Non-Fungible Tokens: The Future of Digital Collectibles and Assets

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT's) is a form of digital certificate of authentication being created on the blockchain technology which is similar to other virtual crypto assets and currencies. The popularity of the blockchain technology along with dealing in crypto assets has seen to grow in the recent years. The NFT market is also rising exponentially as witnessed in the recent years. The very concept of NFT originates from a token standard of Ethereum, aiming to differentiate and distinguish each token with its unique signature being bound with digital properties. The impressive return on its rapidly increasing market worldwide has drawn massive attention, with India too having witnessed a heightened interest in this digital sector, especially from the upcoming new-age investors and digital creators. However, development of the NFT ecosystem being in an early stage has seen an absence of a regulatory legal framework to govern such pre-mature digital crypto assets in the country of India. The legal policies surrounding them are plentiful which has further lead to a lack of clarity in regards to its legal validity and sanctity. The upcoming artists may tend to get lost in this frenetic evolution with lack of systematic summaries. This paper intends to explore the concept of NFT in contrast to cryptocurrency and copyright along with its working and technical components. It aims to analyse the legal pitfalls which impact its functioning along with the opportunities and challenges faced by the Indian legal framework in terms of cryptographic assets.