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                  NFTs: A Waste of Money or the Future of Art?

   Josh Centers

   The term NFT has been in the news a lot lately, but just what is it?
   NFT is short for non-fungible token'which may not help. Fungible items
   are commodities that have no difference among them, like copies of a
   mass-market printed book or pork bellies of a particular grade. NFTs
   use a blockchain ledger, similar to the one that powers Bitcoin, to
   digitally sign pieces of digital art, like images, short videos, and
   songs. That signature makes each one unique, allowing them to have
   their ownership irrevocably transferred or resold in a way that can be
   publicly and cryptographically verified. The Verge has [1]published an
   amusing explainer to help you wrap your head around the idea.

   One of the non-intuitive aspects of NFTs is that they don't work as a
   form of digital rights management, nor do they have to include any
   copyright or rights of reproduction or distribution! Why spend $16,000
   (or more!) on this [2]Gucci Ghost animation when you can Control-click
   it and save it to your Mac? The perceived value for which buyers are
   paying big money lies in the bragging rights surrounding owning what
   backers of the approach claim is the 'original,' unique copy of that
   work of art.

   It's easy to dismiss NFTs as a bit of Internet madness akin to the
   [3]GameStop short squeeze, but they do offer a real benefit for
   artists. That's because artists can set it so when the NFT is resold,
   the artist also gets a cut. As a piece of art is sold and resold, it
   often increases in value, particularly if the artist has become better
   known in the meantime, and it has long seemed largely unfair that
   artists don't get to share in that appreciation. In the end, the
   Internet has made it increasingly challenging for artists to make a
   living from their art, and NFTs might be an answer to that conundrum.

   [4]Read original article

References

   1. https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq
   2. https://niftygateway.com/itemdetail/secondary/0x4140783cc1ba30653a0777126b122931e233ba14/1300010027
   3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameStop_short_squeeze
   4. https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

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