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NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

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191–200 of 268 posts

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

#192
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. a) is very heavily regulated by the chain/protocol used to make the tokens work and b) would be to introduce scarcity to digital items, which possibly creates good and fosters innovation (I similarly don't want to argue whether that will actually be the case) in fields which benefit from scarcity.

b isn’t the case, because a is entirely self-referential. Anyone can any any time create a new private key, so you can only trust things signed with private keys you already trust. That trust can be another private key signing it, but ultimately the foundation of the trust is in the physical world where someone can lock you up for breaking rules. I’m equivocating if this is the is/ought problem or the Münchhausen tri…

In the case of artists the foundation of the trust relies on the fact that the token is only valuable if it comes from the artist. This doesn't involve locking anyone up, as tokens created by people who aren't the artists are simply ignored since they inherently have no value.

There's no reason to assume that in other domains what you said should be the case more often than what I said if we both don't know the details of said domains.

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

#193
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds like a lot of work. Not sure why you think that is superior to simply using a blockchain.

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

#194
post #138
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 climate impact of baseball cards is significantly lower.

It turns out that when you take stupid and scale it up massively, it becomes even more stupid.

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

#195

An acquaintance of mine made 15k euros in 6 days with auto-generated artworks, he even made it to the local newspaper. I don't even know why I bother learning new frameworks and languages anymore.

I guess you are talking about CyberAlienz [0]

He advertised his NFT experiment on a forum [1] (a French equivalent of 4chan) and it went viral there. Some people bought it as a joke (knowing it was worthless). Nothing prove he didn't buy the tokens himself to hype it.

[0] https://opensea.io/collection/cyberalienz [1] https://www.jeuxvideo.com/forums/0-3011927-0-1-0-1-0-finance...

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

#196
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I guess, but if the point is interacting with the physical card, why are "counterfeit" cards worthless? Can't you interact with them in the exact same way as the "real" baseball card the counterfeit is copying? It seems like the value is all in the idea of owning one instance of a limited run.

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

#197
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's not linking to real world items, but to digital assets.

But it doesn't really.

I learned the other day that NFT standards don't even store a hash of the digital asset.

So, ransomware will wipe out a lot of NFTs one day, because the blockchain smart contracts dont know (have any cryptographic proof) what digital asset they hold.

Herr an article that was posted the other day: https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2021/broken-nft-standar...

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

#198
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anyone point out the environmental impact of concerts?

If each concert ticket generated the carbon footprint of a household for an entire month[0] then people may start asking questions if concerts are even worth it. [0] https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption

I believe that user meant the environmental impact of 10,000 people showing up to one place.

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

#199
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it even a fraud? What rights does holding the NFT give to the source object?

The NFT itself is the fraud.

Is it? The NBA is selling "clips" of Basketball plays. They make clear in the terms of the sale that the buyer does not have any rights to the video after buying the NFT. The NBA can do whatever it wants with the actual video including selling it again

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

10x better than you selling 10 bicycles. Your example actually demonstrates why blockchain is hugely valuable.

Want to buy an NFT to my bicycle? $100 will do it. Comes with no rights and I may sell a similar NFT to others.
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