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NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

seths.blog

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Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#74
post #10
post #5

It’s easy for a famous entrenched artist who mass produces their work thanks to legacy infrastructure to talk down on this but I’m seeing lots of independent creator artist friends making some money for their work

What property of NFTs has suddenly made them make money where previously they weren't? Like how did adding NFTs to the mix suddenly make their art start selling?

I think it has to do with the money being held in crypto... the whales have more than they’ll need and are looking for reasons to spend it.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#77
I think the immediate value of NFTs lies in industries where you need to keep the producer honest to protect against artificial scarcity.

For example, what stops baseball card printers from re-printing "rare" cards? And how do we know they're not hoarding some of the best cards for a few years, then selling them individually? I could see NFTs being demanded in situations like this to force producers to create digital proof of initial production and distribution.

I haven't thought about it much, but hashing old tweets or a picture of something and claiming it's valuable sounds like snake-oil sales to me.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#78
post #31
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What property of NFTs has suddenly made them make money where previously they weren't? Like how did adding NFTs to the mix suddenly make their art start selling?

The problem I think, is that their art still isn't selling. NFTs aren't art, they are effectively trading cards referencing art. These trading cards are, somewhat mysteriously, selling, and that does get money into the hands of artists which is good, but they're not doing it by encouraging people to buy art or tip artists, and it's hard to see how "everyone can just print trading cards referencing things" is a sustai…

People pay for mods and skins all the time. People will pay secondlife furniture. They will pay to be be able to display it in their VR houses. They will display it like badges on their forum avatars.

The speculation and whales will being the capital to generate a steady market and build out the partnerships and incentives for customers. Once people are used to digital wallets, sending a few bucks for instant delivery of some unique design is easier than etsy.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#79

NFTs make perfect sense for representing a claim on things that can be used, like event tickets or in-game virtual goods. But as certificates layered on top of collectibles... I'm not so sure. With something like CryptoKitties, you can do something with the tokens (play a virtual pet game). But with something like CryptoPunks you're essentially paying for digital beanie babies, which are worse than real ones since an…

CryptoPunks will be in the MoMA one day. They are a pioneer — and will be valued as such. Derivative works and obvious cash grabs are a bubble and low effort art will trend back to $0.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#80

The possibilities of NFTs fascinate me, especially for portable, digital identities and assets that transcend any specific virtual realm and can't be arbitrarily erased by any central authority. But I also won't put a single sat in any of them right now.

> The possibilities of NFTs fascinate me, especially for portable, digital identities and assets that transcend any specific virtual realm and can't be arbitrarily erased by any central authority. I'm struggling to understand the possibilities. Can you enlighten me? It seems like people buying these things are just speculating. Can you paint a picture of what kind of possibilities you're excited about?

Ooohhh not the evil speculation. So scawwrry. Seriously though, everything in life is speculation. Do you have a job? That's speculation on return for your time. Do you own a house? That is speculation on property prices. Do you have a bank account? That is speculation on inflation. Everything is speculation unless you have a God's eye view of the world. Get over it.
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