NFTs
Tokens that represent a unique item rather than an interchangeable amount. Useful for provenance and membership; oversold as digital art ownership.
What is an NFT and what do you actually own?
An NFT is a blockchain entry recording that a specific address holds a specific token. Owning one usually means owning the ledger entry, not the artwork or its copyright: in most cases the image itself sits on a separate server and the rights remain with the creator unless a licence says otherwise.
Fungible and non-fungible
Money is fungible: one euro is interchangeable with any other. A concert ticket for a specific seat is not. Non-fungible tokens are the ledger equivalent of the ticket, each one distinct.
What the token records
An NFT is an entry saying a token with a given identifier belongs to a given address, usually alongside a link to metadata describing what it represents.
The important detail is that the artwork is normally not on the blockchain. Storing images on-chain is expensive, so the token typically points at a URL or a content hash. If that server disappears, the token survives and the picture does not.
What you own
Buying an NFT transfers the token. It does not, by default, transfer copyright, reproduction rights, or exclusive use of the image. Anyone can still view, copy and repost it.
Some projects grant a licence alongside the token, and the terms vary widely. Many buyers in 2021 did not read them and assumed rights they never received.
After the bubble
Prices collapsed through 2022. What remains is the narrower set of uses where a unique, verifiable, transferable record is genuinely useful:
- Event ticketing, where transfer rules and resale caps can be enforced
- Membership and access, where a token gates entry to something
- Provenance for physical goods and certificates
- Domain names and on-chain identity
These are unglamorous and mostly work.
Our own experience
Blockchain Brussels members ran an NFT project in November 2022 around a concert by Dana Gillespie and the London Blues Band, with a session bringing together journalists and NFT practitioners to discuss what blockchain applications actually offer artists. That was near the bottom of the market, which made for a more sober conversation than the year before.
This page is general information, not investment or legal advice.
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