Comic Transcript
A: Tell me more about these “fake” NFTs.
B: They’re not actually fake, they just don’t play by the rules they use to define themselves. Digital NFTs aren’t actually non-fungible. Because they’re digital, they can be copied and distributed with abandon. For supporting evidence I submit the entire Internet, from the moment of its creation onward.
A: So if they’re actually fungible, how are they… er… unfunged?
B: Don’t ever use that word again. A purely digital NFT usually declares its “uniqueness” by including a pointer in the blockchain that identifies the location where it exists. Usually a URL.
B: For example, if the cartoonist wanted to make yesterday’s comic an NFT, he might include the URL “https://www.eviscerati.org/comics/osw/2022/02/knockoff/” in its metadata on the blockchain, and that entry would essentially be a declaration that the URL is the only location of the “original,” and that finding the image anywhere else would make it a “copy.”
A: In this example, the cartoonist would be creating an NFT of a comic that declares that digital NFTs are essentially copycat brands masquerading as the real thing?
B: Yes.
(Silence.)
A: That would be hilarious.
B: Don’t encourage him!
1 comment
I think it’s sweet that they are worrying about the cartoonist’s well-being.