NFTs’ impact on scientific research and funding

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital certificates stored on a blockchain and represent one-of-a-kind items or pieces of information, making them valuable as proof of ownership for both digital and physical assets. This uniqueness and immutability are what make NFTs particularly useful for ensuring ownership and traceability in various fields, including scientific research. An example of this is the car industry which is using NFTs to prove the provenance of a vehicle together with its service and maintenance records. However, NFTs are different from fungible assets such as cash, or cryptos such as Bitcoins (which can be exchanged on a one-to-one basis), as each NFT is unique and cannot be replaced or exchanged for something identical. This makes NFTs ideal for representing rare items or intellectual property that requires clear ownership records, such as research findings or patents.

NFTs are also becoming more important in science and academia due to their unique properties -…