The problem with this analysis, as I see it, is that a huge amount of the people who care about NFTs do get really upset about the right-clicking thing. To go with the analogy, a lot of these painting owners are getting really upset about people trying to make copies of their paintings. So as the actual users of NFTs seem to be saying, it’s not the artificial scarcity that they care about, it’s that they want want to own anything that looks identical to the Mona Lisa.
I interpret (at least some of) this behaviour as being more about protecting the perception of NFTs as a valid means of ownership than protecting the NFT directly. As analogy, if you bought the Mona Lisa to gain status from owning it and having people visit it, but everyone you spoke to made fun of you and said that they had a copy too, you might be annoyed.
Although before I read your comment I had actually assumed this upset behaviour was mostly coming from trolls—who had right-click copied the NFTs—making fake accounts to LARP as NFT owners. I don’t directly interact with NFT owning communities at all so most of my information about how people are actually behaving is filtered through the lens of what gets shared around on various social media.
The problem with this analysis, as I see it, is that a huge amount of the people who care about NFTs do get really upset about the right-clicking thing.
This isn’t my impression at all. I’ve seen zero complaints about rick clicking itself by NFT holders, but lots of takes about how the right-clicking thing is misunderstanding NFTs.
Right, I agree that that’s what a lot of NFT users are saying. A large point of this post was to steelman the idea of NFTs and find the true crux of why I think the idea, even in theory, is something that I’m not super excited about. There’s already plenty of people pointing out dumb stuff going on with NFTs and the people who peddle them today, and I don’t feel like I have much value to add in that discussion.
The problem with this analysis, as I see it, is that a huge amount of the people who care about NFTs do get really upset about the right-clicking thing. To go with the analogy, a lot of these painting owners are getting really upset about people trying to make copies of their paintings. So as the actual users of NFTs seem to be saying, it’s not the artificial scarcity that they care about, it’s that they want want to own anything that looks identical to the Mona Lisa.
I interpret (at least some of) this behaviour as being more about protecting the perception of NFTs as a valid means of ownership than protecting the NFT directly. As analogy, if you bought the Mona Lisa to gain status from owning it and having people visit it, but everyone you spoke to made fun of you and said that they had a copy too, you might be annoyed.
Although before I read your comment I had actually assumed this upset behaviour was mostly coming from trolls—who had right-click copied the NFTs—making fake accounts to LARP as NFT owners. I don’t directly interact with NFT owning communities at all so most of my information about how people are actually behaving is filtered through the lens of what gets shared around on various social media.
This isn’t my impression at all. I’ve seen zero complaints about rick clicking itself by NFT holders, but lots of takes about how the right-clicking thing is misunderstanding NFTs.
Right, I agree that that’s what a lot of NFT users are saying. A large point of this post was to steelman the idea of NFTs and find the true crux of why I think the idea, even in theory, is something that I’m not super excited about. There’s already plenty of people pointing out dumb stuff going on with NFTs and the people who peddle them today, and I don’t feel like I have much value to add in that discussion.