The global fine art market suffers from pervasive authenticity threats, including high-precision manual replicas, AI-generated forgeries, commissioned ghost artworks, and physical piece substitution across paintings, sculptures, prints, and digital art. Three dominant authentication paradigms—expert visual appraisal, material-based instrumental testing, and standalone blockchain image archiving—exhibit fundamental structural limitations, as they rely on empirical judgment or fragmented technical verification rather than rigorous logical deduction. None provides a unified, mathematically rigorous, and judicially enforceable standard for authenticating all categories of fine art. This study establishes logical guaranteed authenticity by developing an interdisciplinary Three-Determination (AOE) theoretical framework grounded in identity authentication logic, micro-physical forensics, blockchain cryptography, and international evidence law. The core logical formula P⇔A∧O∧E defines the sufficient and necessary conditions for definitive artwork authenticity: valid Artist Attestation (A), exclusive Object Identification (O), and legally binding Evidence Certification (E). This work conducts rigorous mathematical proofs for sufficiency and necessity, alongside counterfactual analysis for antique and posthumous artworks. The results establish a clear logical boundary: definitive, logically guaranteed scientific authentication is exclusively achievable for contemporary works created by living, verifiable artists with complete A-O-E triple validation. Ancient, anonymous, and posthumous artworks cannot obtain conclusive authenticity certification due to the permanent unfulfillment of the A-condition. A self-developed SaaS filing system validates the framework’s practical engineering feasibility. Universally applicable across oil paintings, sculptures, decorative art, and generative digital art, the AOE model imposes no restrictions on artistic medium or regional style. Benchmarked against leading international provenance platforms (Verisart, Artory, Arweave) and aligned with the EU eIDAS regulation and U.S. cultural property evidence standards, the framework demonstrates robust cross-jurisdictional and cross-medium adaptability. This theory fills a critical global research gap by establishing a pure logic-driven, quantifiable, closed-loop authentication paradigm for universal fine art verification, offering authoritative technical and legal support for cross-border art transactions, AI forgery regulation, and global cultural asset digitization.
Muhammad Hadi Mustafa, Choy Poh Keong, Chua Wen Xuan, Zulkiflee Abdul-Samad · 5 authors
The challenges in heritage building documentation and management in Malaysia highlight the need for a more secure and integrated digital framework. Although Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM) has improved digital documentation and lifecycle management, current practices remain constrained by data fragmentation, limited transparency, and inefficient stakeholder collaboration. While blockchain technology offers considerable potential to enhance data security and trust, its integration with HBIM in heritage conservation projects remains underexplored. This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework in exploring the interrelated themes influencing the implementation of blockchain integration with HBIM in Malaysian projects. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry professionals, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. The proposed conceptual framework is empirically informed by practitioner interviews, allowing the study to capture both technological possibilities and implementation realities within the Malaysian heritage project context. The findings suggest that blockchain-enabled HBIM has the potential to strengthen data integrity, transparency, traceability, stakeholder accountability, and lifecycle decision-making, although these benefits require further validation through pilot implementation. Future research should further validate the proposed framework through pilot projects, and blockchain governance guidelines tailored to the Malaysia’s heritage conservation sector.
Saskia Hufnagel, Colin King, Alina-Theresa Schnedl, Milind Tiwari
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) bring many opportunities for artists, investors, and creators, but they also have a dark side with significant potential for use in financial crimes. Drawing on relevant caselaw, a systematic review and topic modeling of literature, we map common examples of NFT-related crime, including fraud, money laundering, theft, and market-related offenses. This empirical review lays the groundwork for the core contribution of this article, that is, application of the “crime triangle” to NFT-related crime. Recognizing heterogeneity in NFT-related crime, we detail five scenarios where such crime can occur and analyze these in the context of the crime triangle (inner and outer). This enables us to identify potential gaps and vulnerabilities in current crime prevention strategies. Given challenges in policing cybercrime, and specifically NFT-related crime, we argue that the crime triangle provides a useful heuristic tool for understanding the nature of NFT-related crime and for preventing such crime from happening.
This chapter analyzes the rise of Chinese “geocriminality” in Latin America and the Caribbean, arguing that Chinese transnational organized crime cannot be understood separately from deepening China–LAC economic and migratory ties. Moving beyond a narrow law-enforcement lens, it introduces the concept of a “Silk Road of Crime,” in which Chinese criminal networks exploit the same trade routes, diaspora communities, financial systems, and regulatory gaps that underpin legitimate engagement. Drawing on investigations by Earth League International, ProPublica, and others, the chapter documents four converging illicit markets: fentanyl precursor trafficking to Mexican cartels, low-cost “Flying Money” laundering schemes, wildlife trafficking (including jaguar parts and shark fins), and human smuggling along “the route” from China through Latin America to the US border. It details networks linked to Fujian-based groups and triads, highlighting patterns of crime convergence and the use of cryptocurrencies, shell companies, and diaspora businesses. While direct CCP command-and-control links remain limited, the chapter argues that selective enforcement, corruption, and strategic ambiguity create permissive conditions. Ultimately, Chinese geocriminality reflects the dark side of complex interdependence, reinforcing dependency structures and complicating US, Chinese, and regional cooperation.
Bu çalışma, Non-Fungible Token’ların (NFT), 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunu (FSEK) çerçevesinde hukuki açıdan nasıl değerlendirilebileceğini incelemektedir. Blokzincir teknolojisine dayalı olarak oluşturulan NFT’ler, benzersiz ve değiştirilemez dijital varlıklar olarak özellikle dijital sanat ve fikri mülkiyet alanlarında yeni hukuki tartışmaların ortaya çıkmasına neden olmuştur. Çalışmada, NFT’lerin hukuki niteliği ile eser sahipliği, mali haklar ve manevi haklar bakımından doğurduğu sonuçlar ayrıntılı şekilde ele alınmıştır. Ayrıca minting işleminin hukuki boyutu, NFT kaynaklı telif hakkı ihlalleri ve bu kapsamda ulusal ile uluslararası düzeyde ortaya çıkan uyuşmazlıklar değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmada doktrinel yöntem benimsenmiş; konu, literatür taraması, mevzuat incelemesi ve örnek yargı kararlarının analizi yoluyla çok yönlü biçimde incelenmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda, NFT’lerin FSEK kapsamında açık ve net bir şekilde tanımlanmasına ihtiyaç bulunduğu, eser niteliği taşıyan NFT’ler bakımından hak sahipliğine ilişkin belirsizliklerin giderilmesi gerektiği ve pay takip hakkının dijital ortama uyarlanmasına yönelik yasal düzenlemelerin yapılmasının zorunlu olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Bu yönüyle çalışma, teorik tartışmaları somut uyuşmazlık örnekleriyle destekleyerek Türk hukuk doktrinine katkılar sunmayı amaçlamaktadır.
By blurring the boundary between art and financial assets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have created regulatory ambiguity and criminogenic vulnerabilities in digital markets. The article applies the Howey Test to an original dataset of NFT-related cases that involve financial crime. As it turns out, functionally NFTs often resemble securities: they are characterized by information asymmetries, speculative dynamics, and weak oversight. These structural gaps make NFTs attractive to facilitate fraud, money laundering, wash trading, and nefarious exploitation on decentralized platforms and incidentally by way of traditional auction houses. NFTs highlight systemic limitations of analog regulatory frameworks to contain criminogenic risk posed by virtual assets. To enhance transparency, accountability, and consumer protection in evolving digital economies, the article concludes on a paradigm shift toward an adaptive, outcomes-based regulatory approach.
Australia's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth), effective 1 July 2026, extends the national AML/CTF regime to designated non-financial businesses and professions. While art dealers are not expressly targeted by the reforms, the statutory definitions give rise to significant interpretive challenges at the intersection of art law and the regulatory framework, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the art market. This article critically examines three such challenges: the historical artist versus artisan distinction embedded in the legislation's reference to "goldsmith's or silversmith's wares"; the functional classification of objects that straddle the boundary between fine art and decorative art; and the degree of physical attachment required for an artwork to constitute a "precious product" by virtue of its material composition. The article further considers the extension of the regime to virtual assets, including non-fungible tokens, and its implications for digital art transactions. It concludes that the current definitional framework risks producing arbitrary regulatory outcomes, capturing certain art objects while excluding others of comparable money laundering risk, and recommends that art market participants adopt a precautionary compliance approach (including robust know your client procedures and readiness to satisfy designated services obligations) pending further regulatory guidance from AUSTRAC.
Real-world asset tokens that reference physical objects with multi-century lifespans face design challenges absent from short-horizon financial instruments. This paper identifies seven such challenges — permissionless operation, death detection without death incentives, decentralized registry bootstrapping, dispute resolution without central authority, verification at scale, indefinite funding, and century-scale system durability — and presents an integrated design framework that resolves all seven. The framework is demonstrated through a deployed conservation protocol that tokenizes old-growth trees as ERC-721 non-fungible tokens, with a permanent freeze mechanism that renders tokens non-transferable upon confirmed tree death. The protocol is live on Base L2 mainnet with twelve genesis trees minted and source code publicly available.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are widely used to distribute and authenticate digital artworks, yet minting practices across Ethereum, Solana, and Tezos sometimes diverge from core blockchain objectives, decentralization, immutability, and verifiable on-chain identity, thereby limiting their suitability as long-term certificates of authenticity. This study examines the technical, structural, and archival sources of these limitations and introduces a framework grounded in immutability, extended metadata and cryptographic signatures. Within this framework, the extended metadata file serves as the primary source of authenticity by self-sufficiently integrating the artist’s identity, artwork identification, edition semantics, token identification, and preservation guidance. The paper further evaluates decentralized storage models relevant to certification-grade use cases. It compares private servers, fully on-chain metadata, Arweave, and IPFS in terms of verifiability, sustainability, and long-horizon stewardship burden. Although Ethereum's ERC-721 serves as a reference implementation to anchor terminology and verification procedures, the proposed requirements are ecosystem-independent as long as the ecosystem meets the principles of decentralization, immutability and adoption. By aligning NFT issuance with established digital-preservation frameworks (OAIS, InterPARES, LOCKSS, PREMIS), this work offers a concrete foundation for future ERC/EIP proposals, preservation policy, and interdisciplinary research on durable, independently verifiable digital-art authenticity.
Non-fungible token (NFT) markets are thin and typically settle in a cryptocurrency, so stress in the settlement asset can translate into abrupt drawdowns. This letter asks whether observable Ethereum (ETH) risk states provide an ex-ante ranking of crash risk in a curated art-NFT marketplace. Using SuperRare sales aggregated to a daily price proxy (2021–2023), we sort days by (i) 7-day realized ETH volatility and (ii) the filtered high-volatility probability from a two-state Markov-switching model. Forward 30-day drawdown crashes are sharply monotone across state quartiles: for example, a 30% USD crash rate rises from 9.9% to 38.8% from the lowest to highest volatility-probability quartile. Because crash windows overlap mechanically, conventional logit inference is overconfident; we therefore report main results as conservative linear probability models with Newey–West HAC errors and a moving-block bootstrap (logit results appear in the appendix for comparison). We further confirm results using a fully real-time state proxy based on an expanding-window volatility threshold, and document that crash predictability is strongest during the 2022 market stress episode, consistent with ETH risk regimes activating precisely when tail risks materialise. The settlement asset operates as a tail-risk switch for art NFTs, with limited corresponding mean-return predictability.
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a digital token without equivalence, so unlike a digital currency, NFT cannot be used as a tool of exchange. Instead, NFT represents an object and certifies the scarcity of the object, verifies the owner of the object, and provides the owner with a specific means to move the object as a digital asset. Objects which are represented by NFTs can consist of artistic works, signs, and other visual objects on the internet. So, NFT objects can also be the object of Copyrights’ artistic works or unique aspects of Geographical Indications and Cultural Heritage. The problem is, guaranteeing the scarcity of NFT’s objects is not exactly the same with guaranteeing the originality of Copyrights’ works nor the true origin of Geographical Indications and Cultural Heritage’s objects. There are phenomena where the unique appearances of Champagne wine’s bottle and India’s cultural heritage have been minted as NFTs by individuals other than the collective right holders and being sold at high prices. In this regard, using case study, juridical analytic and legal comparison methods, this article analyzes the potential problems of the intersection between NFT with Geographical Indications and Cultural Heritage and how the problems could be solved in the further amendments of the related laws.
This article examines the NFT market and art tokenization in the context of money laundering. It explores the evolution of the art market toward digitalization, the definition of NFTs, and their legal and technical aspects. Additionally, it highlights the rapid growth of the market and associated risks, such as fraud, sanction evasion, and money laundering. It discusses mechanisms for concealing illicit funds, as well as the lack of clear regulations and oversight of NFT platforms within the AML/CFT framework. It emphasizes the need for regulatory clarification, the establishment of transaction registries, and addresses other unresolved issues related to NFTs, including intellectual property protection and tax obligations.
Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt, Gina Pakarati, Thomas J. Pingel · 9 authors
Ethnohistoric and recent archaeological evidence suggest that Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) was a politically decentralized society organized into small, relatively autonomous kin-based communities across the island. The more than 1,000 monumental statues (moai) of Rapa Nui thus raise a critical question: was production at Rano Raraku-the primary moai quarry-centrally controlled or did it mirror the decentralized pattern found elsewhere on the island? Using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry with over 11,000 UAV images, we created the first comprehensive three-dimensional model of the quarry to test these competing hypotheses. Our analysis reveals 30 distinct quarrying foci distributed across the crater, each containing redundant production features and employing varied carving techniques. This spatial organization, combined with evidence for multiple simultaneous workshops constrained by natural boundaries, indicates that moai production followed the same decentralized, clan-based pattern documented for other aspects of Rapa Nui society. These findings challenge assumptions that monumentality requires hierarchical control, instead supporting emerging frameworks that recognize how complex cooperative behaviors can emerge through horizontal social networks. The high-resolution 3D model also establishes a crucial baseline for the cultural heritage management of this UNESCO World Heritage site, while advancing methodological approaches for testing sociopolitical hypotheses through the spatial analysis of archaeological landscapes.
Omer Aziz, Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Junaid Nasir Qureshi, Muhammad Faraz Manzoor · 5 authors
(1) Background: A blockchain-based framework for distributed agile Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry (OSSAP) testing life cycle is an innovative approach that uses blockchain technology to optimize the Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry process. Previously, various methods have been employed to address communication and collaboration challenges in Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry, but they were inadequate in aspects such as trust, traceability, and security. Additionally, a significant cause of project failure was the non-completion of unit testing by developers, leading to delayed testing. (2) Methods: This article discusses the integration of blockchain technology in Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry and resolves critical concerns related to transparency, trust, coordination, testing and communication. A novel approach is proposed based on a blockchain framework named Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry Testing-Plus. (3) Results: The Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry Testing-Plus framework utilizes blockchain technology to provide a secure and transparent platform for acceptance testing and payment verification. Moreover, by leveraging smart contracts on a private Ethereum blockchain, Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry Testing-Plus ensures that both the testing team and the development team are working towards a common goal and are compensated fairly for their contributions. (4) Conclusions: The experimental results conclusively show that this innovative approach substantially improves transparency, trust, coordination, testing and communication and provides security for both the testing team and the development team engaged in the distributed agile Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry (Open-Source Software for Archaeological Photogrammetry) testing life cycle.
The rapid ascent of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has fundamentally disrupted the art market and the broader visual culture landscape. While much scholarly and popular attention has been focused on their economic impact and speculative nature, this article explores a less examined dimension: the potential of blockchain technology, as manifested in NFTs, to redefine the paradigms of digital heritage preservation. Digital art and born-digital cultural artifacts face an existential threat from technological obsolescence, format degradation, and the inherent fragility of digital media. Traditional preservation institutions, such as museums and archives, have struggled to develop scalable, sustainable models for conserving these ephemeral works. This article argues that NFTs, through their core properties of decentralized ownership verification, immutability of provenance, and programmable permanence, offer a novel, albeit complex, framework for safeguarding our collective digital visual heritage. By analyzing the technical architecture of NFTs, the challenges of preserving the digital asset separate from its token, and the emergent models of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and community-led preservation, this paper posits that we are witnessing the nascent stages of a new preservation ecology. This study synthesizes literature from digital humanities, media studies, conservation science, and computer science to critically assess both the promises and perils of this convergence. It concludes that while NFTs are not a panacea, they introduce powerful tools that, if ethically and thoughtfully integrated, can significantly bolster the resilience and longevity of digital visual culture for future generations.
The paper briefly introduces the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies and the concept of non-fungible tokens. Next, the (re)conceptualization of business activities in heritage institutions like museums, libraries, and archives regarding introducing non-fungible tokens is discussed. The proposal for a non-fungible token application model is the central part of the paper. The eight-step model is thoroughly explained and separated into two sections: off-chain and on-chain. Finally, the discussion and conclusion are given, identifying new possibilities that the application of the model can bring to the heritage institutions and the possible challenges they may face.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) offer a promising mechanism to protect Australian and Indigenous artists' copyright. They represent and transfer the value of artwork in digital form. Before adopting NFTs to protect Australian artwork, we in this paper investigate them empericially. We focus on examining the details of NFT structure. We start from the underlying structure of NFTs to show how they represent copyright for both artists and production owners, as well as how they aim to safeguard or secure the value of digital artworks. We then involve data collection from various types of sources with different storage methods, including on-chain, centralized, and decentralized systems. Based on both metadata and artwork content, we present our analysis and discussion on the following key issues: copyright, security and artist identification. The final results of the evaluation, unfortnately, show that the NFT is NOT ready to protect Australian and Indigenous artists' copyright.
Taras Maksymyuk, Nazariy Andrushchak, Domenico Romano, Lorenzo Bellucci · 6 authors
This paper explores the integration of blockchain and related technologies for enhancing cultural heritage management systems. Art counterfeiting and inefficiencies in traditional provenance methods highlight the need for robust solutions to ensure the security, authenticity, and traceability of artifacts. Blockchain’s immutability, transparency, and decentralized structure provide an innovative foundation for addressing these challenges. By incorporating tools such as invisible marking technologies, AI-driven authentication, and user-friendly decentralized applications (DAPPs), this framework enables efficient management of artifact records and ownership. Additionally, the application of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platforms demonstrates how scalable and secure systems can be deployed to meet the growing demands of the art world. The proposed methodology also considers interdisciplinary approaches involving chemistry, AI, and blockchain technologies to safeguard cultural artifacts while enhancing stakeholder trust and operational efficiency.
The development of digital technology has introduced Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) as a form of digital asset that has its own economic value and uniqueness. This opens up the potential for NFTs as objects of inheritance, however the traditional inheritance law system in Indonesia has not fully accommodated non-physical entities such as NFTs, especially due to unclear regulations regarding the transfer of rights to these assets after the death of the owner. This article discusses legal protection for heirs with NFT inheritance objects. This research uses normative or doctrinaire research methods using secondary data and a comparative legal approach, which involves analysis of relevant laws and regulations and NFT practices in several jurisdictions that have recognized the existence of NFTs. Based on the research results, NFTs can be inherited through a general will made by a notary, olographic, or private. However, the main challenge is access to digital wallets that store NFTs and are at risk of being lost if there is not sufficient technical information regarding access. To overcome this, inheritance planning with a dead's man switch mechanism in smart contracts can enable the automatic transfer of NFTs to heirs. However, legal recognition of this mechanism is still limited. This research highlights the need for clearer regulations and legal updates in Indonesia regarding digital asset inheritance, to provide legal certainty for owners and heirs as technology develops. It is hoped that the results of this research can contribute to the formulation of clearer regulations and provide adequate legal protection for heirs and heirs who own digital assets in Indonesia.
The digital preservation and protection of cultural heritage have become increasingly important in the modern world, where the security and authenticity of cultural assets are often compromised. Existing systems face challenges such as inadequate provenance tracking, data manipulation, and lack of transparency in access management. To address these issues, a novel system is proposed that utilizes Ethereum blockchain technology for securing and managing cultural heritage assets. The proposed solution leverages the decentralized, immutable nature of blockchain to ensure the integrity, provenance, and transparent access to digital assets like artworks, manuscripts, and historical artifacts. By employing Ethereum smart contracts, digital signatures, and a decentralized governance model, the system automates ownership management, tracks asset provenance, and facilitates secure access controls. Results indicate that the system significantly improves the transparency, security, and traceability of cultural heritage assets, offering a robust method for preserving these valuable resources. It enables real-time monitoring of asset interactions and ensures that ownership transfers are securely recorded, thus safeguarding the assets' authenticity. The system also fosters collaboration among stakeholders through a decentralized platform, ensuring sustainable and verifiable inheritance of cultural heritage. Future developments could enhance the system's capabilities, including real-time adaptation to user behavior and integrating broader global heritage networks, reinforcing the platform's role in preserving cultural legacy for future generations.
Chuanni He, Min Liu, Simon M. Hsiang, Nicholas A. Pierce · 6 authors
The decision-making for bridge preservation constitutes two types of rules: explicit rules, which are based on clear specifications to establish an overall baseline preservation plan, and implicit rules, which are rooted in extensive experience and professional judgments to adjust the baseline plan and adapt to the local context. A research gap exists in establishing standards for implicit rules and ensuring efficiency, credibility, and transparency when applying them. Therefore, the research objectives of this study are to (1) develop an information container to structure, store, and describe bridge inspection data leveraging domain knowledge; (2) enhance querying tools for organizing complex reasoning of implicit rules; and (3) establish a decentralized system for data sharing and knowledge communication in implicit decision-making. This research proposes a framework that integrates domain ontology and smart contracts to enable transparent and standardized knowledge streaming. By following a bridge preservation ontology, this research develops a mapping tool that converts element inspection data into a graph data set. Subsequently, implicit decision rules are structured via the SPARQL protocol and applied to the graph data set. A decentralized rule management platform utilizing smart contract and distributed file storage is developed to establish a standard decision-making protocol. Finally, the framework was evaluated based on 13,994 real-world bridge inspection records collected from North Carolina, United States. Results demonstrate that the proposed framework efficiently deploys implicit rules to the target data set with a 94% reduction in execution time without a loss in accuracy. The decentralized platform enforces a new rule evaluation and approval norm. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by developing an ontological framework that organizes complex reasoning of implicit preservation rules and establishing a decentralized system to enhance efficient collaboration for bridge preservation decision-making.
Bu çalışma, Non-Fungible Token'ların (NFT), 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunumuz (FSEK)1 kapsamındaki hükümler doğrultusunda nasıl değerlendirilebileceğini incelemektedir. NFT, blokzincir teknolojisine dayalı olarak oluşturulan, benzersiz ve değiştirilemez bir kripto varlık türü olarak, özellikle dijital sanat ve fikri mülkiyet alanlarında yeni hukuki tartışmaları gündeme getirmiştir. Çalışmada, NFT'lerin hukuki niteliği, eser sahipliği ile mali ve manevi haklar bakımından doğurduğu sonuçlar analiz edilmiştir. Minting işleminin hukuki boyutu, NFT kaynaklı telif hakkı ihlalleri ve bu bağlamda ulusal ve uluslararası düzeyde ortaya çıkan uyuşmazlıklar değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmada doktrinsel yöntem benimsenmiş; literatür taraması, mevzuat incelemesi ve örnek dava analizleri yoluyla konu çok boyutlu ele alınmıştır. Birinci bölümde, eser kavramı, eser sahibinin hakları ve dijitalleşmenin bu haklara etkisi değerlendirilmiştir. İkinci bölümde, blokzincir teknolojisi, kripto varlık kavramı ile türleri, NFT'nin teknik yapısı ve hukuki niteliği irdelenmiş; eşya, kıymetli evrak veya gayrimaddi hak olarak sınıflandırılmasına yönelik farklı yaklaşımlar karşılaştırılmıştır. Üçüncü bölümde minting işlemi ve NFT'lerin 'eser' sayılıp sayılamayacağına dair doktriner tartışmalar ele alınmış; NFT satışlarında pay takip hakkının uygulanabilirliği incelenmiştir. Bölümün sonunda, son zamanlarda sıkça gündeme gelen ve alanında ilk örneklerden olan, uyuşmazlıklar değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışmanın sonunda, NFT'lerin FSEK kapsamında net bir şekilde tanımlanması gerektiği, eser niteliğinde NFT'ler için hak sahipliği ile ilgili belirsizliklerin giderilmesi gerektiği ve pay takip hakkının dijital ortama uyarlanması yönünde yasal düzenleme ihtiyacı olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Bu yönüyle çalışma, literatürdeki teorik tartışmaları somut dava örnekleriyle destekleyerek Türk hukukuna özgün katkılar sunmayı hedeflemektedir.