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NFTs are about the token ownership, not the asset, so this archive is rather pointless on its own. But it's a very meta "art" piece as described by the article

NFTs are about the token ownership, not the asset, so this archive is rather pointless on its own. But it's a very meta "art" piece as described by the article, especially if it also serves as an NFT asset itself. Will be interesting to see how how far this layer cake will go.

cm2187 5y ago
I think it does illustrate that NFT themselves are useless (other than being some sort of performance art). If you legally bought the right to something, what has value is not the NFT, it is the legal contract of the transaction. If you don’t sign a contract, the NFT is just a few bytes stored somewhere that have no consequences. The value is in the legal agreement.
- manigandham 5y ago
  That's true, it's just another medium of execution via cryptographic signatures exposed as on-chain tokens. The legal foundation is still being figured out (mostly due to transparency and global jurisdiction issues) but there is something unique about having a much more programmable system. It's like DocuSign + APIs + banking + decentralized security and governance all rolled into one, and I think societal and economic changes will catch up to make this new system of transactions much more valuable.
  - Dylan16807 5y ago
    > It's like DocuSign + APIs + banking + decentralized security and governance all rolled into one, and I think societal and economic changes will catch up to make this new system of transactions much more valuable. What makes you think that? When I see that the people that are the most invested aren't bothering to tie any real rights to the NFTs, that's a really bad sign. Blockchains are also pretty bad at banking in general.
    - lottin 5y ago
      Yeah, blockchains are incompatible with exercising coercive power, and it turns out without coercive power there are not that many useful things you can do. For example, enforcing a copyright license, or a loan agreement, requires coercive power.
- leppr 5y ago
  There is more to art than a legal framework. That's an intentionally myopic view. Art NFTs are a social signal.
  - JohnFen 5y ago
    > Art NFTs are a social signal. Which is what makes art NFTs particularly mockworthy.

cm2187 5y ago

I think it does illustrate that NFT themselves are useless (other than being some sort of performance art). If you legally bought the right to something, what has value is not the NFT, it is the legal contract of the transaction. If you don’t sign a contract, the NFT is just a few bytes stored somewhere that have no consequences. The value is in the legal agreement.

manigandham 5y ago
That's true, it's just another medium of execution via cryptographic signatures exposed as on-chain tokens. The legal foundation is still being figured out (mostly due to transparency and global jurisdiction issues) but there is something unique about having a much more programmable system. It's like DocuSign + APIs + banking + decentralized security and governance all rolled into one, and I think societal and economic changes will catch up to make this new system of transactions much more valuable.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  > It's like DocuSign + APIs + banking + decentralized security and governance all rolled into one, and I think societal and economic changes will catch up to make this new system of transactions much more valuable. What makes you think that? When I see that the people that are the most invested aren't bothering to tie any real rights to the NFTs, that's a really bad sign. Blockchains are also pretty bad at banking in general.
  - lottin 5y ago
    Yeah, blockchains are incompatible with exercising coercive power, and it turns out without coercive power there are not that many useful things you can do. For example, enforcing a copyright license, or a loan agreement, requires coercive power.
leppr 5y ago
There is more to art than a legal framework. That's an intentionally myopic view. Art NFTs are a social signal.
- JohnFen 5y ago
  > Art NFTs are a social signal. Which is what makes art NFTs particularly mockworthy.