I think I understand NFTs

Do you remember your first brush with everyday technology?

The first computer I met face-to-face was the BBC Micro, primary school, 1984.

I was largely unimpressed and managed to avoid any further interaction with anything digital until my final year of university, when I reluctantly sat in front of one and dutifully entered my first command:

"Copy and paste".

This now seems significant.

Because it explains NFTs (thanks to a friend’s recent description). Computers introduced the idea of duplication, copying and pasting anything and everything into infinity. The end of anything original.

Which poses a problem: how do you create something of value in the online world?

Artificial scarcity.

Real scarcity is a driver of value. A genuine Rembrandt is scarce because there’s only one. Consumer attention is scarce because there are only so many hours in a day – it’s said that Netflix’s only competitor is the human need to sleep. Until we grow spare eyeballs, I guess.

We have a deep psychological need to have something others don’t, like a Chanel handbag or a Tesla 😉. It’s a form of status signalling. But at least with those things you get something physical.

How can you show off your William Shatner photographs, or the Afghan coat John Lennon wore in the film Magical Mystery Tour with an NFT?

That’s the part I don’t understand. Although I guess you don’t have to worry about moths ravaging your asset.