Between 2014 and 2016, many development and experimentation with NFTs took place on the Bitcoin blockchain. At the center of this story is a platform called ‘Counterparty.’ Counterparty is a peer-to-peer financial platform and open-source internet protocol built on the Blockchain blockchain. This platform allowed users to create digital assets. As such, people were able to create digital assets based on images.
In 2016, Rare Pepes NFTs were released on the Counterparty platform, marking the beginning of the meme age. However, many Bitcoin users did not fancy the idea of filling limited block space with tokens that represented ownership of images. This catalyzed the shift of NFTs to the Ethereum Blockchain.