This chapter delves into the future of the complex and evolving world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), focusing on their potential to drive mass adoption of blockchain technology. Beginning with some historical context, the chapter explores the rapid growth of NFTs in the digital art and collectibles space, most notably during the speculative boom in 2021–2022 and the subsequent crash. The chapter then investigates how NFTs might expand beyond these initial use cases. It describes major developments in technology, business models, and financial infrastructure that will support further evolution of NFTs. Using real-world examples, the chapter then discusses emerging categories of NFT use cases, such as tokenization of physical assets, ticketing, and digital identity. It concludes by emphasizing that the true mass adoption of NFTs will occur when the technology becomes invisible and the primary draw becomes the value of use cases, not the novelty of NFTs themselves. While one should be skeptical about specific predictions for massive NFT adoption, this chapter shows that the capabilities NFTs provide are poised to add value in a wide variety of contexts.

The Internet, from its roots a quarter-century ago as a military and academic research tool, has become a global resource for millions of people. As it continues to grow, the Internet will generate tremendous benefits for the economy and society. At the same time, the Internet poses significant and difficult questions for policy makers. This working paper examines some of these emerging issues at the intersection of technology, law, economics, and public policy.

In 1997, the US Federal Communications Commission issued my staff working paper, Digital Tornado: The Internet and Telecommunications Policy. It was distributed in hard copy and, in a novel twist, digitally through the FCC’s website, which I had largely coded on my laptop after work. As the paper relates, only 15 percent of Americans at that time used the Internet, and only 40 percent had personal computers. I didn’t think to mention that zero had Internet-capable smartphones, because such devices were still science fiction. Even smaller percentages of other nations were online. China, today the world’s largest Internet access market, connected its very first public Internet subscriber the summer before Digital Tornado was released.

One of the most plausible scenarios for how newer technologies might disrupt and reconstitute the Internet economy is based on blockchain and related mechanisms. Because of their fundamental decentralization, enforced through cryptography, these technologies hold out the promise of resisting the centralization of control by dominant digital platforms. The problem is that the power of blockchain to create trust without reliance on trusted third parties depends on immutable transactions. And that means prospectively limiting human freedom of action. Replacing human judgment with relentlessly logical machines operating self-enforcing “smart contracts” has already produced several spectacular failures. Immutability inevitably creates the possibility of catastrophe, unless paired with governance mechanisms that keep humans in the loop. The best possible approach is governance by design, incorporating layers of coordinated decision-making throughout the design of blockchain networks and applications.