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An NFT That Saves Lives

paulgraham.com

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Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#121

Post by mxwsn »

The latest NFT craze is primarily for one-of-a-kind items. I'd rather see an org like Noora Health sell unlimited NFTs.

What's exciting is the capability for decentralized apps to interact with NFTs. For example, other ethereum-based games are able to detect and interact with cryptokitty NFTs without the permission of the cryptokitty designer. As a blockchain token proof of donating to charity, you can imagine apps that encourage more donations by recognizing donaters in special ways to help build social capital.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#122

Post by dandanua »

klyrs wrote: post #91
spamalot159 wrote: post #2

Seems like even PG is succumbing to the hype of NFTs. I don't understand how this will be any better than just doing a donation drive and it could possibly be worse for the planet.

This is generally the problem with idolizing people. PG is a human. Humans do stupid stuff.

Why do you think it's stupid? He is legitimizing blockchains with the hope that the price will grow (infinitely) and he will be at the top of this human pyramid.

Ah, and what about saved lives? Pyramid supporters don't give a sh*t about lower levels of the pyramid. That's the main point of building it.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#123

Post by throwaway_isms »

Back when YC experimented with application through the community, or "Apply YC:", I deployed a YCCoin on Ethereum and applied. Basically decentralized Karma. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15226688

There was one comment "why would I use this?" Rightly or wrongly it seems that is still the question everyone has for NFTs.

At the same time in 2017 I had simultaneously built out redditco.in, igco.in, and facebookco.in. If you follow NFTs you might be familiar with the Tweet NFTs and Jack's first tweet getting a multimillion dollar bid, right as that was occurring I got a cease and desist/trademark infringement letter from FB. In a responsive letter I encouraged FB to allow me to auction Zuckerberg's first FB post as an NFT along side Jack's Tweet and with that I would gladly transfer them the domain names. It sounds dumb at best, tinfoil conspiracy at worst, but that is exactly when the bids on Jack's Tweet and all the media surrounding it stopped, and I never got a reply to my response to the TM infringement letter.

From there the NFT rabbit hole only got deeper as I began receiving quid pro quos, or pay to play requests for invitations to join an "exclusive" NFT marketplace, even getting a retweet from one of the anonymous NFT collectors on Twitter that has spent millions on NFTs as proof the quid pro quo requests were legit. The Twitter account I was using literally had 1 follower, but was being retweeted by an anonymous NFT collector spending millions (I think even bought one of Grimes' NFTs for about $750K).

I will say this for pg's essay, this NFT, and bid...at least pg and company did not create an anonymous or fake persona or personality and pg openly placed the initial bid. However, unless this results in so much backlash no one wants to touch it, my guess is consistent with the entire NFT space, the ultimate bid for this NFT will end up being some anonymous NFT collector with a record of spending millions "collecting" NFTs.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#124

Post by criddell »

glitchc wrote: post #103
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #55

I used to run the tech side for a couple of UK-based aid organisations (just out of college - basically database management and home brewed campaign work.) We had terrible marketing response once we left a core base of existing donors - getting new donors in the door for a non-profit was (at least for us) a constant challenge. However, once some external event (sadly some horrific disaster) occurred we would see a sp…

Has your past employer perchance switched from a "give what you can" to a subscription "pay X per month" model? The latter has proven to be remarkably unpopular with the public.

I'm only doing anonymous donations these days. Too many places do not respect your request to not be contacted in the future.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#126

Post by cwkoss »

Will PG be committing tax fraud when he writes off this 'donation'?

He is receiving in exchange a token when notionally has the same value as his 'donation'. Being able to resell a 'donation' to someone else to recover part of the cost seems weird and like it could confuse tax treatment.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#127

Post by catilac »

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 just deleted my comment wondering the same thing. I don't understand why something like opencollective couldn't be used. Give money to org, see how money is spent. The NFT is completely unnecessary.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#128

Post by cwkoss »

mxwsn wrote: post #121

The latest NFT craze is primarily for one-of-a-kind items. I'd rather see an org like Noora Health sell unlimited NFTs. What's exciting is the capability for decentralized apps to interact with NFTs. For example, other ethereum-based games are able to detect and interact with cryptokitty NFTs without the permission of the cryptokitty designer. As a blockchain token proof of donating to charity, you can imagine apps t…

Automatic membership to services based on total amount of donations to any charity on the blockchain could be a cool thing.

Like, 'to stream this movie, you must have donated $100 to any charity within the last 24 hours'.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#129

Post by cwkoss »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #14

Leveraging manias for social good sounds appropriately disruptive .. Is there a way to short NFTs? I wish I could proactively sell people's regret to them.

Shorting low-liquidity assets is a very bad idea.

If you short an NFT with only 1 token, you effectively just owe whoever holds it an infinite amount of money.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#130

Post by criddell »

gowld wrote: post #84
8note wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are purchases from charities tax deductible? I thought it was only donations

The amountyou pay in excess of the market value, is deductible as a donation. This is how charity auctions of commodities work. What's the market value of the NFT? Who knows?

The market value is whatever somebody is willing to pay. If PG will pay $2.6 million for the NFT, that's its market value.
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