Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

fstoppers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 268 posts

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

#151

Post by EMM_386 »

mortehu wrote: post #79
delaaxe wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NFTs are not meant for physical items, they’re digital certificates. People literally burnt a Banksy painting before auctioning its NFT.

Excuse my ignorance, because I haven't looked into NFTs too carefully, but how do you decide which blockchain (or even block) is authoritative for a given item? Seems like something like a painting could be sold on an unlimited number of chains? If it's time priority (oldest wins), what's preventing miners from copying artwork from slower chains before they're included in a block?

Good question.

There seem to be ... quite a lot of them.

https://coinmarketcap.com/nfts/

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

#152

Post by orwin »

hprotagonist wrote: post #92
mysterydip wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my thought on it. What easier way to launder money than with virtual items of arbitrary value? "Man pays thousands for bicycle tire" would raise many eyebrows. "Man pays thousands for NFT picture of bicycle tire" just makes people laugh and shake their heads.

https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/7y3cdi/cmv_mo... why bother with involving a computer and a hard to modify paper trail?

Its easier, and you can lauder the money across millions of NFTs.

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

#154

Post by ses1984 »

SCHiM wrote: post #130
ses1984 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you want to sell your thing? Who is hosting this db?

You are, as a saas I think. I mean, this gives you all the control, you can charge for all sorts of services and "value adds". There's no reason you, as the maker of this software, would want this available as a block chain. Unless you also create a token and start having people speculate on your anti-counterfeiting blockchain? That's what it looks like to me anyway.

I am not really following you. The appeal of an nft is that it doesn't rely on a saas, it doesn't rely on a trusted third party that needs up time that needs to be available in the future.

Jacob Collier tried to sell an nft that granted lifetime access to his concerts.

The appeal of such an nft is that it can be traded independently of any third party, on the open market.

Of course it depends on Jacob's promise to honor it.

He went back on it when people raised environmental issues.

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

#155

Post by whateveracct »

endisneigh wrote: post #10

The only situation I see NFTs making sense is if there’s a virtual reality social network bigger than Facebook. In that scenario perhaps. Then again even in that scenario blockchains are unnecessary.

The virtual reality social network would also need to be decentralized. Otherwise, why use NFTs when the social network host could just manage ownership through traditional means?

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

#156

Post by thinkingemote »

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…

The early web was a bubble that burst. Yes it also reminds me of that time.

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

#157

Post by fock »

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.

opensource the database (just as dying companies should opensource repair manuals and signing keys - have fun with your blockchain-authenticated John Deere). and regularly archive the state hash in a public archive.

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

#158

Post by bluedevil2k »

SkipperCat wrote: post #118
CynicusRex wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still think it's a total bubble but have to admin there's a lot of other people who disagree. It doesn't matter if they disagree; a pyramid scheme is a pyramid scheme no matter how successful. And if it somehow still ends up as the world reserve “currency”, then it'll have made a lot of profoundly incompetent, undeserving, and shady people rich. We'd be no better off, even worse off than before. Bitcoin fuels the…

Agreed. It reminds me of diamonds. They're super expensive because the DeBeers family convinced everyone it's a sign of love and marriage. They're really not that rare and can be made in a lab. Aside from industrial grinders, there's really not much use for them.

It’s not anything like diamonds - diamond prices have slowly and consistently increased over the last 100 years and doesn’t see the crazy 20-30% swings in weekly prices that NFTs and even BTC sees. It’s considered a safe investment with a solid store or value. And dismissing them as “only useful for grinders” dismisses their value in jewelry. If millions find joy in having diamonds in their jewelry then I’d say there’s plenty of use for them.

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

#159

Post by ses1984 »

greenonions wrote: post #119
ses1984 wrote: post #91

Jacob Collier was going to sell an nft that granted lifetime access to any of his concerts. That seemed like a not terrible use case for an nft. He changed his mind when people pointed out the environmental impact of cryptocurrency.

Did anyone point out the environmental impact of concerts?

I think people are willing to accept the environmental impact of concerts. If you're not, then you'll quickly fall into the "no ethical consumption in a capitalist society" pit of despair.

People can see the value created by a concert: the socializing, the experience. And they can take steps to mitigate the impact.

How do you mitigate the environmental impact of a proof of work blockchain?

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

#160

Post by giantrobot »

brandonmenc wrote: post #104
twic wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What capableweb said is correct. NFTs do not confer any ownership of, rights over, or special access to anything else, real-world out digital. When you buy an NFT of an artwork, you aren't buying the artwork, you are only buying the NFT. As far as I know, the inventors of NFTs do not claim that they do. But it seems like a lot of people talking about and perhaps buying NFTs don't understand that.

> When you buy an NFT of an artwork, you aren't buying the artwork, you are only buying the NFT. So it's like a certificate of proof that you donated money to an artist that you can then trade and sell and possibly make a profit from. If I'm understanding this correctly.

You can't even verify you donated money to an artist. Unless the artist confirms the public key used for the token, you have no fucking clue who made the token.
Post reply on HN