NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are in the news because people have paid multiple millions of dollars for them, although they confuse the hell out of me.

I'm an idiot who doesn't understand anything, but as I understand it, an NFT is essentially a regular type of computer file—such as a video, image, or audio file—that's been somehow saved as a type of cryptocurrency token, specifically an Ethereum (ETH) token.

When someone buys an NFT, they buy that crypto file, which is one-of-a-kind and can never be duplicated or broken down into any constituent parts.

That doesn't mean they own the original computer file, like a .JPG or .MP4 file, and it doesn't mean they own exclusive copyright of whatever the file looks or sounds like. They just own that "official" original crypto file, which they can treat like a fine art asset and either keep or resell later.

As an analogy, while anyone can make, buy, or sell a print or photo of the Mona Lisa, only one legitimate version of the painting exists, and it only has one owner.

Anyways, if you're at all curious about this stuff, here's a listing of the currently most valuable NFTs sold.