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BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

theguardian.com

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Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#91
post #19

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

While I generally agree with your sentiment, some of the most iconic art in the world seems to me to be poorly made and I have no idea why they are valued or admired. I don’t just mean the usual go-to controversial examples in modern art like Serrano’s “Piss Christ”[0] or Emin’s “My Bed”[1], as even some older stuff like Klimt’s “Der Kuss”[2] give me this confusion (the woman has always looked to me like she has a br…

Silver Car Crash by Warhol sold for a 105 million dollars and it is just a screen print of a car crash.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/videos/preview-silver-car-crash-...

Honestly, I can't imagine Warhol would not be involved in NFTs if he was alive.

I think NFTs are beyond stupid but so is 75% of the art in a modern gallery.

In 1987 in a far more Christian society, you can see how Piss Christ is going to make noise.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no rights to Bored Ape works. They are algorithmically generated so they are public domain.

What's the precedent on algorithmic art being public domain? Is AI art (eg. VQGAN+CLIP stuff) public domain? Doesn't the seed image and text prompt constitute artistic work? How about using photoshop smart features like autofilling? At what point is the threshold placed?

> Is AI art (eg. VQGAN+CLIP stuff) public domain?

Iirc cdpa 1988 in the UK holds it to be copyright of the authors of the program. But I'd be surprised if the law was a comfortable fit for practice 30 years on, or that it had been tested much in court.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I am not sure what this comment is meant to convey, but it sounds to me that you are alluding to BoJo gutting the BBC for his own political gain. I think the reality is the license fee is overwhelmingly unpopular, has been for decades. The BBC has not evolved its business model to keep up with democratized broadcast and if BoJo is the one to do what is inevitable then who can blame him to use the opportunity to be th…

It's a more general effect where conservatives will cut budgets and mismanage government services and then, having done that will turn around and go "See, look! I told you the public sector can't do this!".

And in my opinion, you're kind of falling for it. Is it true that the BBC has not evolved its business model? Well yes and no. Yes it's true that the BBC has largely failed to find new forms of revenue. That's directly because the royal charter prevents it from doing so. Is it true that the license fee is a weird tax that is badly enforced. Absolutely, but again, it's not the BBC's choice how the license fee is set up. It's the governments choice, and rather than fix the problems, the government has made them worse (through stealth budget cuts including forcing the BBC to cover the cost of free licenses for the elderly). The government could scrap the license fee tomorrow and fund the BBC out of general taxation, or remove the restrictions on the BBC monetizing its content, or remove the BBC's obligation to do a whole swathe of programming that is unprofitable but required by the royal charter. All of that is in the government's power to do. It continually chooses not to fix the problem and instead continually just bash the BBC for things that aren't within it's control.

If you look at the things that the BBC is actually in control of though - the content it produces - it does a fantastic job.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#94
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy drugs and other illegal things off the internet (tor), that's very useful for some people. Basically crypto allows for transactions that could otherwise be blocked or easily tracked by central parties (1). It can also be used to bypass gambling laws. For legal purchases and activities crypto is useless, regular money is much more practical. [1] depending on which crypto and how it's used tracking is possi…

> You can buy drugs and other illegal things off the internet (tor) Can you? After that huge bust a few years back, I figured that particular usage was marginal at this point. Seems like the only use for crypto is ransomware, dodging taxes or smuggling embezzled money out of your country.

IPTV. It's the only reason i own bitcoins. :)

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#95
post #3

> The Guardian asked the BBC if it was confident in his claimed financial returns and questioned why the programme’s promotional material did not mention that Hassan’s cryptocurrency Orfano was abruptly shut down in October, with many unhappy investors claiming they were left out of pocket as a result. I feel like this is the key thing. He probably made the money with a scamcoin and the BBC nearly aired something tha…

Kudos to the Gruaniad for stopping the BBC hanging itself. I think they should be allowed a small gloat off the back of this.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#96
post #5

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

Many people dream of getting rich quickly, by windfall. Buying index funds is a great and easy way to enhance your personal financial situation – over time. But you will not get rich quickly. So people still seek out alternatives that are incredibly risky and unsound.

You also can't separate that this all became popular during a global pandemic and people love to gamble.

I think its easy to underestimate the amount of global entertainment dollars that have been on the sidelines the past two years.

It is a fashion trend that will turn to dust as the pandemic fades. No one is going to want to be reminded of the pandemic in two years when people were so starved for entertainment they were buying these stupid ape pictures.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, this old hoary chestnut again. I don't suppose you'd have the thinnest shred of evidence of those "millions"?

Look at Turkish Lira inflows into crypto in recent months. You'll see the value. Also check out the inflow of USD as the Federal Reserve printed trillions of new dollars

Any evidence that this represents the common man freeing himself from the economic authorities and not just the privileged class using it for capital flight and tax evasion?

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#98
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at Turkish Lira inflows into crypto in recent months. You'll see the value. Also check out the inflow of USD as the Federal Reserve printed trillions of new dollars

Any evidence that this represents the common man freeing himself from the economic authorities and not just the privileged class using it for capital flight and tax evasion?

Any evidence this is the privileged class using it for capital flight and tax evasion and not the common man freeing himself from the economic authorities? In my opinion it doesn't matter. Good for all involved who are taking back control of their wealth

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every person I've spoken to who's told me they're interested in crypto literally only care about it to make money, and have no interest in learning how it works. They all treat every last crypto-based use as investment like stocks, and not as a normal economic choice (e.g. "I want $3000 worth of bitcoin to buy a car" is not something people are doing, instead it's all "I want $3000 worth of bitcoin because the intern…

I wonder if the VCs have fallen prey to the siren's song or if they have joined the choir? I have a hard time believing they don't ask the questions that get to the heart of the long term viability of the projects they invest in. Yet as a tech creator, I don't see much use for the game theoretic additions for the extra complexity and waste from adding blockchain.

Can't speak about VCs, but for celebrities and promoters there seem to be questionable cross-promotions: https://maxread.substack.com/p/mapping-the-celebrity-nft-com...

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has changed recently, people in these communities believe that NFTs are only valid if verified by opensea. So you are now buying ownership as opensea is beginning the enforcement of copyright. They are pulling a bait and switch.

Opensea might be verifying the rights owner has attached their image to an NFT, but that still doesn't mean they have transferred any rights to the holder of the token. Correct me if I'm wrong I've not looked up Opensea's T&C's (have several other's). Also whenever people talk about ownership in regards to copyright, it's a flag that they probably don't know what they are talking about.

For most of these people the NFT is the valuable part. If Twitter verifies your opensea nft and let's you put it on your Twitter profile that is the value.
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