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An NFT That Saves Lives

paulgraham.com

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Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#41

Post by vcxy »

endisneigh wrote: post #20
TacticalCoder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Except for that it uses technology that harms the environment. Apparently it's on Ethereum. Ethereum is already using an hybrid PoW / PoS (proof of stake) chain and at some point the PoS chain should be the only one. It PoS works, the impact on the environment should be a rounding error.

Haven't people been saying this for at least 4 years?

No, people have not been saying that ethereum is already partially on proof of stake for 4 years. I realize that isn't what you meant, but what you meant seems to be missing the point that it's actually happening recently.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#43

Post by version_five »

spamalot159 wrote: post #10
fallat wrote: post #5

I don't think anyone understands that this is purely a "fun" thing to raise money. Yes, it's exactly like a donation drive.

Except for that it uses technology that harms the environment. I don't think this trend is "fun" compared to a normal donation drive when it has these negative side effects.

Plus it gives credibility to what is effectively a scam. People will be able to point to this and say "look, they're being used to do good" and others will take that as social proof that there is actually something legit to an NFT (and the rest of the various "crypto" scams going on).

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#44

Post by purerandomness »

This is peak absurdism. Why not simply donate the money? How is this better than a Kickstarter?

How many lives could pg have saved by donating the billable time it took him to write this post?

It gets even better, from the NFT article:

> • What about the environmental costs?

> We plan to make a significant carbon offset to mitigate the environmental impact of this NFT. Within one week of the closing of this auction we will update this page with details of the steps we took.

pg giveth, pg taketh. If you agree that carbon emissions kill, you'd basically donate for a good cause through an absurdly convoluted money laundering scheme called NFT, and cause massive environmental harm on the other side of the planet, killing even more people, again.

I might even draw several trolley problem comics, but the fact this is from pg himself makes me question his sanity and everything he's ever written.

It's the same feeling of betrayal like when Signal turned around and decided to implement a payment token after several of us went ahead and invested time to convert family members away from WhatsApp.

Profit over reason. Pyramid schemes disguised as benevolent startups saving lives.

Startup culture needs a reboot.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#45

Post by psswrd12345 »

Diederich wrote: post #21
hoppyhoppy2 wrote: post #6

Has Mr. Graham done an honest calculation of how many lives will be lost to the environmental impacts of NFTs if they become mainstream?

Is Ethereum anything like bitcoin in terms of power utilization/environmental impact?

Today, Ethereum uses about 1/6 energy consumption of bitcoin, while providing much more utility. But will change later this year as it transitions to proof-of-stake, at which point Ethereum's energy consumption will be negligible.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/blockchain-cryptocurrency-en....

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#46

Post by babyshake »

nrmitchi wrote: post #25

I'm not sure why this is an NFT other than trying to capitalize on the current craze. NFT or not, a charity should still "issue a public report tracking how this specific tranche of money is spent, and estimating the number of lives saved as a result". Having decent reporting on how efficient your charity is feels like it should be basic table-stakes in order to raise more money in the future. Is this really any diff…

It would make more sense to sell this as an NFT if it were paired with a thematically related artwork. A wealthy buyer would be able to display the NFT in their home and brag about all the lives they saved when they bought it.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#47

Post by jonny_eh »

nrmitchi wrote: post #25

I'm not sure why this is an NFT other than trying to capitalize on the current craze. NFT or not, a charity should still "issue a public report tracking how this specific tranche of money is spent, and estimating the number of lives saved as a result". Having decent reporting on how efficient your charity is feels like it should be basic table-stakes in order to raise more money in the future. Is this really any diff…

> I'm not sure why this is an NFT

That's what I've said about every existing NFT.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#48

Post by toomuchtodo »

casi18 wrote: post #38
endisneigh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A blockchain isn't necessary for any of these things, though.

It works very well for all of them though.

A PDF of my Watsi donation and credit card statement is just as good without any blockchain Rube Goldberg mechanizations. By all means, digitally sign the PDF [1] if you want to be fancy and hip, but you don't need a blockchain, nor is it going to tell you if the healthcare donated towards was actually delivered.

If the argument is, "It's on the blockchain for trust purposes!" my retort is, "Do you not trust the nonprofit? And if you don't, why are you giving them money?"

Please, do donate to non profits that align with your philanthropy interests, but don't get caught up in hype.

[1] https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/certificate-based-sign...

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#49

Post by graeme »

I had hoped PG would write an essay on crypto/NFTs, as he seems enthused by them and is good at explaining things.

But he explains nothing here. Noora seems good, but that’s a feature of Noora, not NFTs.

As for what is going on, I looked at Noora’s post, it seems PG has placed the sole bid on the NFT, valued at $2.6 million at current market prices of ETH.

In return he will get a token that says he did it.

One part I’m unclear on: if someone outbids him, do only they get the token and pg pays nothing, or do both pay and are the contributions etched into the NFT?

> But the higher the price of this NFT goes, the more lives will be saved. What a sentence to be able to write.

Noora sounds like a good charity but what is different here from simply saying “the more people donate to Noora, the more lives will be saved”

Since Noora knows their ROI they should be able to calculate lives saved from a donation whether it is a normal donation or an NFT purchase.

If so, what does the NFT do?

Many smart people I follow, who are ordinarily good explainers, are inordinately enthused about crypto. And yet on this single topic none of them have produced any public writing explaining the reasons for their enthusiasm.

It is maddening. There may well be something there. But if there is it ought, in principle, to be explainable.

———-

I should also note you can’t take this and say “NFTs contributed $2.6 million”. You have to consider opportunity costs. The closest alternative to this post would be PG writing exactly the same essay except stating “I donated $2.6 million to Noora and you should too!” with a donate now button.

This post hit the HN frontpage, so surely many would have donated. Whereas nobody has donated other than PG.

Measured against this alternative, the NFT vs a normal funding mechanism has plausibly cost lives. Not to mention the money that Noora will take out of its funds to do a carbon offset.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding how this works, but if I have understood it properly and PG would have done an essay either way this might have cost lives.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#50

Post by psswrd12345 »

endisneigh wrote: post #34
psswrd12345 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verifiable donations, fully transparent reporting/auditing, no restrictions on who can donate, NFTs tied to donations that can be used for virtue signaling online, etc.

A blockchain isn't necessary for any of these things, though.

Might not be "necessary", but sure as heck makes all that a lot easier. Sure, one could design their own system that accomplishes all of those features, but why if there's an existing infrastructure layer that anyone can build on that already offers it? Especially a non-profit that likely lacks the technical expertise and resources?
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