I can think of one genuinely useful application of NFTs for collectibles: fractal art, and (guaranteed reproducible) procedural art in general. In that case, the artwork itself can be fully on-chain, since it's defined entirely by its input parameters, which are rarely large - the real value comes from finding those parameters! And yet the visuals, once computed, can be stunning:
For something like this, I can actually see the value of owning a token that represents "the original". And when the artwork is on-chain, this claim can be easily verified so long as the author immediately puts its on the chain: the one and only "true" NFT for it is the one that is the oldest in blockchain history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cgp2WNNKmQ
For something like this, I can actually see the value of owning a token that represents "the original". And when the artwork is on-chain, this claim can be easily verified so long as the author immediately puts its on the chain: the one and only "true" NFT for it is the one that is the oldest in blockchain history.