[daktulos]

Blockchain, which is the technology behind NFTs and crypto-currency has the potential to be revolutionary. It's basically a decentralised ledger which permits trade between remote individuals. NFTs are just an entry in the ledger and because the ledger is public, you can see who currently owns it.

That's it. It's just a receipt which anyone with enough technical knowledge could verify is yours. It says nothing about what the receipt is for.

Again, the idea behind them is sound - if you're an author you could sell the original manuscript. A painter only has one original copy of each painting, but if you create something in the digital world which can be copied perfectly and infinitely, what value does the first one have? NFTs are used as a digital receipt for it, giving an additional value to it - it's like numbered prints of paintings, there's no physical difference between them and unlimited prints, but they're priced higher simply because their availability is artificially limited.

This is where the Mona Lisa analogy breaks down - it has intrinsic value, which is different to the type of art NFTs were designed for. The real problem is because people don't understand NFTs, or because they have novelty value, they're massively overpriced.

If I was a struggling digital artist, I'd no doubt be selling NFTs, because they would give me the opportunity to sell something for more than the value of a digital copy, but I'd still be upset about the environmental cost.