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NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

seths.blog

361–370 of 786 posts

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#361
post #354

I agree that most NFTs will be mostly useless outside of certain conditions. Ie. If I want to play a blockchain-based game NFTs in that game will be valuable because my client and other player client to the game is forced to accept that toke legitimacy. But outside of the blockchain-world? What's the point of a NFTs? I guess this who care to brag that they overpaid for a png or mp3... But I feel this post is another…

> ... detractors tried to tarnish cryptoassets reputations by associating it with traditional crime. Now they do it by trying to associate it with climate crime.

Help me understand, are you suggesting these aren't the case, or that they aren't legitimate concerns?

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#362

NFTs make perfect sense for representing a claim on things that can be used, like event tickets or in-game virtual goods. But as certificates layered on top of collectibles... I'm not so sure. With something like CryptoKitties, you can do something with the tokens (play a virtual pet game). But with something like CryptoPunks you're essentially paying for digital beanie babies, which are worse than real ones since an…

> NFTs make perfect sense for representing a claim on things that can be used, like event tickets or in-game virtual goods. There’s absolutely no reason for that to be decentralized, only one party can honor the tokens anyways. Like most things crypto they don’t actually make sense for anything.

How would you resell a stadium event ticket with a centralized setup? You'd need the event organiser to run the marketplace, which isn't always desirable.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#363
post #295

NFT's are Bullshit: https://samim.io/p/2021-03-05-non-fungible-tokens-nft-are-bu... In Summary: 1. The NFT doubles down on the worst of copyright, the property metaphor, & tries to impose old ideas of scarcity & exclusion on the digital realm, where both are obsolete. 2.NFTs are an absolute ecological disaster

Just want to point out that Ethereum 2.0 will be Proof of Stake, so moving forward the ecological argument is moot.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CryptoPunks will be in the MoMA one day. They are a pioneer — and will be valued as such. Derivative works and obvious cash grabs are a bubble and low effort art will trend back to $0.

> low effort art will trend back to $0 This is being continuously disproved since decades by contemporary art.

Art is what people say it is. Its appreciation is what probably separates us from the animals and certainly separates us from the AIs.

We say "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder", because it's true. There will be no accounting for a persons own taste or for what society finds fashionable today or over time.

If what you personally call Art and its story speaks to you then it is valuable. If others share that feeling then it is even more valuable. It's just that simple.

I personally like the idea of commissioning art like what big families did back in the Renaissance, but use Social P2P networks like what is already happening with customized digital Avatar makers/artists. NFTs have a role to play here equivalent to an old Renaissance painter signing the bottom of the painting, only now it's with the owner(s) and all future owner(s) signatures there for all to see.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#365
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason. Just not a technical one. It becomes obvious when you ask the simple question: why hasn't it already been done? The answer is that it's in no actor's local incentives to create the public commons. Why is there no global market place for reselling digital event tickets? Certainly Ticket master and the other retailers could agree on an open standard protocol, pay for a centralized clearing house, and…

The example you give - reselling tickets, is actually something that is directly something ticket sellers want to discourage, crypto doesn’t solve that.

If I’m in ticket selling business, if I can maintain a level of control with crypto I can, but back tickets and resell them, but most importantly I can capture any upside I missed by selling the tickets for too low of a price, and the purchaser resells the tickets for a profit given I get a cut of each and every transaction

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#366
post #331

This article by the author/podcaster Seth Godin [1] highlights the issues with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) [2], built on the Ethereum cryptocurrency. It extends the ideas introduced in an Everest Pipkin post [3]: > Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are an absolute disaster for so many more reasons than the ecological. The ecological issue is due to the energy consumption required to perform (some^) cryptocurrency computations.…

Except there are non-ETH NFTs which don't consume much electricity and the author is specifically talking about some of them - like NBA Topshots - while pretending they all have large consumption.

[deleted]

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Artificial general intelligence Not only we don't have AGI but there is an ongoing discussion whether it's possible to have it at all.

If we had it (AI), talking about dangers of having it, would be too late (as human intelligence cannot argue with god intelligence) It is simple, as ant cannot contain human, in the same way humans won't be able to contain AGI. Can it exist, yes it can - simply, can me and you think, yes. In a way we are "device", so therefore, it is possible to make intelligence similar and/or more powerful than our is.

Bro this made like no sense.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we had it (AI), talking about dangers of having it, would be too late (as human intelligence cannot argue with god intelligence) It is simple, as ant cannot contain human, in the same way humans won't be able to contain AGI. Can it exist, yes it can - simply, can me and you think, yes. In a way we are "device", so therefore, it is possible to make intelligence similar and/or more powerful than our is.

> In a way we are "device", so therefore, it is possible to make intelligence similar and/or more powerful than our is. I mean, yes, I can have a child and raise her to be smarter than me, but I don't really think that's what you have in mind. The strong AGI proponents always resort to hand-waving and dubious analogies. There's no reason to think that building ever-larger ML models will produce an intelligence capabl…

I am just simply stating, if it (bionic intelligence) already exist - another (artificial) can be built. I am not saying anything about existing models, ways or methods, just that if exist - it is possible to build one "again" so to say.

Re: NFTs Are a Dangerous Trap

#370
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it sounds catchy to say that NFTs are an ecological disaster, but that statement is sensational and not accurate. NFTs do not cause carbon emissions themselves, just like you don't add carbon emissions by occupying a seat on a public transportation bus. The bus is doing its daily route and has a fixed amount of emissions per day whether it has any occupants or not. This analogy breaks quickly, so I wouldn't lo…

This argument has some flaws. So firstly, if nobody got on the bus, the number of buses on the route would be reduced, and depending on circumstances the route would be cancelled. Additionally, the weight of the passenger does slightly increase the power requirement. Ignoring that, while there's minimal direct effect of usage, ultimately the bus is only there due to demand. Similarly, for block chains, mining only oc…

> Similarly, for block chains, mining only occurs when the thing being mined has value. NFTs would not be mined if people weren't using them. Therefore I would absolutely call them an ecological disaster.

The point is that energy consumption due to mining on the Ethereum network does not scale with transaction count. So it does not matter if NFTs are issued ("minted") or not. They add no marginal energy cost in the mining process. That is why calling them an "ecological disaster" is a misnomer.

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