It is an open API to deal with ownership rights. Every behavior that you can program into ownership, is now available. The profile pictures are stupid, yes, but the idea that property is moved to an open database which anyone can program a behavior is exciting.
Aston martin can now have a lounge in France where only Aston Martin owners can join, even if your car is in New York. Even if they can do that now, they haven't, and would not do it in an open api that anyone can build any application they want for owners.
We are learning what is possible at this very moment, a lot of the experiments are memes, and there are twice as many scams. Open and permissionless means that scammers as well as innovators are invited. However, there's excitement there which is very palpable and I would encourage you not to dismiss it.
What's the point of the database being open? That doesn't seem all that exciting and there are plenty of examples of other open databases.
> property is moved to an open database
But it's not really in most cases. Only the claim of ownership is in the database.
And the claim part is important.
> Aston martin can now have a lounge in France where only Aston Martin owners can join
What if I sell my car and don't transfer my NFT showing ownership of the car? Who will enforce the requirement that I must transfer the NFT when I sell my car?
>What if I sell my car and don't transfer my NFT showing ownership of the car? Who will enforce the requirement that I must transfer the NFT when I sell my car
Buying a car without getting the NFT would be as dumb as buying a car and not getting the title. Sure it's possible to do but it's a pretty basic fundamental step and if you don't trust yourself to do it then maybe just go to a dealer and let them take care of you.
Selling a car and not transferring the NFT is akin to selling a car and not transferring the title. Sure it's possible and you could con some really dumb people but it would be an expected part of the deal and the kind of people who buy used cars are already wary of scammers for this reason.
You're answering a different question. If I keep the car and the title, what stops me from selling my NFT? Or, even, transferring my NFT to a wallet and then giving the wallet away in the physical world (like selling a MMORPG account)? Or sharing my wallet containing the NFT with several people who can all use it to gain access to the exclusive benefits? "Hey bro, send me your private key so I can get into this club."
There's no legal reason any of those things can't be done.
>If I keep the car and the title, what stops me from selling my NFT?
Nothing, but you lose all of the benefits that come with the NFT along with making the car much harder for you to sell in the future.
>Or sharing my wallet containing the NFT with several people who can all use it to gain access to the exclusive benefits? "Hey bro, send me your private key so I can get into this club."
This already happens with things like airport lounge access and other things like Netflix where you share your credentials with your friends. Nothing is stopping you but if the services find out they will likely ban you and you will lose access and the resale value of your car will also go down.
Most of this is common sense and people won't even give it much thought in the future but it's interesting that a lot of these cases need to be explained when technology is new.
I'm not seeking an explanation. I'm trying to draw attention to my argument that NFTs won't allow us to do anything fundamentally new.
NFTs are hyped as a grand new thing, then someone asks about some tricky edge cases or how abuse will be handled, and then NFT proponents say those abuses already happen and it will be no different with NFTs. Like a lot of blockchain technologies, it's just another way to do what we already do.
edit:
Actually, I see your original argument is that NFT's are an "open API". You never did claim that NFTs allow us to do things we cannot already do.
It is an open API to deal with ownership rights. Every behavior that you can program into ownership, is now available. The profile pictures are stupid, yes, but the idea that property is moved to an open database which anyone can program a behavior is exciting.
Aston martin can now have a lounge in France where only Aston Martin owners can join, even if your car is in New York. Even if they can do that now, they haven't, and would not do it in an open api that anyone can build any application they want for owners.
We are learning what is possible at this very moment, a lot of the experiments are memes, and there are twice as many scams. Open and permissionless means that scammers as well as innovators are invited. However, there's excitement there which is very palpable and I would encourage you not to dismiss it.