They're like minting a commemorative coin celebrating the asset, and only minting a single coin. The coin does not represent ownership of the asset. It's just...a coin. A token. Supposedly, the uniqueness gives it value, but if I decide to record a single fart, that fart is unique, but the uniqueness does not inherently create value.
An NFT for the Mona Lisa caries no benefits or rights, other than saying "I own the NFT for the Mona Lisa". It's inherently worthless, with a supposed value being created from absolutely nothing.
Anyone buying NFTs either doesn't know what they're actually paying for, or thinks they're going to be able to find a greater fool who will eventually be willing to pay more.
Perhaps in the future if NFTs get some sort of legal backing and therefore more enforced property rights, maybe it'll be different, however I think the analogy works well for now.
Thoughts?
It's not even “the NFT” — anyone can create a new NFT for the same image on a different blockchain or make a 1 pixel modification and create a new NFT for something visually indistinguishable. You could imagine an art museum making something potentially harder to clone but at that point it's like a donor buying a new frame or putting a bench in front of it, and they don't have a reason to give money to the blockchain grifters when the only value comes from the reputation of a single trusted party.
> Anyone buying NFTs either doesn't know what they're actually paying for, or thinks they're going to be able to find a greater fool who will eventually be willing to pay more.
My assumption is that most of it is simply an attempt to make cryptocurrency look valuable. Nobody has a requirement to use it so they need people to think that an NFT is an investment to get new marks buying Ethereum. Sell it to your buddy, make sure every reporter in the world hears the transaction price in hard currency values, and either write that off as marketing cost or quietly have your buddy transfer the tokens back later minus a commission.
They don’t ever.
You can write that text all you like, but it wouldn’t be a legal contract.
Hint: Who is do you think is signing that contract, and who is going to enforce it?
That's why it has the sentence saying that the person selling you the receipt has never owned the mona lisa.