NFT’s and me.

I was asked: “Where does your negative opinion come from? Is it because NFTs only benefit big players? Is it because of environmental concerns? Is it because NFTs have no value proposition? Is it because you don’t actually know what they are?”


Do I own the “physical artwork made by hand in my living room” or just the image of it?
Is it actual investment in an “artist” and their work (as he proposed)?
Or is this an “investment” that just sits hidden in a digital wallet somewhere? 

If I “own” the artwork, then when do I get the physical piece?
If I have the physical piece, then what do I need the NFT for?
If I don’t have the physical piece, then do I really own the artwork?

Let’s just say, for this discussion, I love Fire Eyes. So I want to display it, enjoy it.
Unlike a physical painting (of which I have purchased several from local painters and which are on display in my office right now) digital works are harder to make corporal for daily enjoyment / usage / promotion which how most people value works of artists- they enjoy partaking in the art. I need a computer, and a screen, just to show it. Do I need to dedicate a different computer and screen to display each 16¢ piece of art I purchase? That’s a lot of hardware. Do I just cycle through them using a screen saver to shuffle the images? Does that devalue what’s not being shown?

If my NFT purchase is mostly as an investment- then the value comes in the potential resale. Like stocks, or other investments, the value and enjoyment comes in the realization of value gain, which comes from others valuing what I have tucked away in my wallet. But without display- the artwork being out there and present for others to see and enjoy, how does what I have tucked away in my wallet gain in value? If they can see and enjoy my jpg image, what impetus do they have to buy the NFT from me of an image they already see and enjoy?

If it’s a digital work, and the value comes from others wanting what I have, what’s to stop them from ignoring the NFT, provable ownership and just having a screen shot and then putting that on whatever screen or method to enjoy the work? I mean, there are millions of people around the world right now with posters of Monet paintings that they enjoy on their walls. You can even get canvas prints at Ikea, worldwide. There’s nothing stopping NFT art from experiencing the same dissolution of value. 

If it’s an investment- fine. It gets put away and may increase in value someday.
Somehow. ?

If it’s art for art’s sake, then does “physical artwork made by hand in my living room” stay with the artist? What does “ownership” even mean if I’m just “owning” a small PNG image of an actual piece of art that sits in someone else’s house, and the PNG can easily be screenshot and that sits in a 3rd person’s house? What is “ownership” at that point?

I understand the whole “traceable ownership” thing, but do not understand how owners derive artistic enjoyment from the art they purchase while supporting artists “who were unable to sell their works in the mainstream.”
It feels like a completely fungible transaction to me. 

I am a supporter of the arts, a buyer of local painter’s works, trying to wrap my mind around NFT’s, and thusfar, I’m not successful at it- at least based upon the vast majority of crap and commercial (usually also crap) NFT’s that I’ve seen foisted on a gullible public.

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