At heart, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are just tokens, and can be collected, traded, or exchanged for services or other tokens, or for cash. They’re a bit like air miles or loyalty points.

And the tech giants want you to have them. For free. Because NFTs are smart tokens. They can contain coded instructions and collect metadata about who uses them, and how. They can act as gate passes or access cards, both in the real world and on digital platforms.

Now you can get a smart NFT that acts as a super ID, connecting your smartphone to your credit card to your passport to your airline boarding pass… and a whole lot of other things. Why worry about health insurance numbers and loyalty program logins, when everything can be consolidated on an NFT?

Remember the old days, when every time you took out a loan, or hired a car, or applied for a foreign visa, or renewed your driver’s license, or joined a club or signed up for any number of digital services, you had to provide the same old details on a paper form or digital screen, often in person and with proof! And if you changed say, your email, you’d have to notify all those myriad entities of the change. What a chore.

Now it’s all consolidated, immutable, and secure, and stored in the cloud. And only accessible with your private key. The big tech companies are looking after it for you, and soon you’ll be able to add your DNA data too. That sounds pretty NiFTy to me!

But before you choose Google’s LifeToken or Meta’s MyMeta token, or Apple’s one, ask yourself why they are providing all that convenience, security and service for free. Remember the metadata – your metadata? That’s the real product.

(PS: You can right-click this NFT image. Go ahead!)