NFTs (of non-fungible tokens) have been recently popping off in the digital art world. At core, NFTs can (and will, in the future) serve multiple use-cases on a wide range of services.

I will start by describing the digital art problem and explain why NFTs are a critical part of the digital art development, and a major stepping stone in changing the perception of digital art.

My main concern is the potential use cases of NFTs outside the art world. This is where I believe that NFTs could contribute to an even more monetised internet, with less freedom and more control from giant corporations.

The digital art dilemma

Digital art creation, distribution and storage, naturally works a lot different from conventional, real-life art. The physicality aspect of traditional art is what confirms its perceived value. The fact that there painting is unique, and you cannot have more than one original is adding to the authenticity of conventional art, making it easy to auction and own the physical object.

In the digital space, every object is replicable, and everything can be copy-pasted. This holds true for digital art. Yes you can normally acquire a digital art piece and store it as a JPG on your computer. However, that does not make is unique or non-replicable. It's all two easy for digital art to be considered a lesser form of art purely because it can be duplicated at infinitum.

The problem that NFTs are tackling in the art space is the debate over authenticity. If you can own one unique token, representing the art you just bought, that will in turn give in intrinsic value. It can no longer be copied through traditional means and replicated infinitely. You are the owner of a unique piece of digital information.

In my opinion this is a huge stepping stone for digital art, and a major contributor change the public's perception of it from a lesser art form, to an art medium in its own right.

Exhibiting NFT art

With a unique digital art piece, museums and galleries are more likely to exhibit those in the physical space, thereby changing the masses perception of what it digital art, who acquires and how it'll stand the test of time.

Exhibiting a unique piece of digital art is more likely to align the perception of the digital medium to the traditional one. Digital will become a medium, and not a parallel universe where art is perceived as lesser than its physical counterparts.

NFTs in the legal framework

The legal basis for NFTs is virtually non-existent, so right now even if you own an NFT, while it can only be accessed by you, there is no legal backing to support the fact that your are truly the owner of this information.

But the law is always playing a never-ending catch-up game with technology, it'll take a considerable amount of time until NFTs will be incorporated in to any legal framework, but I personally believe they will ultimately define ownership of digital assets.

NFTs outside the art world

The applications are virtually endless. I was recently approached by a company who proposed that I build cryptocurrency trading signals on their Platform, and mint those signals as an NFT. So I can choose how many people can have access to this information as well as how to monetise it.

Outside my personal experience, the idea of information exclusivity can take different ramifications, but here is where I personally think that NFTs can ultimately interfere with the information freedom (or whatever's left of it).

Freedom of information in a tokenised Internet

This is where it gets scary. While I absolutely support the NFT use cases for digital art, using it outside this niche could have potentially disruptive consequences on the freedom of information on the Internet.

All it takes if giant corporations like Facebook and Google to start integrating NFT into various processes:

• Content creation. Imagine an NFT being minted for every Facebook post you make. Everyone can access it but only Facebook can modify or delete it. This is more invasive than the current level of control as it gives Facebook absolute control over your content and data.
• Capped searches. Your website will now only show on Google search if you give Google the right to tokenise your website. "Oops, it looks like you've reached your free quote of 2000 users/month, upgrade your plan if you still want people to keep discovering your website." or "looks like you're trying to access to many webpages, upgrade your plan to keep browsing"

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TL;DR - NFTs solve a real issue in the art world, but could potentially disrupt the free flow of internet information in the future. Keep NFTs in art, don't support companies adopting it.