compressed nfts are proofs, not objects

the common mistake with compressed nfts is the assumption that nft must exist as an on-chain object. normally, an nft is on-chain state: mints, token accounts, metadata. this model is simple, but expensive and difficult to scale. compressed nfts replace storage with proof. each nft is a leaf in a merkle tree whose root is anchored on-chain. the chain stores only the root; ownership is validated by submitting a merkle proof that reconstructs it. images and metadata still live on ipfs or arweave. their uri is committed into the leaf hash instead of a dedicated account.