It's not that different than buying an original artwork. It's not as though you couldn't get a copy of the Mona Lisa that is technically superior (i.e. larger,

It's not that different than buying an original artwork. It's not as though you couldn't get a copy of the Mona Lisa that is technically superior (i.e. larger, no defects, modern materials, doesn't require absurd security, etc.). The original artwork is an assemblage of atoms touched by the original creator, just as these NFTs are an assemblage of math touched by the original creator. The main distinction in my mind is that an NFT is not intrinsic to the original work. It wasn't created as a consequence of making the original. We could create intrinsic NFTs if we wanted to. Something like a digital photo digitally signed by the author, with the outer 1% of the pixels cropped off and added to the NFT block, just as the back and unseen edges of paintings are used to prove provenance.