  An explosion of interest in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has led to the
emergence of vibrant online marketplaces that enable users to buy, sell and
create digital assets. Largely considered contractual representations of
digital artworks, NFTs allow ownership and authenticity to be proven through
storing an asset and its associated metadata on a Blockchain. Yet, variation
exists between chains, token protocols (such as the ERC-721 NFT standard) and
marketplaces, leading to inconsistencies in the definitions and roles of token
metadata. This research thus aims to define metadata in the context of NFTs,
explore the boundary of metadata and asset data within tokens, and understand
the variances and impacts these structures have on the curation of NFTs within
online marketplaces and collections.
