NILIcoin by Nili Lerner

Lerner’s pre-community, proto-NFTS—along with work by the McCoys and Rhea Myers were, according to Jason Bailey, the “closest thing to early NFTs” as we now know them. This is the beginning as well, for better or worse, of the association of NFTs with memes and scams.

Launched in September 2014 on the Counterparty Bitcoin side-chain, NILICoin was dubbed “art coin” and allowed for the issuance of digital assets against Bitcoin. This enabled trading and ownership verification via blockchain, a clear predecessor of NFT capabilities. NILICoin had aims beyond digital asset ownership, however, as it attempted to foster an entire decentralized monetary ecosystem, unsuccessfully challenging traditional bank credit. Lerner’s work has been heavily influenced by social media and smartphones, exemplifying how those trends combined to create the conditions for NFTs.