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The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

nautil.us

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Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#41

Post by chollida1 »

threeseed wrote: post #21

The worst thing is the constant and malicious lie being perpetuated. You do not own an NFT in any legal or moral sense. The ownership is not recognised in any country, by any court or international body. All you have is an entry in a logical database that says you own it. But unless you have signed a contract with the seller transferring or licensing copyright then it as meaningless as you buying a certificate saying…

And most NFT's are just links that aren't embedded on the blockchain that could go away tomorrow or be switched to something else without any warning.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#43

Post by Zamicol »

labrador wrote: post #11

I'm as concerned as the next person about energy use, but I did read some counterpoints in an article published yesterday [1] The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is reportedly going to investigate cryptocurrency’s effect on the environment... But the meme that bitcoin or cryptocurrency uses as much power as one country or another, promoted by The New York Times last Sep…

NTF's aren't on Bitcoin. They're on Ethereum which is switching over to PoS.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#44

Post by quickthrowman »

diogenesjunior wrote: post #31

One of my favorite rappers, Nas, is selling royalty rights to his songs as NFTs[0]. I think selling NFTs as if they were trading cards is silly, but what Nas is doing? I think that's actually pretty cool. Thoughts? 0: https://www.nme.com/news/music/nas-to-sell-royalty-rights-to...

I only have one thing to say here: “Smarten up Nas” Jay-Z, Takeover, The Blueprint (2001)

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#45

Post by edmundsauto »

labrador wrote: post #11

I'm as concerned as the next person about energy use, but I did read some counterpoints in an article published yesterday [1] The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is reportedly going to investigate cryptocurrency’s effect on the environment... But the meme that bitcoin or cryptocurrency uses as much power as one country or another, promoted by The New York Times last Sep…

The specifics of this pushback don't seem that strong to me. FTA:

1. "standard method of inferring miners’ collective electricity use from the “hash rate” of networks relies on guessing what kind of mining equipment did the hashing."

2. "The energy-consumption profile of cryptocurrencies leans toward stranded energy and renewables"

#2, in particular, is completely irrelevant to how much energy is used - it's just hand waving and saying that some of the energy is renewable. Pushback #1 is just saying there are assumptions about miner efficiency in the energy use estimates - valid point, but it's not really a pushback, just the explicit statement of an assumption the analysis makes.

These do not strike me as particularly powerful arguments, especially since one of them (#2) is irrelevant to the question at hand: how much energy does crypto use?

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#46

Post by jayd16 »

strict9 wrote: post #8

> NFTs are comically bereft of anything we would associate with social or cultural value. This subjective opinion is frequently trotted out to describe digital items that people pay money for. The arguments used in this piece can just as easily apply to video games or anything else. There isn't anything new presented here, just one person railing against something they do not like using familiar arguments. IMO not th…

NFTs aren't the content and you should not conflate them.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#47

Post by skybrian »

quickthrowman wrote: post #26
labrador wrote: post #11

I'm as concerned as the next person about energy use, but I did read some counterpoints in an article published yesterday [1] The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is reportedly going to investigate cryptocurrency’s effect on the environment... But the meme that bitcoin or cryptocurrency uses as much power as one country or another, promoted by The New York Times last Sep…

This piece argues that we should listen to a VC partner that is invested in cryptocurrency about the energy usage of cryptocurrency. This is like listening to an oil company giving advice about fighting climate change. You’ll have to do better than this. I’m not sure why I expected any better from a partisan think tank. They pushed back on Nic Carter (I’m guessing here) because he has a financial incentive to make cr…

This is reason for suspicion but not for blanket dismissal. If you dismiss every self-interested argument you miss a lot.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#48

Post by daenz »

threeseed wrote: post #21

The worst thing is the constant and malicious lie being perpetuated. You do not own an NFT in any legal or moral sense. The ownership is not recognised in any country, by any court or international body. All you have is an entry in a logical database that says you own it. But unless you have signed a contract with the seller transferring or licensing copyright then it as meaningless as you buying a certificate saying…

Possession is nine-tenths of the law. If nobody can take it from you, you "own" it, and everything else follows from that. "It" being: your crypto identity bound to some metadata.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#49

Post by legutierr »

fabian2k wrote: post #14
legutierr wrote: post #4

> Blockchain technology is purposefully burdensome and computationally distributed, making it notoriously energy intensive. Estimates put the energy used to create and trade a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin on a par with the total consumption of a country like Sweden. And that’s without accounting for the environmental footprint of the physical computer hardware. Another critic who is willing to criticize without updati…

I think it is fair to criticize this technology on the current state, any future improvements first have to prove themselves.

Among the most popular blockchain networks right now, only Bitcoin and Ethereum and their forks (including code forks like Dogecoin and Litecoin) are still using proof-of-work. And Ethereum is moving away from it.

After Ethereum migrates to proof-of-stake, of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, only Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Tether (which is a multi-chain stablecoin) will operate on proof-of-work networks.

https://coinmarketcap.com/

Alternatives to proof-of-work are no longer "future" tech.

Re: The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

#50

Post by AlexandrB »

gringoDan wrote: post #20

This is a lazy argument that could apply to any art or leisure activity. Counterpoint (and shameless plug) – NFTs are one of the best bundles ever created. They combine: 1. A display of wealth. 2. An elite social network. 3. A signal of good taste. 4. A limited collectible. 5. The excitement of roulette. https://paranoidenough.com/2021/12/21/The-Value-of-the-NFT-B...

> 3. A signal of good taste.

Or, given the current crop of popular NFTs, the lack thereof.

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