Watermarking isn't any protection, even I could remove them in the rudimentary stages of my digital art...er..."career" I guess XD What's more protection is becoming well known enough that if/when people steal your work (which only seems to happen if you're already popular because the type of people who would remove watermarks and do this kind of thing are stupid and "just want to be popular" or in this day and age with crypto content sites "just want to earn some tokens") your fans will be like "you plagiarist" and report them for you and/or to you :)
The NFT thing is absolutely a game changer, it's really great that there is a proper digital equivalent now!
and for the people that keep wondering why I haven't jumped on board, it's because I don't do the type of stuff that would work with that model and I don't have the type of brain that deals well with limited editions XD
Yeah, knowing how to 'work around' these things is not always a blessing because you just realise how easy it is for others too. :/
You know, I've seen quite a few stories about fans noticing a stolen artwork and reporting back to the artist and it is good to see that 'not everyone is a selfish arsehole...' :P
At this point, I know I'm not ready to put any artwork up for sale however, I do see the potential for photography. Even in this field, I'm still a beginner and don't feel like I can compete in a commercial sense but every now and then, there'll be one shot out of a hundred that I look at and think, 'wow, that's the money shot!'