How NFTs Create Value

NFTs have fundamentally changed the market for digital assets. Historically there was no way to separate the “owner” of a digital artwork from someone who just saved a copy to their desktop. Markets can’t operate without clear property rights: Before someone can buy a good, it has to be clear who has the right to sell it, and once someone does buy,... See more

Traditionally creators have monetized either through displaying ads or renting out access to content behind a paywall. NFTs create an entirely new paradigm where superfans can support an artist directly in return for ownership over a piece of their content. NFTs allow the producers of content to capture a higher percentage of the total willingness ... See more

What follows is intended as a framework to understand how the properties of NFTs might make them particularly useful—or useless—in our own daily lives. NFTs are special, I believe, for two reasons: they correlate to our own unique traits as biological organisms, and they allow us to turn nearly any good into an investment with resale value.