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Comment by msoad | Hacker News Reader

How we even end up with a concept like NFT? Beside speculation, is there an actual use case for NFTs? Any sort of claim that is encoded in a distributed blockchain needs to be backed up by some sort of enforcement. My house title means nothing if the government doesn't back me up in a dispute. Not sure who can resolve the disputes of which blockchain and which token is the "title" of something...

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To give an ultra-charitable answer: A government could say "we're giving the option to mint your title as an NFT, and whoever holds the NFT will be treated as the title holder. This probably wouldn't work for titles in any current country for a variety of reasons (liens, taxes, etc) - but you could image doing it on a smaller scale with a less-important asset, like a concert ticket.

That said, I'm not aware of anywhere this is being done.

The problem with that is that possession is not ownership. If your NFT or other asset title is stolen, it still belongs to you, unlike in crypto world. Code is law is fundamentally incompatible with law is law, because a reconciliation process is required for exceptions, and then you’re back to a database instead of rigid enforcement of logic through code and a distributed virtual machine.

Yes but this mimics how real-life possession works, at least for low-value assets. If I go to a pawnshop with a watch, they're going to treat me as the real owner unless they have a reason not to - even if I actually stole the watch.

Your local pawn shop is also aware that possession of stolen property is a crime, and in some jurisdictions, a second degree felony. During every transaction, pawn shops will ask for a government-issued photo ID for recordkeeping purposes for the very reason you mention: the possibility of acting as a mechanism for the fencing/laundering stolen goods. Social media and blockchain make it exceedingly simple for an owner to announce their digital asset was stolen/fraudulently transferred, so ignorance is unable to be used as a defense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possession_of_stolen_goods

https://stockx.com/retro-black-and-white-dunk-vault-nft

The use cases that makes the most sense to me are digital assets that are minted in quantities of more than 1 and that gives owners access to unlock-able content.

Could be a game badge, or a way to support a creator, or a way to get a code to get early access to buy concert tickets (or something)

Value wise I’m talking about the $1-$100 range.

> Besides speculation, is there an actual use case for NFTs?

Laundering money?

It’s just the v2 take on the crypto hype. There is no real need for 99.9% of the crypto yet they got value.

Tulips had value in 1635 then two years later the market collapsed.

I don't know what's going to happen in the future. Eventually the flow of people new to cryptocurrencies will stop. I figure one of three things will happen:

1. Values hold and people treat cryptocurrencies like gold.

2. The market collapses.

3. Somebody finds something useful to do with cryptocurrencies and values appreciate with less volatility.

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