A Survey: Security, Transparency, and Scalability Issues of NFT’s and Its Marketplaces

Abstract

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are ownership records stored on a blockchain, and they are typically digital items such as photos and videos. In many ways, an NFT is like a conventional proof-of-purchase document, such as a paper invoice or an electronic receipt. NFTs are attractive among other things because of verifiability; each sale is recorded as a blockchain transaction, allowing ownership to be tracked. Also, NFTs can be used to transfer digital assets between two mutually distrusting parties, since both the crypto payment and the asset transfer take place in one transaction. With NFTs, all marketplaces can freely trade with the help of decentralized applications (DApps). It is currently estimated that there are over 245 NFT marketplaces (NFTM) listed with over 1000 blockchains as of August 2022 with 68 million blockchain wallet users. With the expansion of markets, they must face challenges and issues. The objective of this review is to study the market dynamics of NFT ecosystems. It also focuses on technical components that enable NFTs and their marketplace. The review provides a deeper understanding of its components, how they are related, and why they are important. The paper analyses the challenges faced by NFTs and marketplaces in terms of security, transparency, scalability, and the consequences leading to these issues and how they will address them, as well as future opportunities.