Non-fungible tokens (NFT) have exploded in recent weeks. With NFT art fetching surprising sums of money for artists and celebrities, the NFT art phenomenon is one to watch. Depending on who you ask, it could be a new market model for supporting artists, or a speculative bubble that makes climate change irreversible.

But let’s put all the philosophical and ecological considerations aside for a moment and take a look at what exactly an NFT artwork is and why the world is so excited about it.

The idea behind NFTs is simple: they’re tokens, or certificates of authenticity, and they can be applied to just about anything under the sun: real-world objects like real estate, cars, designer sneakers, art, but also virtual objects like music, videos, virtual land, in-game currency and items, and, well, more art.

NFTs are stored on a publicly accessible blockchain network, just like the cryptocurrencies (which are fungible) used to purchase them.