In non-fungible token (NFT) news, a popular 2015 video of Ghanian pallbearers, commonly known as the "Coffin Dance" has just sold for 327 Ether (ETH). Converted to fiat currency, that comes in at around $990,934 at the time of writing.
The NFT's creator, Benjamin Aidoo, quickly took to Twitter to announce the amazing sale and to also thank the bidders for making the NFT such a huge success. This sale is not for personal profit, as it turns out, as the funds will be used to send financial aid to beleaguered Ukrainians.
The original meme was created by the Ghanian pallbearers to signify an untimely end, and it quickly became the perfect response to a laughable but life-threatening mistake made by a hilarious character. The meme soon became incredibly popular and was accompanied by a 2010 electronic dance music (EDM) track called Astronomia, created by Russian composer Tony Igy.
How did the coffin dance meme become so valuable?
Despite the availability of the viral meme on the Internet, someone still bid over a million dollars on it.
To understand why the meme is still so expensive even after making rounds online, it is essential to understand the entire concept of NFTs and how they could revolutionise the entire creator economy
When a token is non-fungible, there can be only one such token. One bitcoin, for example, is fungible because there are several bitcoins without any unique traits. Exchanging one bitcoin for another still leaves you with the same bitcoin and the same value.
The coffin dance meme has been turned into a non-fungible token with unique metadata that cannot be duplicated. In the real sense, it is no longer the meme that is being sold; it is the digital certificate that shows who owns the meme.
The meme itself is a digital property that can easily be duplicated across the Internet.
It is important to note that whoever purchases the NFT does not become a copyright owner of the meme. Just as Michelangelo’s painting remains the work of the Renaissance artist, the Pallbearers will continue to be the owners and creators of the meme.
According to the World Economic Forum, “Some buyers think they acquire the underlying work of art and all its accompanying rights. However, in reality, they are simply buying the metadata associated with the work; not the work itself.”