A 250-pound emerald worth over $105 million became an NFT, or non-fungible token, Thursday in Miami.
"People can really see how something like this can expand in the digital world and just to be a part of it and to be one of the pioneers of it is really, really awesome," said Max Pomeranz, one of the emerald's owners.
An NFT a token that is unique and not interchangeable -- someone can possess the token that says you own something, like an art piece, and you can trade it. But if you do, you'll be giving up any ownership of it.
According to NBCLX, a blockchain goes like this: Imagine a ledger existing online that keeps a publicly accessible record of who owns what. NFTs are connected to blockchain systems.
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If you buy an NFT, the unique bit of information about that artwork — including its smart contract and origin — is stored on the blockchain. It proves you own it.
"To divide the value into multiple owners that will have, we'll have an event every year that the owners will have access to, they will be able to come to either this museum or other museums in the city," said Edward Rodriguez of Be Pro Network.
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Proof of ownership is an encrypted code that can't be hacked or altered and many believe it will be the future of ownership will be tokenizing objects and other property.
Editor's note: This article has been updated. The emerald is worth $105 million.
