A New York Times columnist on Thursday sold one of his articles in digital form for $563,000, the latest example of the craze surrounding "non fungible tokens," which collectors are snapping up.

Keven Roose's article entitled "Buy This Column on the Blockchain" was itself aimed at trying to test the market as to what sort of items would sell in the form of an "NFT."

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object, such as a drawing, piece of music, photo, or video, with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology.

This authentication by a network of computers is considered inviolable.

The virtual object, which is actually a computer file, can be exchanged or sold with its certificate.

NFTs have become popular in the past six months, as wealthy collectors turn to the digital market during the pandemic.

On Monday, the first message ever posted on Twitter sold for $2.9 million when its sender, Twitter co-founder and chief Jack Dorsey, accepted the winning bid at auction.

Earlier this month, a digital collage by American artist Beeple sold for $69.3 million at Christie's, setting a new record for an NFT.

"Why can't a journalist join the NFT party, too?" asked Roose in his column.

At the end of the 24-hour auction, a collector calling himself Farzin won the article with 350 Ethereum, a major cryptocurrency, worth $563,000.

"Fully just staring at my monitor laughing uncontrollably," Roose, a tech columnist, wrote on Twitter after the sale.

Roose had indicated that the proceeds, after the 15 percent fee deducted by the Foundation platform on which the auction was organized, would go to charities supported by The New York Times.

Crypto-art craze reaches China at 'NFT' exhibition
Beijing (AFP) March 26, 2021 - Bitcoin-inspired paintings and nightmarish faces conjured up by artificial intelligence, the global craze for "NFTs" -- virtual authenticity certificates -- swept into Beijing on Friday as curators opened one of the world's first exhibitions dedicated to blockchain art.

The show includes digital paintings by American artist Beeple, who sold a collage at Christie's for a record $69.3 million earlier this month.

A coin-shaped canvas by UK-based Robert Alice, covered in painted fragments of Bitcoin's source code, hangs in a secluded room accompanied by a TV screen showing its digital twin.

Works curated by Chinese organisers Block Create Art run the gamut from computer-generated videos of metallic Buddhas to a virtual reality maze and folk art-inspired paintings.

A collection of old TV monitors play animated images including a rainbow-hued portrait by American teen artist FEWOCiOUS, while a GIF of an inflatable goose head by Chinese artist Yitian Sun gyrates on a nearby wall.

Blockchain adds "a kind of abundance to art," curator Sun Bohan told AFP. "It's a kind of new experiment and exploration."

What the works have in common is NFTs -- or non-fungible tokens -- which use the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to turn anything from internet memes to tweets into virtual collector's items that cannot be duplicated.

Though bewildering to many, a manic appetite for digital objects authenticated through blockchain technology has spread through different markets.

The most famous example is Twitter boss Jack Dorsey selling his first tweet, from 2006, which reads "just setting up my twttr," for $2.9 million.

NFTs have recently taken the art world by storm as investors seize the opportunity to monetise digital art.

Wealthy collectors claim the bragging rights to ultimate ownership of an original virtual file even if the work can be endlessly copied.

"First Supper," a psychedelic reworking of Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century painting of Jesus' Last Supper, comprises 22 visual elements created by different artists which can be sold through online auctions.

The one-off digital copy is on display at the Beijing show, meaning every time an element -- the dinner table or the diners at the supper -- changes hands, its collector can also change a colour or texture that will appear real-time on the screen at the exhibition.

Sun said blockchain will improve the "ecosystem" of the art world, changing the "liquidity of artworks, and the diversity of relationships between collectors and creators."

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NFTs setting off revolution in the world of collectibles
New York (AFP) March 13, 2021
The technology is behind a piece of digital art auctioned for $69.3 million on Thursday and the sale of Jack Dorsey's first tweet - so-called NFTs have set off a revolution in collectables. What is an NFT, and why are they causing such a stir? - What is an 'NFT' ? - A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object that can be a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology. This authentication by a network of computers ... read more