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In defense of provenance, there's value in saying "I have contributed to this by chipping in". You can print off a digital painting on your inkjet, but paying f
by romwell 5y ago
In defense of provenance, there's value in saying "I have contributed to this by chipping in". You can print off a digital painting on your inkjet, but paying for a signed print means you are enabling the artist to create more art, and you can justifiably take pride in that.
Of course, that's not how the world works. I wish provenance of something was not as valuable when we're talking about art made by dead people (or already reach and famous). I wish art was not used as a money store. And I feel that NFTs - and this PGP-based idea in particular - offer a possible solution to this, due to this one bug-that's-a-feature:
>Without a published chain of transactions, there is no guarantee that the artist hasn't sold the same item multiple times.
In short, the value cannot be driven up by scarcity, because there is no way to verify that. What you pay for is the record of paying someone.
We kind of have this with political donations already (public rosters of donors serve that purpose), and we have Patreon, but if I wanted someone to take pride in supporting my art with $5 - and make them able to publicly show off, which helps me too - there's no obvious way to go about it without physical tokens, or relying on 3rd parties, like Patreon, which may or may not exist in 10 years.
That's one reason vinyl and tapes are taking off like crazy. It's not just about the medium. The physical token matters.
The inherent flaw of NFTs-as-stores-of-value (and digital signatures/provenance proofs in general) may also be their saving grace.
- williamtrask 5y agoThis only counts if you’re buying it from the artist directly.
- dsr_ 5y agoIt counts a very little bit if you are buying it in public while the artist is still alive and producing, because it helps establish the value of their art in a way that they can profit from. But that's not anywhere near as good as buying it from the artist.
- ganoushoreilly 5y agoDepending on the contract some nfts pay out the original creator a percentage every time it’s traded. That’s something you don’t get in most markets.
- dsr_ 5y agoIt's a thing which can be added to a real-world contract. "Buyer agrees as an unalterable condition that: if Buyer or Buyer's estate sells, gifts, donates, or transfers the Artifact in any way, Two Percent of the Current Market Value of the Artifact is due to the Artist or the Artist's Estate within 30 days of such sale, gift, donation, or transfer. The Current Market Value is the higher of the most recent price paid for the Artifact or an appraisal made by an independent, reasonable expert up to 1 Year prior to the sale, gift, donation or transfer." Or the like, as adjusted for jurisdictions.
- romwell 5y ago>This only counts if you’re buying it from the artist directly. Yup, that's the point. What value is there in a receipt that says "I paid money to the person that supported the artist"?
- codetrotter 5y ago> What value is there in a receipt that says "I paid money to the person that supported the artist"? Because that allows more people to support artists in the first hand. If the art was guaranteed to lose value, or keep the value but not increase in value, then fewer people would want to buy art from artists directly.
- mwattsun 5y agoOne thing I don't understand is that, afaik, and NFT and the record of transactions have no legal weight or enforceability like the assignment of copyright.
- judge2020 5y agoSure it does, the NFT sales are like a bill of sale - both parties have to agree on a price before the money & item change hands. But the legal side doesn't really matter for what you'd traditionally want it for, as this public ledger literally cannot be changed by force nor the focus of an entire government attempting to do so (well, they could jail miners and people not using their fork with the forged transaction, but still).
- criddell 5y agoIs an NFT different from other blockchain transactions? If I steal your wallet, am I also stealing your NFTs? If an NFT is designed to send some percentage of a sale to the person who minted it, is there a way to prevent me from selling you my wallet without going back to the blockchain?
- judge2020 5y ago> is there a way to prevent me from selling you my wallet without going back to the blockchain? Besides hardware wallets, most people wouldn't take the risk of buying a wallet since the seller could then send the NFTs to a different address they control, thus leaving you with a worthless wallet you paid above market price for. > If I steal your wallet, am I also stealing your NFTs? (once again, besides hardware wallets) stealing a wallet itself is only possible if the owner doesn't have the private key / secret words jotted down somewhere. A much more likely and common attack after finding a private key is to immediately transfer all NFTs to another address for cheap.
- criddell 5y agoSo it would put you back into the realm of traditional transactions? That doesn't seem like a huge problem. If I sell you my car, there's no way of you knowing if I gave you all the copies of my keys. I could steal the car anytime in the future.