The rising acceptance of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) makes this a good time to examine the blockchain technologies they rely on. The recent Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2021 conference (FC21), mentioned in this press release detailing NTT Research’s participation, is a good place to start. Addressed in the CIS Lab-related FC21 papers were cryptocurrency mining attacks, block confirmation performance and fairness in one popular NFT application. In this Forbes article, NTT Research President and CEO, Kazuhiro Gomi, references those discussions while drawing attention to issues involving consensus mechanism fundamentals and the need for careful application design.