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NFTs Are a Pyramid Scheme and People Are Already Losing Money

fstoppers.com

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

#221

Post by delaaxe »

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?

The buying decision originates from the content creator, who will tell you which ones are from him.

NFTs sold on other chains are akin to copies of the Mona Lisa: worthless

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

#222

Post by samvher »

gpanders wrote: post #174
samvher wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of going slightly off-topic: I think it's interesting you mention "proving programs correct". My hunch is that formal proofs on code are currently too laborious to be useful in most business situations, but that they will become extremely useful as we start letting the machine/"AI" code for us. I might not have spent enough time in this field (so there might be some Dunning Kruger at play) but I think cod…

If the code proofs are automated, then how do you prove the proof? Pardon my ignorance, but I’m being sincere. I don’t know much about this field.

When it comes to formal proofs of code, once you have a proof it is generally straightforward to verify (in the same way that you could for example evaluate a boolean expression). The problem is in finding the proofs - that's what requires labor and intelligence.

So the way I imagine it would work, is you tell a programming system which conditions the code it's going to generate should satisfy, and then it generates the code + proofs that it satisfies those conditions.

It might be trickier than I imagine though (e.g. for Chess/Go the reinforcement signal might be more suitable for learning than what you'd find with proofs).

If you want to know more about proofs you might be interested in the series "Software Foundations" (https://softwarefoundations.cis.upenn.edu/).

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

#223

Post by delaaxe »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #67
mrleinad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they not only destroyed art, but also wasted energy on creating the NFT, adding to global warming. If there's anything that's not absolute evil in all that, I fail to see it.

Evil? No I don’t think so. I believe the correct word is idiotic.

This is not the first time art is destroyed upon purchase. Long before NFTs, a painting (banksy?) was shredded right after auction.

Not sure if anyone called that evil or idiotic

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

#224

Post by delaaxe »

stickfigure wrote: post #178
arthur_sav wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with any technology we only see its impact with the pass of time. Bitcoin is holding pretty strong after 12ish years, you can't deny facts. You can question the practical applications but technology is often used in other ways than it was originally intended. In the case of Bitcoin it may prove to be useful only as a cross border digital store of value instead of an every day currency. Same with NFTs, you can dism…

Bitcoin works because the supply is constrained. Scarcity is its primary attribute. There are no constraints on the supply of NFTs.

What I find mind boggling is that some creators sell 100 copies of the same jpeg

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

#225

Post by rdiddly »

delaaxe wrote: post #219
rdiddly wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, all you need is an immutable write-only (edit: append-only) database. Which is the one thing a blockchain actually is.

I think you mean append only. Blockchains are immutable thus not writeable

Whoops, yes

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

#226

Post by delaaxe »

XorNot wrote: post #73
pilingual wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the primary point for which you believe NFTs to be rubbish?

What legal force does an NFT bring to what it claims to authenticate? Even a certificate of authenticity for a painting is still notionally a legal contract between the authenticator and buyers: after all, there will be consequences if they cannot show they could reasonably support the identity they establish for something. What does an NFT do? Nothing. There are no consequences in the real world. You can make anothe…

NFTs are not meant to be tied to something in the physical world. They’re certificates on digital creations

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

delaaxe wrote: post #221
mortehu wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The buying decision originates from the content creator, who will tell you which ones are from him. NFTs sold on other chains are akin to copies of the Mona Lisa: worthless

[deleted]

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

#229

Post by [deleted] »

delaaxe wrote: post #223
IAmGraydon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evil? No I don’t think so. I believe the correct word is idiotic.

This is not the first time art is destroyed upon purchase. Long before NFTs, a painting (banksy?) was shredded right after auction. Not sure if anyone called that evil or idiotic

[deleted]

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

#230

Post by atleta »

draklor40 wrote: post #9

Ironic coming from a website like fstoppers. What exactly is the "value" of fine art photography ? Why do people pay exorbitant amounts for basically a few hours of photos during their wedding, given that a wedding might end up divorce ? People pay for whatever has "intrinsic" value to them. If Digitally generated/cryptographic art is it, so be it.

Pretty bad example. A wedding photo has intrinsic value mostly to the people who pay for it and has about 0 value to about everyone else. (There is a small group of friends and family for whom it as some, lower value.)

Most NFTs don't have much intrinsic value to anyone specifically apart from the belief that it has value to others and thus it can be sold (i.e. converted back to money).

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