NFTs less than meet the eye

Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are all the rage. For example, an NFT by the artist Beeple was sold on March 11, 2021 for $69 million (link to The Verge).

An NFT is basically an ownership claim to an asset, physical or digital, that is stored on a cryptographic blockchain, and normally, the blockchain does not store the actual work.

The problem with NFTs is that they are ownership claims to works being hosted by a third-party. If the third-party decides to close down the link to the artwork, then the owner of the NFT is out of luck. While they still have the NFT ownership claim (as preserved on the blockchain), they can no longer view their artwork (link to Vice).

Buyer beware. Your NFT may just vanish.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels