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NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

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Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#141

Post by [deleted] »

benrbray wrote: post #27
luka-birsa wrote: post #12

So basically: NFTs are a scam since the early adopters are not very good artists. And there is no unique value in them since its just Pepe memes, which are stupid to be NFTed, since it's just Gifs? Oh and let's not forget about the Ethereum fees and how shitty the tech is. This really reminds me on how everybody perceived internet in early noughties, when everybody was telling me it's shit and it will never ammount t…

ELI5: What can NFT achieve that a combination of Twitter + public key cryptography cannot achieve? As far as I can tell the only benefit is "decentralization" and just like BTC, the average user is beholden to bank-like entities for all their transactions anyway, so you get all the cons of existing monetary systems without the insurance.

[deleted]

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#142

Post by stephen_g »

rory wrote: post #138
niahmiah wrote: post #3

It's stupid at face value. No pyramid required. You cannot intrinsically link real world items to tokens. The source of truth is the real world, not the token. Add an unlimited supply of unique things, and how could anyone expect to make money from this?

It does seem really stupid, but I don't see how it's substantively different than (also stupid-seeming) physical collectibles like baseball cards or Bearbricks. The supply of the "special" versions of those two collectibles is also constrained in a totally artificial manner.

At least you actually own a real object in that case. Not a token with a link to a JPEG that may disappear from wherever it’s hosted eventually...

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#143

Post by scotty79 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #74
Alex3917 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchain doesn’t need to make it impossible to counterfeit real-world items to be useful, it just needs to reduce counterfeiting levels by reducing the profitability. It’s more than capable of doing that. If you can only sell at most one counterfeit item per authentic item, that’s already a multi-trillion dollar innovation.

I still can't see how a blockchain here would do something that a database wouldn't. A DB of authentic serial numbers with a way to mark them as claimed is all you need. If your new widget's serial is already marked as claimed on the manufacturer's website then you most likely have a counterfeit, no blockchain necessary.

Databse dies with company that set it up. And companies die all the time.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#144

Post by StevePerkins »

JPKab wrote: post #98
CryptoPunk wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, stop calling any non-essential use of energy that you're looking to smear, "evil". Are movies, which consume energy in their production and consumption, also evil? Video games? No, because you personally see the entertainment they provide as redeeming? If people want to expend their own resources on NFTs, that's entirely their right to do so, and calling it evil because the process consumed energy is absurd.…

I really resent the community of grifters like yourself constantly pushing the stuff and defending its excesses. I recently saw Twitter thread where a big pusher of NFTs was moaning on about how the real issue is we didn't create enough nuclear power plants and now we're blaming NFTs for this. It's blatantly obvious that this is all a pyramid scheme capitalizing on people's complete ignorance and optimism with crypto…

I don't think parent is promoting NFT's.

I think he or she is saying that "climate change" is a ridiculously hyperbolic attack vector. And they're right. Of all the idiotic aspects there are to NFT's, Ethereum energy consumption may not crack the Top 100.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#145

Post by scotty79 »

This is exactly same as art 99.9% of non-utilitarian art is wothless and people who buy any of it will never see their money again. But 0.1% is fasionable among wealthy. And people pour millions into it and gain and loose millions, same way they do on the stock market.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#146

Post by bsenftner »

IgorPartola wrote: post #94
Alex3917 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchain doesn’t need to make it impossible to counterfeit real-world items to be useful, it just needs to reduce counterfeiting levels by reducing the profitability. It’s more than capable of doing that. If you can only sell at most one counterfeit item per authentic item, that’s already a multi-trillion dollar innovation.

I have a bicycle. I sell you the NFT for that bicycle. I then sell the bicycle to my neighbor. How did that work out?

And you fundamentally do not understand NFTs. It is perfectly fine and acceptable and within the contract of the NTF for the owner of the physical item to sell said physical item separate from that item's NFT. They are separate assets. An NTF was never said to represent the physical object, the NTF represents itself as the unique only NFT representing the physical object, but the two are wholly separate independent things. The owner and/or transfer of ownership of the physical object has no relation to the NFT beyond the claim of it being the one and only NFT of that physical object. The entire concept is a grifter's game for fools.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#147

Post by danaris »

rory wrote: post #138
niahmiah wrote: post #3

It's stupid at face value. No pyramid required. You cannot intrinsically link real world items to tokens. The source of truth is the real world, not the token. Add an unlimited supply of unique things, and how could anyone expect to make money from this?

It does seem really stupid, but I don't see how it's substantively different than (also stupid-seeming) physical collectibles like baseball cards or Bearbricks. The supply of the "special" versions of those two collectibles is also constrained in a totally artificial manner.

At least if you have a really rare baseball card,

a) You have the physical card. It is in your possession, and the only way for you to lose it is for something physical to happen to it.

b) You can look at and enjoy the card in its physicality. You can show it to others, and the only reason that is the case is that it is physically in your possession.

Contrast that with NFTs, where all you "own" is the idea of owning a thing. If the thing your particular NFT says you own is a digital image, anyone can still see that image, and it can be deleted from the internet without your permission or any warning. You lose the exclusivity that's the main draw of owning something rare and special, and you don't have any practical control over the thing either.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#148

Post by whateveracct »

scotty79 wrote: post #143
Nextgrid wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't see how a blockchain here would do something that a database wouldn't. A DB of authentic serial numbers with a way to mark them as claimed is all you need. If your new widget's serial is already marked as claimed on the manufacturer's website then you most likely have a counterfeit, no blockchain necessary.

Databse dies with company that set it up. And companies die all the time.

NBA Topshot is already worthless without the express written consent of the NBA.

NBA Topshot would be better served by a DB. The NFT part is there for hype.

Re: NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

#149

Post by lottin »

rory wrote: post #138
niahmiah wrote: post #3

It's stupid at face value. No pyramid required. You cannot intrinsically link real world items to tokens. The source of truth is the real world, not the token. Add an unlimited supply of unique things, and how could anyone expect to make money from this?

It does seem really stupid, but I don't see how it's substantively different than (also stupid-seeming) physical collectibles like baseball cards or Bearbricks. The supply of the "special" versions of those two collectibles is also constrained in a totally artificial manner.

The difference is that when you buy a collectible you get a collectible. When you buy an NFT you get a meaningless number.
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