John Lennon's son auctioning Beatles memorabilia (virtually)

LONDON: John Lennon's son Julian is auctioning off pieces of memorabilia relating to the Beatles, including three guitars given to him by his father and handwritten notes about the 1968 song "Hey Jude" - but not physically.

Instead, the auction is a sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset. Each winning bidder will be able to claim ownership of a digital file described as an "audio/visual collectible" in which Julian Lennon narrates a "specific heartfelt memory".

"I feel incredibly lucky to live in a day and age where innovation allows me to share such personal pieces of my Lennon family history," said Julian Lennon, who is a singer-songwriter, writer and artist.

"Through this NFT collection, I'm able to grant exclusive access to special items that I cherish and carry on the legacy of my father in a new way."

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) use blockchain to record who owns a digital file, such as an image, video or text.

Although NFTs are sometimes sold alongside physical items, as a sort of digital certificate of authenticity, owning an NFT does not confer ownership of the underlying item - rather, it can be thought of as a kind of digital bragging rights.

Such sales have nevertheless exploded in popularity, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars.

In this case, the buyers of the Beatles NFTs will not receive a guitar or physical piece of paper. What they will get is a unit of blockchain data recording that their crypto wallets own an NFT linked to a digital file showing the item.