This is an old debate and not really the subject at hand, but I'll still bite (against my better judgement).
You don't need to own an NFT to enjoy the art. That's the fundamental difference between art in the real world and digital art (NFT or not). When you own a piece of art you get to look at the original; this is a unique experience in the case of a painting, and sometimes a rare experience in the case of limited editions of photos.
But the digital art is the same whether you "own it" or not. From an esthetic experience (not a financial one, obviously), it's pointless to "own" digital art.
The only thing that would influence the esthetic experience of digital art is the medium. Buy a better screen. Better speakers. Etc.
> People spend countless hours hanging out on Discord
Sure. That I don't doubt.
What you lose is a direct connection to the original artist. Art is as much about the story of that artwork as it is the art itself.
If an artist mints an NFT and that NFT has has provenance that's generally accepted by the community at large, then it has all the properties of an original physical artwork. Except that you can be more sure of its origin, because the blockchain history is immutable and you can trace the transactions back to the original creator.
Music NFTs have been created, although they are certainly still nascent, it's possible to create an MP3-based NFT that has the same or better quality as a CD album. One could imagine NFT albums being minted just like CD and record albums of yore. One could imagine people collecting the NFTs just for the sake of actually owning the rights to backup and play that music without having to stream through Spotify or YouTube. One could imagine the user retaining the right to resell that album just like they had the right to resell a used CD back in the day.
I already gave many examples above about how NFTs can be used beyond the basic use-case of attaching a JPEG (access to services, access to software, use in cross-game or cross-app experiences, etc).
Some people are collecting them as Proofs of Attendance (POAPS), which are free NFTs used as badges. They're quite popular and fun to collect. I do so for the pure enjoyment of them. Sometimes the badges above are used for things like giveaways. If I want to reward loyal community members, I can issue a POAP for attending a particular video chat, and then give out random rewards to anyone holding one of my community's POAPs. That's cool, and fun. I've been in communities where we create our own POAPs as funny shared inside jokes.
There is extra enjoyment to be had knowing that you came into ownership of something according to a set of agreed upon rules. That is to say "legitimate" ownership. Legitimate NFT's can make one feel part of a community so there is value in that.
Perhaps most importantly, "legitimate" ownership generally implies that the artist(s) were compensated by you (somewhat) directly. That, in itself can enhance the enjoyment. There are more factors at play than merely ego.
I'll give a personal, real-world example. I own ~$1000 item that I bought as part of fundraiser for someone struggling with medical bills. I was also friends with the creator and wanted to support their work. So, even though I paid much more than I would have paid had I just bought it directly, I get a great deal of extra satisfaction out of owning this item. I supported two different people whom I admire by purchasing it. That makes me happy.
I'm not a huge fan of NFT's (as they exist currently) but I don't think it's correct that enjoying ownership of NFT art, or art in general, is solely ego-based.
As for claiming ownership, yes, if I paid some amount for the ownership of a particular piece of art (commercial rights or otherwise), that is called an exchange or a trade or a transaction. It's quite common in capitalist societies. Not sure why that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But to each their own.
Something tells me you don’t care much for paintings if you think this is in any way a similar media.
Don't you still have the ability to listen to the cd post sale because you can always load up an older version of the blockchain where you did own it?
Typically what you will find in these scenarios is that front ends hosted in jurisdictions that recognize intellectual property rights will de-list those NFTs upon request. And file providers on Filecoin or Arweave (in said jurisdictions) will unpin them from their hosting services.
However, there's no guarantee that given an IPFS hash that a user couldn't find some pinning service to locate the file (just as a determined user could easily find a torrent for a particular MP3). These are agnostic protocols just like HTTP or SMTP.
> Don't you still have the ability to listen to the cd post sale because you can always load up an older version of the blockchain where you did own it?
The MP3 itself would not be stored on the Ethereum blockchain, as it would be prohibitively expensive to store a multi-megabyte file on there. It would be stored on a separate storage layer, such as Filecoin or Arweave (or even a centralized server). A hash of that file is what would be stored on the Ethereum chain (an IPFS hash).
It has zero provenance
> that's generally accepted by the community at large
Ah yes, that's why art isn't counterfeited en masse because community something something. Oh wait...
Also. "Community at large" is literally "we need an institution of trust".
Sorry, it absolutely has provenance. It's better provenance than any traditional art asset has by far.
> Ah yes, that's why art isn't counterfeited en masse because community something something. Oh wait...
Ok, go make a counterfeit CryptoPunk. Go make a counterfeit BAYC. Then try and sell it. Should take you 5 seconds to right click and generate a new NFT with the same image...
So then, what is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) actually good for? The answer seems to be proofs of provenance, ownership, and authenticity.
Provenance is defined as the place where something originally came or began, or a record tracing the ownership history of certain items that helps to confirm their authenticity and value. How many things in the world need a proof of provenance? Paper towels? No. Corn? No. Cars? Yes, maybe. Art? Yes, as established, but not everyone likes art like they do their cars, at least in the West. So, market sizes matter. A good idea is only as good as the market, and NFTs aren't an idea that is actually sold, it's an idea on an idea of selling something. Like marketing, NFTs are more like a meme than a product or service. (I realize some people consider marketing to include market analysis, which is something else entirely.)
But, who runs the car provenance proofs? Do we put all the data about the car on the chain? That would be too much data for current chains. I suspect, like the speed of computers, an increase in throughput will just result in more junk on the chain. How much junk can a chain take? Not much, I'd hazard. How do you sell your car NFT to grandpa when the car chain is full of junk? You probably don't.
But, there isn't really much in which I need to prove ownership. My house and my truck have titles. It's pointless to make NFTs for them, given the state runs the database and the state is pretty good at this by now, especially given they take money from me for property tax and plates. I don't care to prove ownership of anything else. What I have in my possession is enough proof. The police would take a photo of my 3d printer as proof of ownership if it were stolen and then located in my neighbor's house.
The whole idea about using NFTs to share(holder) out my house or truck is also pointless. To make me pay someone that held an NFT on a share of my house is going to be a challenge. There's probably a contract somewhere that would do more good in forcing my hand to pay up, like the mortgage company would do if I had a mortgage and defaulted. But, is it useful? I guarantee attorneys will get involved if that happens.
Authenticity? Who cares? In this age of mass consumption, the focus of NFTs on art defines a very small market. In fact, I'd say the desire by some to "collect", of a certain generation maybe, is pretty pointless. It reminds me of my friend buying a bunch of Hot Wheels in his 20s because he thought not opening them and playing with them would make them worth more in the future. He had a huge collection in his attic. I don't trade things like this, but many do, and I appreciate that they may think NFTs help with their "hobby".
At the end of the day NFTs are made for the imagination - which is why the conversation always turns to gaming. They cater to it like nothing else. They make people think that "value" is a real thing and that it can somehow be "preserved" by using a series of calculations. I get that some people love the idea of NFTs so much, they can't help but spread that love to others. The only problem I see with that is that there really is no killer use case here. Instead, we get things like NFTs of blocks of tungsten that can only be touched once a year or saving that "special moment" in game that will be forgotten by the mind in a year.
