Critical Analysis of the Creation of Blockchain-Based Digital Artworks with Emphasis on Artistic Ownership; Within the Framework of Jean Baudrillard’s Theory

Technological advancements have significantly transformed human experience, particularly in communication, labor, and art. These developments have created unprecedented opportunities for participation and efficiency but also pose serious ethical and philosophical challenges—especially in how they reshape social and artistic structures. In response, contemporary philosophers have turned attention to the implications of digital culture. Jean Baudrillard, a prominent postmodern thinker, provides a compelling lens for analyzing these shifts, especially through his theories of simulacra and hyperreality.

In today’s digital art market, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent a key technological development. As blockchain-based tools, they allow artists to register ownership of digital works. Yet, they also raise a paradox: How can one claim unique ownership in a medium that allows infinite reproduction? This paradox challenges traditional notions of authenticity, value, and presence. From Baudrillard’s perspective, NFTs are not mere tools but signs operating within systems of simulation and symbolic value—where reality is replaced by representation.

This article critically investigates how NFTs redefine artistic ownership and authenticity through the lens of Baudrillard's theory. Baudrillard argues that postmodern society increasingly consumes signs rather than real experiences. In the NFT space, ownership becomes detached from the physical or creative presence of the artist, instead functioning as a symbolic code validated by blockchain technologies. These tokens reflect what Baudrillard calls a simulacrum—a copy with no original—where meaning is produced through repetition and consensus, not through reality or creative labor.

The study uses a qualitative, descriptive-analytical approach and focuses on case studies of NFT artworks drawn from platforms like OpenSea, SuperRare, and digital art archives. Through semiotic analysis, it examines the internal sign structures of NFTs and their disconnection from real referents. This analysis is informed by a structuralist–poststructuralist reading of signs, highlighting the dominance of signifiers over signifieds, the self-referentiality of value, and the erosion of presence in the digital economy.

NFTs often claim value through features like scarcity, cryptographic registration, or market hype rather than through artistic content or aesthetic experience. As such, they illustrate the condition of hyperreality: reality replaced by signs that claim authenticity without grounding. Baudrillard’s critique becomes particularly relevant when NFT ownership is celebrated not for its creative merit but for its speculative worth. In this context, artistic authorship is reduced to a digitally encoded transaction, and art becomes a token in a symbolic economy.

However, the study also identifies rare NFT artworks that challenge the logic of simulation. For instance, Right-Click and Save As Guy critiques the absurdity of digital ownership by drawing attention to the gap between image and value. Such works disrupt the typical NFT structure by exposing the performative and seductive nature of digital art valuation.

The article concludes that NFTs, in most cases, represent a new form of commodification in which ownership is determined not by artistic presence but by “sign-making”. They often reflect the triumph of simulation over authenticity, where symbolic capital replaces lived aesthetic experience. Yet, when used critically, NFTs can reveal their own conditions of value, thereby creating new forms of philosophical and artistic engagement.