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Comment by j4yav | Hacker News Reader

All NFTs contain a public URL inside them, as the thing the sellable token points at. You can go look at other peoples NFTs all you like, at any time.. they can’t stop you.

NFTs aren’t contracts for the rights, so this is as real an NFT as any other. An NFT is essentially a text file, that only one person can prove they own via the blockchain, where the file has a URL written inside. Nothing more, nothing less.

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> NFTs aren’t contracts for the rights, so this is as real an NFT as any other. An NFT is essentially a text file, that only one person can prove they own via the blockchain, where the file has a URL written inside. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is the most succinct explanation I have across. Thank you. Now, this amazes me more that people are willing to invest & trade on text files with some URL in a Blockchain. The naive me now thinks this is bonkers. No wonder so many people are critical of its worth.

How does one view list(s) of NFTs?

> How does one view list(s) of NFTs?

A better question is "why" anyone would want to look at lists of URLs pointing to things that someone is pretending that they own by having an entry of their ownership in some arbitrary public ledger.

I had an idea to make a physical NFT picture frame that would only show things other people own, to contrast with the ones that only show ones you own, but I decided it was too absurd.

There's something subversive about that... a display of things that other people are pretending they have ownership over.

I'm wondering, what entity enforces a uniqueness constraint on the URLs? Presumably it wouldn't be hard to copy the content & host & create a whole new URL, but what prevents you from just minting using the original URL?

There’s no uniqueness enforcement on the URL as far as I know. It’s the provenence of the NFT that makes it valuable.

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