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NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

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Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#31

Post by stickfigure »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #23
stickfigure wrote: post #2

> The venn diagram of NFT haters are almost exact matches of Crypto haters Nonsense. I'm pro-crypto but think NFTs are absolutely idiotic. Scarcity is fundamental to any store of value. There are an infinite number of potential NFTs.

> Scarcity is fundamental to any store of value. There are an infinite number of potential NFTs. I'm a pretty big crypto-skeptic, and I'm especially an NFT skeptic, but this is a weird argument. It's kind of like saying there could be an infinite number of paintings, so why should Picassos be worth very much? Even more, it's possible to create extremely high quality reproductions of famous Picasso paintings, but they…

Scarcity is necessary but not sufficient. What sets BTC apart from NTFs is its fungibility. In theory, there are an infinite number of potential cryptocurrencies, sure. But everyone has already embraced bitcoin (and a small handful of others), and replacing that userbase is an incredibly tall hurdle.

On the other hand, minting a new beanie-baby-NFT takes less effort than making an actual beanie baby.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#32

Post by polemic »

teruakohatu wrote: post #15
shiftpgdn wrote: post #5

eyeroll I won’t deny that there are tons of NFT projects that are nothing more than modern day tulip mania. On the other hand there is an entirely new world of opportunity that has never existed before for both common people, artists and corporations in the form of DeFi projects. Basically any distributed form of ownership you can imagine is now possible through NFT and DAOs. There has never been a better time to lea…

> there is an entirely new world of opportunity ... any distributed form of ownership That is what people say, but what I don't understand is what ownership is actually conferred with NFTs. The only "ownership" is the ability to transfer the NFT to another person, which simply gives them the ability to transfer it to another person (which sounds a bit MLMy). For ownership to be worth more than that, you need a legal…

Yep, several years ago it was trendy to shill the idea of "cadastre [land records] on the blockchain" to solve some imagined issue with the central authority of land registries, never mind that of any particular asset class, land title was the very last thing any sane individual would cede to a "zero trust database". If you're going to sell or buy land, that title better be backed by all the legal and otherwise mechanisms of force available to the state!

NFTs are just a further abstraction on that same failed idea – a cyptofinancial derivative to make something appear real that isn't real.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#33

Post by iAm25626 »

Car/bag/cloth/jewelry/art - these type of things are sometime considered status symbol. It help people convey certain “message” to other. NFT might could be the same in the ever more virtual world. I might not be be the target audience; but it does not meant that it hold no value to other.

People spent lots of money on game skins, rare weapon. So there is a market.

When one goes to a physical conference: flair/badges serves similar purpose. NFT could be that in zoom/team/slack.

My naive way of looking at NFT: Maybe it can be used to help fund open source free software. Instead piece of art; a flair/pin/badge for showing your support for your favor projects.

do not underestimate people's vanity.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#34

Post by avs733 »

gruez wrote: post #27

sorry to be pedantic, but it's literally not multi-level-marketing? Specifically, it's missing the multi-level part. Your upline isn't getting $$$ when you sell a NFT. I suppose you can make the argument that if you then take the money and buy more stuff, then your upline gets paid, but that describes most distributor arrangements. Come to think of it, there isn't really even an upline. It's just a network of artists…

I think you could argue that the 'upline' acrues value even if they aren't paid directly. Greater interest in an NFT drives the value up.

As with everything NFT crypto, the value is all probabilistic anyways /s

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#35

Post by devetec »

RNCTX wrote: post #16
roweow wrote: post #10

Here’s an amazing email from Hal Finney on proto-NFTs 1993- https://imgur.com/a/UJpFjzx I think people who have been in bitcoin for 10 years are more skeptical of NFTs because suddenly they’re framed as the ultimate crypto use case. And Eth is ultra sound money. And while there’s some interesting generative art (eg deafbeef) most of the industry is hyping NFTs for videogames. There are better and more transformative…

Everything is framed as the ultimate crypto use case, because crypto doesn't have a use case. No one needs money capped at 8 transactions per second world-wide, which costs ever-increasing amounts of electricity to trade. All of these things end up being an exercise in cryptocurrency people in a round-about way proclaiming to the world that they don't know what a thing is. For example: NFTs are a great idea to people…

You do realize there are blockchains that don't suffer from just... not working? like PoS fixes the electricity issue, and there are many solutions to making transactions much cheaper, quicker, and having more bandwidth.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#36

Post by teej »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14
SrslyJosh wrote: post #3

This would have been more interesting if the author had traced where all the money being plowed into NFTs is coming from. I suspect that most of it does not come from outside of the current ETH (or whatever) ecosystem. I'd bet that most of the volume comes from people who are either treating it as play money, or trying to pump the NFT scam for their own benefit (real or imagined).

> This would have been more interesting if the author had traced where all the money being plowed into NFTs is coming from. Not possible to trace where the money is coming from. In fact, someone can "sell" an NFT to themself in a wash trade between two wallets they control. The last trade price of the NFT is now recorded as the transaction price, but it's possible that money never actually changed hands. Want to have…

> In fact, someone can "sell" an NFT to themself in a wash trade between two wallets they control. The last trade price of the NFT is now recorded as the transaction price, but it's possible that money never actually changed hands.

I heard rumors this is what happened with the Beeple nft

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#37

Post by ohdannyboy »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14
SrslyJosh wrote: post #3

This would have been more interesting if the author had traced where all the money being plowed into NFTs is coming from. I suspect that most of it does not come from outside of the current ETH (or whatever) ecosystem. I'd bet that most of the volume comes from people who are either treating it as play money, or trying to pump the NFT scam for their own benefit (real or imagined).

> This would have been more interesting if the author had traced where all the money being plowed into NFTs is coming from. Not possible to trace where the money is coming from. In fact, someone can "sell" an NFT to themself in a wash trade between two wallets they control. The last trade price of the NFT is now recorded as the transaction price, but it's possible that money never actually changed hands. Want to have…

Can't you do that at normal auctions using (for lack of a better word) a shill bidder?

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#38

Post by stickfigure »

agravier wrote: post #22
shp0ngle wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Scarcity is fundamental to any store of value. There are an infinite number of potential altcoins.

Same with paintings, etc. So yeah it's a wonky argument because it ignores subjective judgement

You can hang a painting on your wall and flaunt it. Nobody looks at the bits on your hard disk.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#39

Post by ayngg »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #5

eyeroll I won’t deny that there are tons of NFT projects that are nothing more than modern day tulip mania. On the other hand there is an entirely new world of opportunity that has never existed before for both common people, artists and corporations in the form of DeFi projects. Basically any distributed form of ownership you can imagine is now possible through NFT and DAOs. There has never been a better time to lea…

The author literally says the following in the article:

>Note: It is important to note here that we think that NFTs as a technology hold incredible promise to help more evenly distribute financial outcomes to community users, not just community organizers. We are in the early days of exploring what digital ownership actually means and it is far too bearish to universally decry the technology. Our concern is with the following types of NFT applications.

Re: NFT projects are just MLMs for tech elites

#40

Post by beckman466 »

Thank fuck someone said it.

Similar angle:

”Are NFTs DRM by Another Name?

[...] What do NFTs do that DRM doesn’t do? Not much. To me, the only interesting thing is that NFT schemes make public the identities of people who paid money for the NFTs that point to digital objects, so that those people have help from the NFT platform in exercising bragging rights. DRM technologies generally don’t do this, though they certainly could.”

https://copyrightandtechnology.com/2021/03/15/are-nfts-drm-b...

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