NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap • Hacker News Board

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#151

Post by quickthrower2 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:34 AM UTC

anonporridge wrote: post #132

andreskytt wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, there’s an idea, just generate a random string, bundle it with the artwork and sign the whole damn thing using good old RSA. Achieves the exact same goal, uses a fraction of energy and no fancy tech.

Uh...no? These can trivially be copied (double spent), which means they're just as scarce as any digital data. Valueless without some significant proof of violence and hyper censorship ability enforcing copyright protection. The primary revolution of bitcoin was the invention of self enforcing digital scarcity.

Some company can run a DB to record spends. Why trust a third party? Well with any crypto linked to real world outcomes you need it trust a third party. Be that tether or some NFT hustler.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#152

Post by onion2k » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:34 AM UTC

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #107

anonymoushn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping we can do our NFT trading on non-PoW chains within the next couple years. This should reduce the environmental impact to that of baseball cards.

One random idea I had was to use cryptomining to “soak up” excess power: so, for example, you could build nuclear out to meet peak load and then set up mining rigs to use the difference between peak and the current load, subsidizing the cost of power production. It’s probably a bad idea for other reasons, but it’s one way to reduce the environmental impact of PoW

You can reduce the energy output of a nuclear reactor both through the moderation of the fission reaction (via control rods, coolant temperature variation, neutron poisoning, etc), and through moderation of the electrical generator turbine (slowing down the turbine speed, venting steam, etc).

There is no such thing as "excess power" for crytomining. Even if there was then that energy could just be stored using batteries or gravity storage or something, or it could be sold to neighbouring energy users, or it could be used in the grid and other more polluting sources could be scaled down instead.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#153

Post by jayd16 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:36 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #150

jayd16 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still might want to hand out tokens to third parties to trade but not copy. I agree that a decentralized structure is not necessary.

If that’s what you want throw a “transfer” button on your site. There’s already a button to do this on the Ticketmaster app.

Agreed. I still think there's some charm to the idea that it can be supported passively but as you say the fulfilment is ultimately not passive, so it doesn't really gain you all that much.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#154

Post by quickthrower2 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:36 AM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #16

NFT: non-fungible token. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token Expand your acronyms, peeps.

Keep up folks. Your so Feb 2021 to not know what NFT means.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#155

Post by nandhinianand » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:37 AM UTC

chadcmulligan wrote: post #81

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy: Earth - a small planet in the outer reaches of spiral galaxy M7529, so far the only planet on record that the semi-intelligent biped inhabitants managed to overheat so badly that they became extinct. Overheating has happened before, of course, however the method of overheating is unique - the inhabitants invented a method of identifying uniqueness by making large calculations and atta…

Loved it .... I've been craving a replacement for Douglas Adams for a while now.. Terry Pratchett was quite close.. but now he too is gone.. perhaps it's time for me to find other writers or write stuff myself..

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#156

Post by fiddlerwoaroof » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:39 AM UTC

root_axis wrote: post #149

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t necessarily true: if the subsidies spread clean power generation then the percentage of miners that have bad environmental impacts will decrease over time. Also, since this would make relatively clean power sources cheaper, it would help phase out fossil generation capacity.

They're not "subsidies", they're just profits earned from selling what was mined, nothing useful happened, it simply makes the blockchain needlessly more expensive for everyone because a nuclear power plant is dumping hashing power into the network. Green energy doesn't change the fundamental nature of PoW, it inevitably expands to consume all available energy because the more energy you can burn the more money you c…

The important part is that the profits from mining are used to reduce rates: so it’s subsidizing the power costs for the customers as well as offsetting the capital investment into the powerplant.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#157

Post by quickthrower2 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:39 AM UTC

thinkingkong wrote: post #38

Maybe NFTs for collectibles isnt ideal but Im wondering if there are some more - lets say - utilitarian uses of this concept that we havent discussed yet. The other day I tried buying a bike. Id really like to know it wasnt stolen, and somehow being able to tie a real world representation into a virtual single item good would be somewhat useful.

The be your own bank headaches that most people can’t handle will then apply. You need to spend a lot of money on gas fees, hardware wallets etc and get a good grounding in cyber security. Or just get a lock and bike insurance.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#158

Post by rvz » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:40 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #127

EGreg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICOs were better

ICOs were the NFT of 2017 for sure; still waiting on my dentacoin investment to pay off ;)

Exactly, with all the VCs, celebrities, etc hyping up their own coins and launching an ICO to potentially pump and dump the coin for a quick exit scam in 2017.

This is no different and it is another giant scam. Where was the same 'thought leaders' on Twitter who were screaming and hyping about ICOs in 2017? Bust.

On to the next get rich quick scheme I suppose for the VCs and the hype brigade on Twitter, I guess.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#159

Post by arnarbi » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:40 AM UTC

klipt wrote: post #148

anonporridge wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh...no? These can trivially be copied (double spent), which means they're just as scarce as any digital data. Valueless without some significant proof of violence and hyper censorship ability enforcing copyright protection. The primary revolution of bitcoin was the invention of self enforcing digital scarcity.

The artist can sign a message including your public key. The message is verifiable using the artist's public key. If other people copy it, they're just copying the proof that it belongs to you. If you want to sell it to someone else, you sign a message saying you give it to them and so on, forming a "chain" of signed transactions.

Any owner can sign as many receipts of sale as they want.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#160

Post by 55555 » Sun, Mar 07, 2021, 6:41 AM UTC

I founded a blockchain project dedicated entirely to NFTs. This is clearly a bubble. There may be some long term value in these NFTs long in the future simply because they will be some of the first NFTs ever made and NFTs will eventually possibly be extremely commonplace (offchain in-game items in MMOs, etc.), but IMO it would be prudent to just stay far, far, far away.