[pilingual]

What you are missing is authenticity. The point Denis is making is it has nothing to do with the atoms but the sanctity of the item. Topps and MLB issued a piece of cardboard when now they could issue a token verifiable on Ethereum.

Let’s suppose you are a huge Justin Bieber fan. Justin sends you a Signal message. You’d feel a frisson of excitement, wouldn't you? But why? He didn’t shake your hand. He didn’t sign your copy of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. No, it was just some text that appeared on your screen. And that’s the point: it was sent from Bieber himself. That moment is precious, and when an artist puts their work on the blockchain they capture that same kind of moment.

[kellyreid]

Was this directed at my or the original poster?

I use the term Provenance rather than Authenticity just to be more specific in terminology. However, Authenticity is a very very important subset of Provenance. I'd define Authenticity as "having verifiable facts to support claims of some special provenance".