I've always struggled with the concept of NFTs that's been going around in the mainstream media.

Yet, they directly concern the idea of digital ownership, which I value greatly.

Recently, I pinpointed what was bothering me, and it's something that is not explained to either NFT buyers or artists.

Are NFTs like digital cages ?

Most people tend to imagine that an NFT for a piece of digital artwork protects the work by locking it in a kind of digital cage, shielding it from all harm.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Nothing stops you from retrieving the image, of course. But in addition, displaying an image on the internet, say on an NFT marketplace or in your wallet, leaves copies scattered across various servers.

Did you know that a computer can't truly move data? It always starts by duplicating it, then transferring it, and finally deleting the original. But with the internet being a layered mesh of services, you can bet that it flings copies of punk faces all over the globe.

We could technically store the image inside the NFT. Some have done it. But it takes up a lot of space on the Blockchain. So it's too expensive. Therefore, we just put a URL (internet address) that points to a server where the image has been stored. This way, a website or app wanting to display your NFT only needs to load the image from its address.

This is very practical as these copies are perfect and serve merely as a medium for the art, which is fundamentally intangible, right? (You have 2 hours to answer the question in 5 parts)

The troubling part about this system of using a URL instead of the image itself is that you have no control over the server storing your NFT images. Someone can shut down the server, or even delete or change the image! And it really happens.

So, what can be done?

Firstly, when you buy an NFT, download the image and make a copy on your own computer, even multiple copies.

Side note: the guys from Cryptopunks, one of the first NFT collections, knew this all too well and that's why they told everyone to keep a copy of an image with all the punks

This will allow you to prove that it's indeed yours, as we will see how.

NFTs are proof systems

To understand what follows, you must keep in mind that NFTs are actually computer programs. What? You thought it was like a sturdy zip file? Well no, it's computer code with an attached database that records who owns which image. They act more like a collection of certificates, or proofs of ownership.

This is where it gets complicated, as there are many different NFT programs, all coded differently. This means that an NFT can essentially do anything. It's the developer of the NFT code who decides how to offer you additional guarantees, such as proving that you're indeed the holder of this image. It all depends on the code of the NFT.

Most people won't really worry about it, but I believe it's fundamental that if an NFT is a certificate of ownership of a specific digital work, one should at least be able to prove that an image is ours (that's why you should keep a copy).

There is a technique that involves storing the hash of the image, not the image itself, in the NFT's database. A hash is a string of 32 bytes mathematically linked to the image. Much lighter than the real image. The beauty of hashes is that if the image is modified even by a single pixel, the hash changes. Therefore, by comparing two hashes, we can prove if we're dealing with the image referred to by the certificate.

This is what Franck Dupont from OpenGem showed us in a recent workshop. Also, to give your image even more persistence, they send it into decentralized networks (IPFS and Arweave) capable of storing it on thousands of computers for years uniquely thanks to the hash. OpenGem's NFT standard also includes the addresses of the images on these services, which provides even more ways to retrieve the image if you've lost it.

All this to say that I remain quite concerned when I see people think they have unique, exclusive images well-protected in their wallets like a master's painting proudly displayed in their living room. When in fact, they have a poster that everyone takes pictures of.

In reality, even though it rarely stores the image on the blockchain, a well-crafted NFT, thanks to its code, provides proof of the authenticity and provenance of the artwork.

The real power of NFTs

So, if you're a digital artist and want to sell NFTs thinking you will get some sort of copy protection, think again. You are only issuing certificates of authenticity. But hey, that's not too bad, because you don't need any middleman for that!

And thanks to the programmability of NFTs, there are plenty of cool possibilities like the ability to earn royalties on future sales of your NFT. By verifying the proofs, you can also offer exclusive benefits to fans of your art by creating a community.

That's the true revolution of NFTs: irrefutable proofs that allow the one who produces value to benefit better and more directly by controlling distribution and unlocking associated services. Ultimately, these are the benefits of smart contracts on public blockchains.

Fortunately, NFTs, being computer programs, offer infinite possibilities for uses beyond these cute little images meant to flatter the vanity of some and fill the pockets of crafty individuals. It's time to get serious.

For example, one of the uses of NFTs that concerns me, at Meeds, is software licenses. Yes, software too is an intangible thing that provides value. With this, we're reinventing the entire distribution model and the value chain of software publishing.

Is everything clear? To prove that you have indeed understood that NFTs can serve more purposes than just collecting images of punks and monkeys, you can encourage me by minting the NFT of this post 👇