Can Screenshots Be Sold As Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become one of the hottest trends in cryptocurrency over the past year. The market has gone from a relatively small $200 million market at best to a market worth with over $3 billion. 

The beauty of NFTs is that, well, just about anything can be turned into one. This includes JPEGs, MP3s, and literally any other type of digital document format. 

Of course, just because something can be turned into an NFT does not mean it should be turned into an NFT. 

To answer the question, a screenshot can be sold as a non-fungible token. Remember, a screenshot is nothing more than a JPEG or PNG image. However, the odds of anyone actually paying money for a screenshot are very low. 

This means that while you can turn a screenshot into an NFT, you should not actually do it. 

Anyway, this article will cover everything you need to know about NFTs and why making an NFT screenshot probably will not work. 

Here’s Why an NFT Screenshot is Probably a Bad Idea

As we mentioned earlier, you can easily turn any screenshot into an NFT. But it’s a bad idea for the following reasons. 

Gas Fees

The biggest reason that an NFT screenshot probably will not work is that you must pay gas fees in order to create an NFT. 

This might not sound like too bad of a problem, but it’s a huge problem at the moment because gas fees are extremely high. It costs around $500 just to make an NFT on Ethereum.

With gas fees that high, you should be very certain that the NFT you create has some value. And the chances of a screenshot NFT having value just isn’t that high. 

Screenshots Aren’t “Cool”

The bigger problem with a screenshot NFT is that they just are not that “cool.”

If you pay attention to the NFT market, then you will notice that the most valuable NFTs fall into the following categories:

• Unique digital artwork (ie. Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, Beeple, etc.)
• Music NFTs from successful bands.
• Video clips from popular sports (ie. NBA Top Shots)

You will notice that screenshots do not fit into any of those categories. 

That is because screenshots are not particularly unique. 

Sure, there could be one or two screenshots that are interesting enough to generate some value, but the vast majority of screenshots are not exciting enough to generate enough interest to have a valuable NFT. 

Basically, the odds of a screenshot having enough interest to be valuable are extremely low. This means it is likely not worth creating an NFT of a screenshot in the first place. 

We’ll put it this way, if your screenshot would make a valuable NFT, then you already know it. If you have to ask if your screenshot would make a valuable NFT, then it is most likely worth nothing as an NFT.

Making an NFT of Something Else

Now, a screenshot NFT probably has little to no value. However, one generally takes a screenshot of some sort of accomplishment online (ie. levelling up in a game) or memorable moment (ie. a tweet). 

With that in mind, you can much more easily sell the accomplishment you screenshotted than the screenshot itself. 

For instance, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold an NFT of the first ever tweet on Twitter. 

That tweet sold for $2.9 million back in March. The tweet almost certainly was worth more because Dorsey decided to sell it as a tweet NFT rather than a screenshot. 

What Screenshot Could Be a Valuable NFT?

Not many screenshots would make a valuable NFT. 

As we mentioned earlier, a screenshot just is not “cool” enough for any value. It also poses some authentication problems because anyone can take a screenshot. It’s also extremely simple to edit the contents of the screenshot in Photoshop. 

With that in mind, a few screenshots that might work as an NFT include the following:

• A screenshot of a notable text conversation (ie. screenshot of Jeff Bezos’ text conversation with his mistress).
• A screenshot of a memorable moment in a game – it’s difficult to replicate. Though authenticating the original screenshot is obviously difficult.  

Those are two scenarios that we can think of where a screenshot could have some value. More likely exist, but it’s a longshot compared to other types of NFTs. 

Closing Thoughts

Well, that covers it for everything you need to know about selling a screenshot NFT. 

You probably should not do it with gas fees being so high on Ethereum. The most likely scenario is that you create an NFT of a screenshot for ~$500 in gas fees. 

The NFT will subsequently be worth $0 because, as mentioned previously throughout the article, a screenshot just is not interesting enough to have much value as an NFT. 

An alternative to turning a screenshot into an NFT is to turn the moment you screenshotted into an NFT (if possible). This will be easier to verify and likely garner much more attention than a simple screenshot of a moment.