  NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are blockchain-based cryptographic tokens to
represent ownership of unique content such as images, videos, or 3D objects.
Despite NFTs' increasing popularity and skyrocketing trading prices, little is
known about people's perceptions of and experiences with NFTs. In this work, we
focus on NFT creators and present results of an exploratory qualitative study
in which we interviewed 15 NFT creators from nine different countries. Our
participants had nuanced feelings about NFTs and their communities. We found
that most of our participants were enthusiastic about the underlying
technologies and how they empower individuals to express their creativity and
pursue new business models of content creation. Our participants also gave
kudos to the NFT communities that have supported them to learn, collaborate,
and grow in their NFT endeavors. However, these positivities were juxtaposed by
their accounts of the many challenges that they encountered and thorny issues
that the NFT ecosystem is grappling with around ownership of digital content,
low-quality NFTs, scams, possible money laundering, and regulations. We discuss
how the built-in properties (e.g., decentralization) of blockchains and NFTs
might have contributed to some of these issues. We present design implications
on how to improve the NFT ecosystem (e.g., making NFTs even more accessible to
newcomers and the broader population).
