I'm tired of saying that NFTs are not a tool to verify the original property, which can't be done inside the blockchain, but to prove that the following transactions are legitimate.
> Which is basically useless in the face of how trivial the initial conditions are to violate.
No, because it is possible to actively validate the initial conditions with reasonable effort.
There are in fact two initial conditions:
- Was the NFT created by person X? This is trivial to validate - check the artist's website for their key/wallet/signature, or ask your peers.
- Was an artwork (represented by the NFT) created by person X? This is equally as hard to validate as any claim to authorship, and something humanity has been able to manage for centuries.
Probably not as big as people make it out to be. First, the vast majority never sees sales. Secondly, we know that a large number of artworks are used w/o permission across the web, on sites like red bubble, or to sell prints or drop ship products on Amazon. No doubt this is on the tens of thousands too.
No, you can't - you need state to enable the concept of ownership. We need a way not just to verify that your signature is valid - we need to be able to deny the seller the ability to still claim a valid signature.