage, URLs vs IPFS, off-chain, more
by Dan Kahan
https://thedefiant.io/do-you-really-own-your-nft-chances-are-you-dont/
Non-fungible token standards — from Ethereum to non-Ethereum standards
by Devin Finzer
https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/#Non-fungible_token_standards
What is ERC-721? — non-technical explanation of how the original standard powering NFTs on blockchains works
by William Entriken
https://fulldecent.blogspot.com/2018/06/nontechnical-what-is-erc-721.html
ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token Standard — powering unique, rare, collectible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain
https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-721
NFT standards wishlist — from royalties to splits
by Sean Bonner
https://seanbonner.com/2021/03/26/nft-standards-wishlist/
Crypto Wants to Be Seen — experiencing crypto in ways that enable creators to master it and be immersed in core concepts
by Kayvon Tehranian
https://thedefiant.io/crypto-wants-to-be-seen-op-ed-by-kayvon-tehranian/
The Creator Economy: NFTs and beyond — how musicians, artists, and writers can think about NFTs and social tokens; how different types of assets can interact to create models that haven’t existed before
by Kevin Chou, Jesse Walden, Chris Dixon
https://a16z.com/2021/04/03/creator-economy-beyond-nfts-podcast/
Ideas for building in NFTs — community as art, more [thread]
by Dylan Field
https://twitter.com/zoink/status/1372561281002004481
On NFT consumption, audience, utility — third-party consumption experiences and what’s needed
by Jarrod Dicker, Tal Shacher, Jonathan Glick
https://darkstar.mirror.xyz/bOWhYyX4u5mY0AfY-ObnQSOOcMVEmJQPVUFSw1qJsdc
On cryptocurrencies as content, communities, digital belonging
by Kyle Chayka
https://air.mirror.xyz/5A16bvvS2IJK7fVVNb2GwrrEcyey2B4UiH2l1DI_Y2I
Analyzing NFTs as Social Networks Using the Status-as-a-Service Framework
by Packy McCormick
https://www.notboring.co/p/status-monkeys
Come for the creator, stay for the economy — decentralized protocols aren’t social networks, they’re cryptoeconomic networks; milestones for phases
by Patrick Rivera
https://p.mirror.xyz/1EpvJwUpx_KlRcHOKLNqADEkwHL_Z1ZYKobF2uLwgBg
Power to the person — The creator economy, NFTs, and the rise of the solo corporation
by Packy McCormick
https://www.notboring.co/p/power-to-the-person-audio
Social tokens — a broad category of tokens issued by individuals and communities
by Linda Xie
https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d
Individual before community: Why creator tokens will precede community tokens
by Alex Masmej
https://future.com/creator-before-community/
The fractionalization of NFTs will lead to better social tokens — objects, communities, more
by Brian Flynn
https://jammsession.mirror.xyz/-xYcfFRlhDdLDSUgRMTYJAaRJBs2VG4LP34DnOV84mI
Loyalty Points and Social Tokens — social not just financial incentives in designing transactional communities of social tokens users
by Wong Joon Ian
https://medium.com/rallynetwork/loyalty-points-and-social-tokens-5046d1ca993
Social Tokens Year in Review (2020) — digital assets backed by reputation of individual, brand, or community
by Cooper Turley with Jess Sloss, James Young, Scott Moore, Brian Flynn, and Priyanka Desai
https://www.forefront.market/blog/review
A beginner’s guide to DAOs — with examples of NFT collectives for art, gaming, more
by Linda Xie
https://linda.mirror.xyz/Vh8K4leCGEO06_qSGx-vS5lvgUqhqkCz9ut81WwCP2o
A prehistory of DAOs — cooperatives, gaming guilds, and the networks to come
by Kei Kreutler
https://gnosisguild.mirror.xyz/t4F5rItMw4-mlpLZf5JQhElbDfQ2JRVKAzEpanyxW1Q
On creator DAOs — how is this different from crowdfunding or membership platforms? the main difference is the notion of ownership
by Jonathan Glick, Jarrod Dicker, Tal Schachar
https://darkstar.mirror.xyz/Tf9IS6yNxtPXwC5mmfi_UISe8v6BOfef2bDmQSxoJao
Community DAOs — what makes a DAO a DAO, growing them, more
by Patrick Rivera
https://p.mirror.xyz/cVN3KOss0uqpZwxHQKtC4Syvn1RfXaxofFKHJuKLWS4
The DAO of DAOs — from NFTs to DAOs; progressive decentralization; why DAOs, now and next
by Packy McCormick
https://www.notboring.co/p/the-dao-of-daos-5b9
Protocols and creator DAOs — analogy of cities and settlements for economic flows and cultural products around meme, message, protocols
by Jonathan Glick, Jarrod Dicker, Tal Schachar, Brian Flynn
https://darkstar.mirror.xyz/yEK4DdvmxwZ2l-yHWGOQs3rMsLD6RYs_phLUzSFdhAI
Tips for Creators Getting Into Crypto
by Patrick Rivera
https://p.mirror.xyz/WQQywdjjfnksMRPMaNKBMxPBqfE5k8nL6pCLe1roGyw
How We Sold an NFT… — step-by-step video walkthrough of what and how, from brainstorming, designing, and selling to setup, minting, and more
by Colin and Samir
https://youtu.be/BSXMM9Y1blk
Two artists on crypto art — on galleries to tokenized collectibles
by Pak, Signe Pierce, Zoran Basich
https://a16z.com/2020/11/22/crypto-for-creators-tokenized-collectibles-nfts/
NFTs, digital art, and the value shift between IRL and virtual life
Trevor McFedries interviewed by Dan Frommer
https://newconsumer.com/2021/03/trevor-mc-fedries-interview-nft-fwb/
Why I’m Collecting Black Crypto Art — on spurring a Black Digital Renaissance that could create and capture value for Black communities
by Cuy Sheffield
https://medium.com/@cuysheffield/why-im-collecting-black-crypto-art-c3cbba939d64
How the blockchain broke the auction block — how is a Beeple JPEG worth $69 million?
by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Mary Childs
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/12/976513031/the-69-million-jpeg
Understanding NFTs as digital abstraction — view from traditional art world, Christie’s auction lead
Noah Davis interviewed by Valentina Di Liscia
https://hyperallergic.com/624053/nft-art-goes-viral-and-heads-to-auction-but-what-is-it/
What NFTs mean for contemporary art — artist talks with MoMA curator about recent trends and where immaterial art is taking us in a material world
Seth Price interviewed by Michelle Kuo
https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/547
What makes a museum object NFT valuable beyond the scope of the technology?
by Frances Liddell
https://www.artnome.com/news/2021/5/1/what-makes-a-museum-object-nft-valuable-beyond-the-scope-of-the-technology
Why museums should be thinking longer term about NFTs
by Jason Bailey
https://www.artnome.com/news/2021/7/28/why-museums-should-be-thinking-longer-term-about-nfts
“The Greatest NFT Film Ever Made” creators share views on NFTs, properties, platforms, scaling, exhibitions, more across art, music, fashion, defi, the metaverse
The Defiant
https://youtu.be/cY9lM73ie0Q
Artists on NFTs and more
https://foundation.app/blog
Artists on collecting NFTs
by Samantha Ayson
https://foundation.app/blog/why-artists-are-collecting-each-others-nfts
Monetization for Gamers in the New Cryptoeconomy — how blockchain technology realigns economic relationships, collaboration, community, and creativity
by Kevin Chou
https://a16z.com/2020/03/09/monetization-for-gamers-in-the-new-cryptoeconomy/
Community economics and the limits of today’s game economies — on the economic activity inside and outside virtual game worlds like Animal Crossing
by Kaiser Hwang
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/17/animal-crossing-new-horizons-and-the-limits-of-todays-game-economies/
“Fantasy Hollywood”: Crypto and Community-Owned Characters — how DAOs and NFTs enable a new model for bringing new characters into the world
by Cuy Sheffield
https://future.com/fantasy-hollywood-crypto-and-community-owned-characters/
Musicians meet audio NFTs — an overview of audio NFTs, limited edition audio/visuals experiences issued and sold as tokens on Ethereum
by Cooper Turley
https://coopahtroopa-eth.medium.com/musicians-meet-audio-nfts-aa495cfd2996
The relationship between visual art and music
Devendra Banhart interviewed by Samantha Ayson
https://foundation.app/blog/devendra-banhart
Creators, Artists, and Athletes — messaging creator coins to fans in videos
by Kurt Patat
https://medium.com/rallynetwork/video-creators-artists-and-athletes-discussing-their-creator-coins-with-fans-e633391b59e3
What is crypto art
by Jason Bailey
https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/1/14/what-is-cryptoart
Generative art and NFTs
by Brian Droitcour
https://www.artnews.com/list/art-in-america/features/generative-art-and-nfts-1234586572/
Exploring the world of generative art — what it is, a brief history of generative crypto art, more
by William Peaster
https://www.bankless.com/how-to-approach-the-generative-art
Where crypto meets the metaverse — without the assumption of a robust economic membrane, the entire concept of the metaverse quickly collapses
by Piers Kicks
https://naavik.co/deep-dives/into-the-void/
Where Web3 meets the metaverse — NFTs & digital ownership, open vs. closed metaverse, “Direct-to Avatar Economy”, value chain of the open metaverse
by Packy McCormick
https://www.notboring.co/p/the-value-chain-of-the-open-metaverse
The Great Online Game — on the internet as an infinite, abundant game, imitating but beyond video games, including NFTs as ways to express oneself online to signal who you are and what you care about
by Packy McCormick
https://www.notboring.co/p/the-great-online-game-audio
Gamers want virtual goods with real-world value — survey from Vorhaus
by Dean Takahashi
https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/09/vorhaus-advisors-63-of-gamers-would-spend-more-on-virtual-goods-with-real-world-value/
NFTs are becoming a major source of income for crypto newbies in the Philippines to Colombia — from Axie Infinity to Yield Guild Games and beyond
by Dan Kahan
https://thedefiant.io/nfts-are-becoming-a-major-source-of-income-for-crypto-newbies-in-the-philippines-to-colombia/
Play-to-Earn, NFT gaming in the Philippines
by Yield Guild Games
https://youtu.be/Yo-BrASMHU4
Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, & the play-to-earn economy
by Justin Mart, Connor Dempsey, Hassan Ahmed
https://blog.coinbase.com/axie-infinity-yield-guild-games-the-play-to-earn-economy-e73ac6b39e6c
Why Bored Ape Avatars Are Taking Over Twitter — each avatar club is a combination of gated online community, stock-shareholding group, and art-appreciation society
by Kyle Chayka
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-bored-ape-avatars-are-taking-over-twitter
A brief guide to Loot, the NFT project that’s surged onto the scene
by William Peaster
https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/loot-explained-
The Loot project flips the script on NFTs — what it is, why is this interesting
by Kyle Russell
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/03/loot-games-the-crypto-world/
Loot is a viral social network that looks like nothing you’ve ever seen — Dom Hoffman on on creating an open-source, decentralized game / financial asset / art project / metaverse (?)
by Casey Newton
https://www.platformer.news/p/loot-is-a-viral-social-network-that
The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy – on NFTs as public goods funding
by Vitalik Buterin
https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/03/23/legitimacy.html
“Post-Venture” Capital and the Crypto Nobel Prize
by Matt Stephenson
https://glyphx.medium.com/post-venture-capital-and-the-crypto-nobel-prize-29847faf3f08
Ecosystem overview — marketplaces; art, collectibles, games, virtual worlds; finance & trading
by Andrew Steinwold
https://andrewsteinwold.substack.com/p/-quick-overview-of-the-nft-ecosystem
Where do NFTs capture value? — the NFT stack, breaking down the various layers, honing in on curation
by Cooper Turley
https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/A16NP2XXi9RdHptfdF9WHR0Xq_E1XDmUgMwPmJYOG7w
The non-fungible token market — market size & growth (2019-2020), sale mechanisms, distribution
by Devin Finzer
https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/#The_Non-Fungible_Token_Market
Check My NFT — do you know how your NFT assets are stored?
https://checkmynft.com/
How to display crypto art — showcase sites, digital displays, metaverse galleries
by William Peaster
https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/how-to-display-cryptoart-
How to use NFT furniture — collect, display; where, how
by Gabriella Fuller
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/how-to-use-nft-furniture.html
How the CryptoPunks took physical form to participate in their first gallery show — paper wallets and a physical model for digital ownership
https://www.larvalabs.com/blog/2019-2-1-15-1/a-physical-model-for-digital-art-ownership-the-cryptopunks-in-their-first-gallery-show
NFTs: A Legal Guide for Creators and Collectors — primer on just some of the considerations in the United States
by Amy Luo
https://www.coindesk.com/nfts-a-legal-guide-for-creators-and-collectors
OpenSea
https://opensea.io/rankings
CryptoSlam!
https://www.cryptoslam.io/
CryptoArt
https://cryptoart.io/
spreadsheet comparing NFT platforms
nftart.lol
Crypto Glossary: Cryptocurrencies & Blockchains — key concepts and terms to know that relate to NFTs (cryptography, proof of stake, more)
by Alex Pruden and Sonal Chokshi
https://a16z.com/2019/11/08/crypto-glossary/
language & terminology — among NFT community online, a thread
punk6529
https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1433002033242595338
The Forefront Newsletter — weekly digest of developments in social tokens, NFTs, DAOs
https://forefront.market/newsletter
Zima Red — newsletter on NFTs, virtual worlds, blockchain games
https://andrewsteinwold.substack.com/
Crypto trading cards (1993) — idea to promote digital cash
Hal Finney
https://protos.com/bitcoin-hal-finney-predict-nft-market-joke-1993/
Colored coins (2012) — earliest NFT project (tracking origin of a given bitcoin to distinguish it from the rest so it can have special properties or value for various applications)
by Yoni Assia, Vitalik Buterin, Lior Hakim, Meni Rosenfeld
web pdf
History of NFTs — from and before CryptoKitties onwards, games, and other experiments
by Devin Finzer
https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/#History_of_non-fungible_tokens_2017_2020
Rare Pepe (2017) — digital trading cards
by Fred Wilson
http://avc.com/2017/05/rare-pepe/
Skin-in-the-game coins (2018) — reputation mining, token-curated registries, early utility tokens
by Ryan Selkis
https://medium.com/messaricrypto/skin-in-the-game-coins-da0afdfdc650
Will cryptocurrencies be the art market’s next big thing? (2018)
by Scott Reyburn
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/arts/cryptocurrency-art-market.html
Smart media tokens (2017)
from Steemit
https://smt.steem.io/smt-whitepaper.pdf
Digital collectibles and the weird future of “digibles”
by Josh Stark
https://hackernoon.com/digital-collectibles-and-the-weird-future-of-digibles-f75f4bf0f9aa
How to code your own cryptokitties-style game on Ethereum (2017)
by James Martin Duffy
https://medium.com/loom-network/how-to-code-your-own-cryptokitties-style-game-on-ethereum-7c8ac86a4eb3
Acknowledgements: Thanks also to Guy Wuollet and Carra Wu for their additions above as well
image: Mona Lisa/ Creative Commons 4.0; changes made by Greg Truesdell per Sonal Chokshi
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