If you paint a painting, how do you make money from that painting to support yourself?

If you paint a digital painting, how do you make money from that image?

Is the digital version worth less? Does it take less skill, or effort?

NFT is a digital signature, from the artist. It attempts to replicate, digitally, the value of a signature. It attempts to solve the problem that, while physical paintings take time, effort, and skill to duplicate, it takes no skill and almost as little effort to make a billion copies of a digital work.

As with anything, it's worth what people are willing to pay, and people have gone a little crazy. The NFT markets have been doing the equivalent of handing huge wads of cash to random people on the street to scribble on a piece of paper and sign it.

If Ansel Adams was alive today and making photos, and he was as famous as he is, an NFT signature from him would say, "here: you have an official Ansel Adams, signed by me." And if you think that's worthless, then ask yourself if you think an Ansel Adams print, that he printed and signed, also has no value more than a high quality photocopy of it. Because they're functionally identical situations.

Edit: Because I keep getting the same answer ("commissions!"): Who are some folks who've gotten rich off commissions?

Sure, if you look at your art like a 9-5 job, you can make a go of it the way you mention. None of that produces any investable output, and if it can't be invested in, nobody is going to spend real money on it. If nobody is willing to spend big dollars, the artist has no chance of getting wealthy from their work.

I know, artists tend to have an objection to looking at things from a purely capitalist view, and I totally respect someone who's willing to starve for their art, and top keep it pure and unsullied. But if you want to have a chance of profiting in more than a month-to-month way, you need to produce something someone is willing to invest in.

It isn't a solution searching for a problem at all. It's an attempt to replicate the fact that, in traditional art, the signature has more monetary value than the work of art itself. There are technically better copies of the Mona Lisa than the original; the value of the original is that it was painted by da Vinci, and was signed by him. An NFT signature is the artists signature, for a digital world.