What are digital assets?

Digital assets are everything created and existing in digital form, which can be identified, discovered, and has value.

Digital assets are everything created and existing in digital form, which can be identified, discovered, and has value. Digital assets are rapidly gaining popularity, achieving great significance. Information, images, videos, and more are already considered digital assets and are subject to ownership.

Many digital assets, such as a company brand, can have tangible or intangible value. Certain types of assets may be of value only to one person or a small group of people. However, many assets may interest a large number of people – millions or even billions of people.

Until 2009, digital assets primarily included information and documents. They were owned by companies and used by them to realize value. However, in 2009, cryptocurrencies first appeared, and blockchain technology was introduced. It became possible to create value for digital assets by tokenizing assets in the blockchain.

This has created a revolution in the world of digital assets.

In this article, you will learn about what are digital assets, digital assets' meaning, how they affect our lives, the concept of ownership, and the interaction between people.

Digital assets: definition

A digital asset is an object that exists in a digital form and has some value, at least for one person. In today's world, digital assets are a much broader concept than just images, documents, or audio files. Blockchain technology has changed everything. The blockchain itself is a distributed ledger protected by a consensus algorithm. This concept was implemented before but has become a more advanced solution than previous options. Distributed ledgers have been around for a while and are used by different companies. However, the blockchain has made this technology available to ordinary users.

Related: Blockchain Technology: Back To Basics

For a digital asset to be considered an asset, it must meet the critical requirement of having the potential to create value, at least to the owner. It is also important that the asset can be transferred to someone. For example, you can sell, donate, exchange assets for something, etc.

What types of digital assets exist?

There are a wide variety of digital assets. For example, types of digital assets include:

  • Documents.
  • Photos.
  • Videos.
  • Books.
  • Audio files.
  • Animations, etc.

However, in modern realities, the category of digital assets has expanded. Today types of digital assets include objects created or stored on the blockchain. First of all, these are cryptocurrencies and tokens. As for cryptocurrencies, these can be traditional decentralized coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and others), tokens, and CBDCs (central bank digital currencies). It is important to know that tokens are divided into utility tokens and security tokens. Both types of tokens have their own value but differ from a technical point of view and in purpose. There are also so-called non-fungible tokens – NFTs. As a rule, they are used for digital art objects. All of them also belong to digital assets.

digital assets definition

Examples of digital assets

Technologies have infiltrated our lives so much that many of us do not notice how we use digital assets on a daily basis. For example, one can pay for access to a movie or buy a book in electronic format. These are digital assets because they represent value.

Cryptocurrencies are also widely used in real life and are examples of digital assets. Cryptocurrency can be used to buy a wide variety of content. For instance, crypto coins can be used to purchase analytical information on certain markets, buy the same movie, use them for investments, or even for charity. There are cases when world-famous companies have allowed the use of cryptocurrency to purchase their goods or services. For example, Tesla accepts Dogecoin for payment.

Non-fungible tokens – NFTs – also rapidly burst into our lives. You might accidentally see and photograph beautiful scenery or make a video recording of a funny situation on your way to work. Then you can turn this photo or video into a non-fungible token and sell it on the NFT marketplace. NFTs are also great examples of digital assets.

Related: Digital art, business ecosystem gamification, and football cards: NFT and its best practices explained

What challenges do digital assets face?

The field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is actively evolving. However, the pace of development could be even higher, as there are certain problems slowing down growth. First of all, it is the lack of regulation. Even in the current version, cryptocurrencies and blockchain have taken a huge step forward, while many legal issues remain unresolved. In many countries, there is not even a legal concept of cryptocurrencies at all, not to mention legislation.

Difficulties with regulation give rise to another critical problem – difficulties in using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. There are practically no problems with payment on the Internet; many online stores accept digital currencies. However, paying for goods or services offline is still not widespread.

On the other hand, various types of tokens have become even more legitimate than cryptocurrencies. For example, security tokens are considered securities in many countries. They give holders all the guarantees that investors who own traditional securities have. Therefore, some experts see the future in tokens as a means of investment, not in cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

Summary

What are digital assets? A digital asset is an object that exists in digital form, has a particular value, and meets several other characteristics. Previously, images, audio files, video recordings, and documents were considered as such. Since 2009, cryptocurrencies and tokens have also become examples of digital assets.

The list of blockchain-based digital assets is quite extensive. These assets already play an essential role in our lives. Unfortunately, some problems prevent a significant leap in the development of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Still, even despite the lack of a common legislative framework, these technologies continue to develop and improve gradually.

Stobox has extensive experience with digital assets and offers tokenization for its clients. You can sign up for a free consultation to learn more about how you can benefit from digital assets.