Non-Fungible Tokens: A New Way to Securitize Digital (and Real-World) Assets Cryptocurrency evangelists have long claimed that blockchain has real-world applications beyond Bitcoin and its ilk. It looks as if they were right.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are often styled as if they were different flavors of the same ice cream. If there is a single lesson to be gleaned beyond the buzzword-laden banter in mass media, it is this: blockchain is separate and distinct from cryptocurrency. Much like email, instant messaging and web browsing are all applications of the Internet, cryptocurrency is a single application of blockchain principles.

But unlike the Internet, which relies on several tiers of agreed-upon technical standards with governing bodies and industry working groups, blockchain is not a single technology but rather a stew of broad and nebulous concepts and divergent standards and frameworks — with competing interests and contradictory goals. Some are political. Others are entertaining. But almost all are predicated on the concept of decentralization. More on that later.

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