I finally understood why some NFTs are worth millions of dollars …

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Coinmonks

7 min readNov 19, 2021

Edito: There are several types of NFT such as those in video games or those used in metaverse. In this video, we are talking about “artistic” type NFTs.

Surely you have heard that some PDF files and JPEG images have sold for millions of dollars. Does that surprise you and you think that the world is not going round any more? (Has he even gone round yet, eh?).

The effervescence of NFT shows us that humanity has crossed a new paradigm. This can be disconcerting, and all the more so when you don’t try to understand the foundations of this change. We advance, we walk and we run to rush headlong into the future. What does that mean?

Nothing other than the logical continuation of our use of the internet and computers. Hey, yes, don’t see science fiction mystique when there is nothing more rational in the history of science and technology. Each era has its share of new uses. Is this progress will the millennials say, is it nonsense will the boomers say?

The astronomical prices that exchange for simple PNG images can seem crazy at first. After all, a video of a meowing cat with a pixelated rainbow as a backdrop has bought itself millions of dollars.

What is so special about this cat? Frankly, nothing?

Nothing, if not his story? Perhaps it derives its value simply from having been “mined” on the blockchain?

We waste our time and our energy if we try to analyze the pixelated cat and its artistic value. We cannot debate here or play ourselves an art critic to try to find some justification. In fact, that’s not where the debate is….

It’s no longer just the little geek in his room who buys crypto who collects digital works. Oh no, art institutions like Christie’s (just that) or big investment firms buy and raise the stakes. The Visa company is also doing it. She bought her first NFT for a whopping $ 150,000. A trifle for Visa? The equivalent of a few commissions taken on our one-day purchases and a single handful of cardholders.

That said, the gesture speaks volumes.

It says a lot more than you might think at first glance. Remember that Visa is a financial operator that has not always shown itself to be “tolerant” towards cryptocurrencies. By purchasing an NFT, the company is clearly showing us that it is now accepting this new technology. For some, it was even the image of the resignation and abdication of fiat money to cryptocurrency.

Times are changing, mentalities are changing and history has shown us the reluctance one could have with new products in general.

How many artists have not suffered from being misunderstood by their contemporaries?

Remember that Cézanne and the Cubist clique had difficulty paying their rent, despite intensive production. Cubist works — in their early days — were considered aesthetic obscenities. At the beginning in any case, I make it clear before the historians flog me. Some traders refused to be paid with these paintings. It had no value after all.

Worse still, a painting with a woman disfigured like that, who would want it in her dining room?

Cubism, no thanks!

Anyway, you can take a screenshot of your Picasso very well, right? You don’t need to have the original, you will tell me. You can even have it “done” again to a talented artist, right? A good counterfeit is even difficult to spot with the naked eye. As expert as he is.

We know that the counterfeits of some paintings are absolutely identical to the original versions. So identical that some say many of our museums are full of them. Do you have a corner in your mouth? Yet, unless you point a microscope at the artwork, you won’t see any difference.

Besides, the microscopes themselves would be the first to be duped. The imitators of paintings are so talented that they even trick scientific laboratories into estimating the age of the work, which is to tell you how well they are made!

It’s not for nothing that in English these type of crooks are called “con Artist”. It includes under this name all people extremely gifted to falsify behavior or works.

So let’s say you have this work that is identical to the original.

I challenge you, so try reselling your perfect copy of your Picasso (claiming it’s a copy, eh).

This is how you will understand all the intelligence of an NFT.

With an NFT, you are sure to have the original. The real work while all the others are only carbon copies.

This Just because the work is digital does not mean that it does not have the right to have its original file. Thus, it would be impossible today to sell a fake Picasso if he had his NFT. Why? It would be fully traceable on the blockchain. Yes, yes, you know this large repository in which all exchange transactions are written and irreversible.

Understand that each owner would be scrupulously noted in this computer ledger. We would know where the work is located, to whom it belongs and even the exact time of its resale.

So if in retrospect it loses some of its luster, however, anchored in the contemporary world, an NFT makes sense.

Behind the amazing prices that you see, it’s also (but not only) the price of the technology behind that is reflected. This is why NFTs are also very interesting and useful in other areas such as diplomas (no more fake diplomas), digital identity, video games, etc.

So, beyond NFT and technology, a digital work of art has just as much weight and raison d’être as an oil painting. It is simply one more advance in the history of art that is not static and frozen in a given period, as we know.

That one does not understand why a Beeple video sells for thousands of euros must be part of the same misunderstanding when it comes to the works of Jeff Koons, for example. Contemporary art is just as curious for the neophyte (in the amount of works sold) as are the NFTs.

Koons’s Rabbit artwork has sold for over US $ 90 million.
To the eye of a discerning collector, he sees only two artists with two different mediums.

Some have had the audacity to think that some NFTs sell for a high price just because they are NFT (and therefore computer technology).

Which brings us to the ultimate question that must be asked: Does being an NFT add (financial) value to an image? Are some NFTs that are really worth millions really worth them?

To the first question, I immediately want to answer you to avoid any confusion. No, just because you’re going to “mine” an NFT on the photo of you with your shits doesn’t mean the photo is going to sell for millions.

Sorry to tell you that it is worthless like your child’s drawing (just as gifted as it is). It’s worth peanuts and no one will want to buy them.

In fact, what must be understood is that a digital work whether or not it is represented by an NFT does not retain the artistic codes that it implies.

Basically, remember that the NFTs are here only a vector, a support just like the canvas and the table are for Picasso’s paintings.

Not all NFTs are worth millions, let’s be clear. Not all are works of art that will go down in history … One can even predict that many NFTs created today will fall into oblivion despite the current hype. Very few NFTs have real and perceived meaning.

I digress because in the end, to distort Pascal’s quote, we often agree that “art has its reasons that reason ignores”….

And, if you have understood why Duchamps urinal or the Matisse’s sell for millions and why one can rejoice with Stendhal syndrome, you will certainly understand why some NFTs are worth millions, indeed.

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This is only my point of view, I will be happy to discuss it with you.

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I finally understood why some NFTs are worth millions of dollars …

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Written by CryptoAristocrat