NFT Me, Baby

Have you thought of offering NFTs of your work?

This question keeps coming up for some reason. To understand what NFT is, you have to first learn about etherium and blockchains.

Etherium is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin. You know how you go to an arcade and you buy tokens? Same principle, but digital. To really simplify it, cryptocurrency “coins” are heavily encrypted bits of code.

These coins are bought and traded for goods and services, and all of these transactions are kept in a digital ledger called blockchain. This ledger is spread out across a vast network of computers and is heavily encrypted. The blockchain is tamper-proof. It’s very difficult to alter it. The blockchain guarantees that cryptocurrency is genuine. In the old days people would bite gold coins to see if they had enough gold to be soft. With cryptocurrency, blockchain record is the proof of authenticity.

I’m not going to go into bitcoin mining and nodes, etc, for the purposes of this post. We are mostly interested in the blockchain itself.

NFT stands for a nonfungible token and it works just like etherium cryptocurrency. It is also supported by this blockchain process. But unlike the etherium coins, NFTs store a bit of extra information. NFTs can be attached to any digital media, including ebooks, but it is most often attached to art.

Here is a portrait of Tuna. I can make an NFT of it, a token that attaches specifically to this image. Then I can sell that NFT. Because NFT is supported by the blockchain, a random hacker can’t just copy it. It’s a unique bit of code.

But what am I really selling here? It’s not the ownership of the image. I, as a copyright holder, retain that. It’s not exclusive rights to the use of this image. Any of you can right-click on this image and save it. So what is it?

I am selling the receipt.

That’s what NFT is. It is a record that you paid some money for this image. Nobody else can pay money for it now, unless they buy that right from you by purchasing your NFT.

Again, you are not buying rights to the image. You are buying the receipt.

What value does this receipt have?

Zip.

But people are selling them for crazy money. Well, sure. People with too much money are free to set it on fire. But what is the guarantee of NFT value? What do you get for your money? You don’t get intellectual property, you don’t get rights, you don’t get anything tangible or valuable except for the proof of your own willingness to spend money in unwise ways. This emperor has no clothes.

But what about some poor artists for whom it is a way to supplement their income?

::spreads arms:: Hey, if someone wants to buy an NFT from you, why not? I have seen a record of someone buying an ARC of Magic Triumphs for $7,000 on Ebay. Spoiler, it’s not that special and the finished copy is better.

We are not in the business of selling receipts. We are in the business of writing and selling books, and if you want to get deeper, we are in the business of selling an escape. We offer you a chance to leave your life, if only briefly, and have that much needed break, to experience adventure, danger, tragedy, and joy, and then we return you back to your couch safe and sound and hopefully a little less stressed.

We have no plans of offering NFTs of our books. If you want to support us, buy our work. We deeply appreciate it.