Week 09 Response -- The Value of NFT's is in the Eye of the Beholder

Image Source

@generalfritz14 asked, "Are high NFT sales in the 6 or 7 figures just another form of money laundering, or are they actually worth that amount?!"

When I was first introduced to the concept of NFT's, I immediately thought that those who invested in them were insane collectors who put value into things that are actually worthless. NFT's really do seem completely worthless, because you can literally copy and paste any other NFT and try to sell it yourself!

I thought that, at best, NFT's would serve as avenues of selling digital artworks, but most NFT's are far from being considered pieces of art, and to me, most NFT's are repugnant to look at! However, as Anthony Oleinik pointed out in an article (What NFTs are ACTUALLY Good For), NFT's are valuable in the sense that they track who the original seller was, allowing them to serve as a way for fans to pay tribute to their favorite creators (since a portion of all future sales of any given NFT is forwarded to the original creator).

Still, the initial question is difficult more me to answer definitively, but my best response is the old saying that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." From what I have learned about NFT's so far, there are al least three kinds of people who purchase NFT's: collectors, crypto enthusiasts, and fans of the creator/company who produced the NFT. I personally categorize as none of the above, so when I look at the NFT depicting a big-headed monkey wearing a skeleton t-shirt and sunglasses with a halo floating over his head, I question the mental sanity of the person who drew it and I never want to see it ever again. But crypto enthusiasts might see it as a change to make incredible profits by reselling it to others who have similar interests; collectors might see it as a cool archetype of the other monkey NFT's that have been produced; and others might be fans of the creator of the monkey NFT's. I am very concerned for those fans.