What the hell is an NFT?

Image via Unsplash

We've all heard about NFTs lately and some of the insane prices that some digital artworks are commanding as a result of the artificial scarcity that NFTs make possible.

While I think the craze around NFTs is completely nuts and the bubble we're currently seeing with some of them is likely to blow over, only for the fact that a digital artifact is infinitely reproducible by definition, and this type of scarcity is entirely made up.

Unlike real scarcity, there is nothing inherently prohibiting the reproduction of a digital artifact, say gold for example, which is incredibly expensive to mine and process, explaining a big part of its value.

Even though the current craze is silly, I see them as valuable as a way to enforce contracts, specifically around intellectual property, say for a photography or a building's set of plans, where their value lies in the ability to quickly determine whether a user of such assets is a rightful owner the usage rights or not.

I'm exploring the possibility of issuing those as a kind of certificate of authenticity for my photographs. If you have resources to share on the matter, I'm all ears.

What do you think? Good or bad idea?