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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

> nothing in the NFT itself betrays that it wasn't issued by the real Techno Viking

This part is incorrect. Every token is signed can be verified against the content creator's public key. You can absolutely verify a "genuine" NFT.

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So, are artists suddenly getting in on pgp key-signing parties to establish a web of trust, or is the public key of the artist really just a key claiming to be that of the artist? What is to stop me from buying "bank.se", "banksy.me" and "banksy.io," and actioning off three different NFTs (of three different digital representations of the same street art) to different online art communities? What is to stop someone who MITM's the artist's webpage from selling NFTs on their behalf?

> What is to stop someone who MITM's the artist's webpage from selling NFTs on their behalf?

I guess anti-fraud laws… Also, to my disappointment, someone already got banksy.io :D

You have to first know which public key is genuine.

Well blockchains aren't trying to solve the digital identity problem. Artists can share their public key however they like.

Then its left as an exercise for the user to actually verify the authenticity.

Sure, but if Warhol had each of his prints signed with an unforgeable signature akin to a private key, while we still have to know what is private key was, the Warhol Authentication Board wouldn't have been in the mess that it was in.

It seems like the digital identity problem is fundamental to actually do what NFTs claim to do, though.

>Well blockchains aren't trying to solve the digital identity problem

They are! BrightID and Proof of Humanity are two of the leading projects working on decentralized identity. It's a pretty exciting space!

https://www.brightid.org/ https://www.proofofhumanity.id/

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