Today, it is impossible (or unwise) to work within the world of NFTs without trying to understand how the technical underpinnings work. This is not just to satisfy a technical curiosity, but because NFTs, since they have been released upon the world, have come with a massive smokescreen of marketing mumbo-jumbo that has caused most people concerned (artists, collectors, institutions) to misunderstand what they were producing, buying, selling and collecting.

As we’ve engaged in conversations with developers, engineers and overall savvy people in the space, we’ve come to understand that there is very little “common knowledge” about how things actually work, and even less standardization, meaning that every project is somewhat standing itself up from the ground up, or using a set of tools they don’t really see in a larger context, or in relation to what is happening within other development groups.

The space is still extremely young, and that is exactly why the fundamental questions that will help shape the direction we all travel in need to be asked now.

Ultimately, the stakeholders in the space should actually influence the direction in which it is going.

As Domenico Quaranta says in “Surfing with Satoshi”

“As potentially the backbone of the forthcoming public communications infrastructure, understanding the blockchain is vital : it needs to be held up to scrutiny and explained with narratives and metaphors that can help people visualise and comprehend how it works and all the technical aspects involved, which are much more complex than those the old Web is based on. We need to bring to light the ideas, stories and visions of those who are building it, raise awareness of its limits and highlights its true potential”