NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are entirely unique tokens stored on the blockchain that record the ownership of a particular item—whether it’s Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet or a work of art.
The simplest way to think about it is the digital equivalent to a hand-signed photograph. While the photograph can be endlessly reproduced, the unique value in the signature cannot be reproduced simply by copying it.
With NFT mania currently running wild, there are no shortage of digital collectables popping up online in the form of NFTs. But perhaps none is physically larger than the oddball proposition offered for sale in Kransberg, Germany—where a homeowner is selling their actual house as a non-fungible token.
Become an NFT Home-Owner
The auction, which runs through April 25 on OpenSea, has a minimum reserve price of 34 ETH ($74,000). At time of writing, that reserve price has not yet been met. Seller Ugn-Ugn writes that:
“After purchasing the NFT we will have to run through the normal German legal procedures of handing the house over to you as required by law….Once I have legally transferred ownership of the property to the new holder of the token, I can not transfer the ownership to anyone else (in case the token is sold to anyone else). Whoever claims ownership first will have to provide the personal details required by German law to claim the property (including the signing of contracts, etc). If the new owner of the token chooses to sell the token, they will have to hand over ownership to the new holder of the token and so on.”
The house is in a small, picturesque German village, around half an hour from Frankfurt. Don’t expect to be moving into a pristine mansion, however. While the two-story home is reportedly big enough for a five-person family (or yourself and a handful of buddies), it’s apparently a bit of a fixer-upper. Ugn-Ugn notes that:
“I won’t lie, you’ll probably have to do some renovating to get it back into shape. Unless you want to live like Robin Hood, this house needs a lot of attention until you can move in.”
No Shortage of E-Cred
Still, living in comparable squalor for a few months (or however long it takes you to renovate it) is a small price to pay to tell people you live in the world’s first NFT home. At least until the immediate buzz around NFTs fades, that feat alone should earn you all kinds of e-cred.
Image Credit: Maria Ziegler/Unsplash CC