[bootlooped]

And the provenance of which NFT is legitimate and/or original is not on the chain either.

I create myartwork.jpeg. Somebody creates an NFT of it. Later, I create an NFT of it. Even later a bunch of people make NFT replicas of both. Which NFT is legitimate? The blockchain doesn't know.

[seibelj]

If you publicly state which smart contract is your NFT, then that would be the real one. Similarly someone could claim a physical painting is yours, but you could publicly say it isn't. The blockchain doesn't know anymore than a physical canvas "knows" what is real and what is fake. The blockchain is a tool, the artist is the creator and arbiter of what the real NFT is.

[bootlooped]

> the artist is the creator and arbiter of what the real NFT is

Then why can't they just be the arbiter of what the real JPEG is and skip a whole step?

[max48]

that's a very bad comparaison for 2 reasons:

1) Regardless of if the physical painting is the original or a copy made a talented painter, you can still enjoy how it looks on the wall. The painting doesn't magically disintegrate if you find out the certificate was forged. You also have no option but to buy it (or a replica) if you want to place it own your wall.

With an NFT, the art itself is available to anyone, regardless of if you own the NFT. You never needed to buy an NFT to enjoy the art. The only thing of value in an NFT is the NFT itself, not the art that it represent. If the NFT is not authentic, it's a much bigger deal because now it loses all of its value, not just a portion of it.

2) Creating a fake painting that looks "original", even to an amateur that doesn't know anything about art, is hard and expensive. Even when the painter isn't trying to pass it as the original one, it can easily cost thousands of dollars to get decent quality replica that looks close to the real thing.

To replicate the art of an NFT, it just takes a few clicks. It's not difficult or expensive to copy it. If you can't figure out how to do it, you probably don't need to spend more than 10$ to get someone online to do it for you.

[seibelj]

> With an NFT, the art itself is available to anyone, regardless of if you own the NFT. You never needed to buy an NFT to enjoy the art. The only thing of value in an NFT is the NFT itself, not the art that it represent. If the NFT is not authentic, it's a much bigger deal because now it loses all of its value, not just a portion of it.

I can easily print out a high-quality Mona Lisa and put it on my wall, and I can enjoy it, but I wouldn't pretend I own it.

> To replicate the art of an NFT, it just takes a few clicks. It's not difficult or expensive to copy it. If you can't figure out how to do it, you probably don't need to spend more than 10$ to get someone online to do it for you.

It is mathematically impossible to copy the NFT. It isn't the same smart contract, it isn't the same NFT. It is theoretically possible to arrange atoms in the precise location of a physical object, however.

[max48]

>I can easily print out a high-quality Mona Lisa and put it on my wall, and I can enjoy it, but I wouldn't pretend I own it.

Even a half blind person would tell you the print doesn't look anything like the painting. If you want something that looks close to the really thing, it's difficult to make. There is modern art that would be cheap/easy to replicate (eg. a blank canvas made by artist trying to create a debate about what is art or not) but anything that you are likely to want on your wall will easily cost you >500$ to replicate properly in its original size (they are larger than they look).

>It is mathematically impossible to copy the NFT. It isn't the same smart contract, it isn't the same NFT. It is theoretically possible to arrange atoms in the precise location of a physical object, however.

I wrote it poorly, I was referring to the art behind the NFT that you can replicate easily. If I see a very cool picture and want to use it as my wallpaper on my laptop, I don't need to recreate the exact same smart contract with the same wallet key or pay for the NFT, I can just copy the picture in a few clicks. The picture will look the same with or without the NFT

[seibelj]

As I stated before, the art is less important than the proof of ownership. The creator says, “This is the contract. There are only this many. All others are fake.” And for whatever reason I like the creator and want to own it. Just like a perfect print simply isn’t the real thing, I don’t want the saved image, I want the real NFT.

And again, you are fully allowed to disagree, I’m trying to explain the mentality of the NFT purchaser and it’s similarity to the physical art world.