The Alarm Is Sounding On NFTs

[Dirty Hipsters]

NFTs, at least how the original inventors saw it, are the ultimate greater fool scam. Its all about convincing the next mark that this jpeg of a cool monkey is worth $40,000. They then buy the jpeg, and have to convince the NEXT mark its worth $45,000, and so on and so on. You hope to not be the last man standing when the music finally stops, and its looking like the music is slowing down.
and because average mooks like you and me knew it was bullshit in the first place, a lot of NFT sales were dudes selling to themselves and buying from themselves to make it look like there's a market.
People who actually thought it was a ground zero for a new product were the ultimate marks, because they were never smart enough to realize it was a scam just being pushed onto the next buyer.

Is that any different than the stock market really?

This isn't to say that NFTs make any sense, rather that the stock market is just as much fake bullshit, but it's accepted.

 

[Worgen]

Is that any different than the stock market really?

This isn't to say that NFTs make any sense, rather that the stock market is just as much fake bullshit, but it's accepted.

The thing is the stock market is different and based more in reality then NFTs, but I don't know how to put that in words. Best I can do is the stock market is based on your trust in a company and wanting to invest in part of it, either for dividends or in hopes that the stock will grow in value. It's not the most satisfying answer, but its the best I can give at the moment, hopefully someone can do better.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Obligatory post.

I think this video offers some insight into why so many people are buying into this shit. All these NFT scams are basically functioning like a cult, aka groups of already rich assholes or conmen preying on "vulnerable" people. So it's pointless to try to analyze the logic, because for the most part, NFT bros aren't functioning on logic.

 

[SilentPony]

Is that any different than the stock market really?

This isn't to say that NFTs make any sense, rather that the stock market is just as much fake bullshit, but it's accepted.

I mean kinda, but the companies involved in the stock market are real. Ford makes cars. Apple makes phones. They're companies with an actual product or service to render, and traders take guesses on how much stock in those companies will be worth in the future. In that it IS sorta fake bullshit, but at least the starting principle, the companies themselves, are real.
NFTs were never real. There was never going to be a way to have only one jpeg of a monkey.

 

[Generals]

Is that any different than the stock market really?

This isn't to say that NFTs make any sense, rather that the stock market is just as much fake bullshit, but it's accepted.

I am afraid I will kind of repeat what other have said but the stock market is actually quite real.
Common stocks give you ownership rights over a company's assets and also voting rights. And the companies you partly own are very real and produce very real things.
Whether the price reflects the true value of owning that tiny part of the company's assets and voting rights is a different question. But than again, we could question the pricing of about anything.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I am afraid I will kind of repeat what other have said but the stock market is actually quite real.
Common stocks give you ownership rights over a company's assets and also voting rights. And the companies you partly own are very real and produce very real things.
Whether the price reflects the true value of owning that tiny part of the company's assets and voting rights is a different question. But than again, we could question the pricing of about anything.

Except that some companies are able to sell stocks that they don't own and just get away with that (literally what last year's gamestop fiasco was all about). So to say that stocks are real and give ownership of companies that are real and produce real goods isn't necessarily even true. A company could sell you a fake stock that they just tell you exists and then hopes the stock price will drop to zero so you never sell it and find out that the company is unable to deliver the stock you bought.

 

[Generals]

Except that some companies are able to sell stocks that they don't own and just get away with that (literally what last year's gamestop fiasco was all about). So to say that stocks are real and give ownership of companies that are real and produce real goods isn't necessarily even true. A company could sell you a fake stock that they just tell you exists and then hopes the stock price will drop to zero so you never sell it and find out that the company is unable to deliver the stock you bought.

Unless I am mistaken what you are referring to were the naked short sales on Gamestop. Which is entirely different as it didn't involve "fake stocks". It involved hedge funds shorting stocks they didn't own. This is a (legal) scam-like practice on the shorting market which created a mess because they weren't able to deliver the very real stocks they were supposed to.
This doesn't make actual common stocks any less real.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Unless I am mistaken what you are referring to were the naked short sales on Gamestop. Which is entirely different as it didn't involve "fake stocks". It involved hedge funds shorting stocks they didn't own. This is a (legal) scam-like practice on the shorting market which created a mess because they weren't able to deliver the very real stocks they were supposed to.
This doesn't make actual common stocks any less real.

If you can't tell the difference between the real and the fake then it's all fake.

 

[Generals]

If you can't tell the difference between the real and the fake then it's all fake.

Not really, if you buy a common stock on the stock market you will have a real stock.

EDIT: as long as you stay away from more complex markets/products it should be relatively clear as an individual investor what is real or "isn't".

 

[Baffle]

Is that any different than the stock market really?

This isn't to say that NFTs make any sense, rather that the stock market is just as much fake bullshit, but it's accepted.

It's maybe not different to what the stock market is, but to what it should be (that is, investment to support production rather that financial dickbaggery to make money any which way).

 

[Schadrach]

"I just don't understand why this company won't let me make a ton of money off their hard work for nothing! Don't they understand Web 3.0 is all about shady wankers stealing people's stuff and burning the planet down for a quick buck?"

The best part about mtgDAO is that it presumably is a DAO, and will likely be used to demonstrate how a DAO interacts with the legal system in terms of silly things like liability. I don't think the legal system will treat them the way they think it will.

That's not environmentally friendly, that's just somewhat less environmentally destructive.

Can't argue that. But they are comparatively environmentally friendly, in the same way that beer is comparatively non alcoholic if your standard is Everclear.

 

[Agema]

The best part about mtgDAO is that it presumably is a DAO, and will likely be used to demonstrate how a DAO interacts with the legal system in terms of silly things like liability. I don't think the legal system will treat them the way they think it will.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what a DAO is, which means I'm going to have to read up on it. Trying to figure out NFTs and why anyone would pay for them was bad enough.

 

[Schadrach]

Unfortunately, I have no idea what a DAO is, which means I'm going to have to read up on it. Trying to figure out NFTs and why anyone would pay for them was bad enough.

Imagine you built an organization, where membership and voting rights were controlled by a special form of crypto, and execution of as many processes as possible was done by running smart contracts on the blockchain, which could be created to automatically do things under conditions. Where the whole point is that, in essence, no fixed person or people are actually in control of it or responsible for it and therefore no one is liable for what it does. That's the end goal for DAOs.

Really the point is obfuscation and making people jump through legal hoops in the same way that Texas SB8 is designed with the same goal.

Like I said, I do not think the legal system will interact with them the way they want it to.

 

[Cheetodust]

Imagine you built an organization, where membership and voting rights were controlled by a special form of crypto, and execution of as many processes as possible was done by running smart contracts on the blockchain, which could be created to automatically do things under conditions. Where the whole point is that, in essence, no fixed person or people are actually in control of it or responsible for it and therefore no one is liable for what it does. That's the end goal for DAOs.

Really the point is obfuscation and making people jump through legal hoops in the same way that Texas SB8 is designed with the same goal.

Like I said, I do not think the legal system will interact with them the way they want it to.

So they're just taking it for granted that the courts won't just hold everyone involved accountable for... reasons?

That line goes up video has an NFT project pitch the idea that they could take 1% of the comic book market.

There was another one where they bought an art book for a cancelled Dune movie and thought that gave them the copyright to finish the project.

Like they have a child's understanding of how law and business works... But they're worth millions/billions. Look I'm not one who believes that wealth/success implies intelligence or competence but it surprises even me that these people can be this foolish.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Like they have a child's understanding of how law and business works... But they're worth millions/billions. Look I'm not one who believes that wealth/success implies intelligence or competence but it surprises even me that these people can be this foolish.

In a way it makes sense that being surrounded by enough wealth would cushion the brain from any tough life learning experiences and useful criticism. Like the massive crytpo scam woman recently caught and her rap videos, only the protective bubble of wealth and a gated community could explain how these escaped criticism;

 

[Schadrach]

Like they have a child's understanding of how law and business works... But they're worth millions/billions.

A lot of them being crypto early adopters when it was something you could meaningfully mine solo on your laptop and 1 BTC was worth a fraction of a penny, if you could even find someone willing to exchange them for money or goods. One of the earliest transactions of BTC for a physical good was 10K BTC for a pizza. If he cashed out at the most recent market peak, that pizza made that delivery guy half a billion dollars. There are a lot of crypto-bros doing things that in any kind of "normal" financial/business environment would be blatantly illegal and making large fortunes off of them due to a lack of any kind of meaningful regulation.

 

[BrawlMan]

Hahahah...No.

FTX's Amy Wu: How Crypto and Gamers Can All Get Along - Decrypt

Amy Wu is a veteran gaming investor who will spread FTX's bets across the metaverse. What does she think of the crypto vs gamers conflict?

www.google.com

 

[CriticalGaming]

Sadly, yes, Tara Strong.

WTF is an environmentally friendly Jpeg? Do normal jpegs have emissions that I don't know about?

 

[MrCalavera]

I suspect a lot of actors have little idea about anything.

I doubt they think up this stuff for themselves. Their manager / agent does, they nod along, and then go back to whatever idle pursuits they get up to when not standing in front a blue screen.

Not long ago the band Gorillaz announced promotional NFTs. It understandably angered some fans, and after social media stink Damon Albarn put stop to it, said that the whole stunt was marketing team's idea, and that the band didn't know about it.

Might be damage control, but i can believe it. If you're an artist that achieved huge financial success, you'd pay someone else for taking care of the bussiness side of things.
Still, not excusing celebs using their images to promote harmful ideas, but that's a wider issue.

 

[EvilRoy]

WTF is an environmentally friendly Jpeg? Do normal jpegs have emissions that I don't know about?

It's this whole thing where Bitcoin mining sucks power like a mofo. NFT is apparently designed such that it doesn't take a pile of computing power and by extension electricity, to make them.

This sort of stems from one of the current primary arguments against Bitcoin which comes from an environmental standpoint - basically Bitcoin mining burdens the power grid and causes power plants to up production in exchange for effectively nothing. That argument is being taken seriously by regulatory groups because there's still this uncertainty as to how Bitcoin generation should be taxed, tracked and managed. Since it's being treated as basic income there's no carbon tax so there's no offset. Depends on where you live of course but I really haven't heard of anywhere that is dealing with the tax/carbon aspect of Bitcoin particularly well as of yet.

So because of all that now environmental regulation bodies and activist groups are going after Bitcoin. Since society is getting a lot better (relative terms :/ ) about environmental stewardship crypto in general is getting shit on a lot. NFTs are trying to brand themselves as being a crypto investment that's better for the environment and has a lower barrier to entry since it doesn't need a huge amount of computing power to work.

Of course, NFT is a lot of bullshit too, but all this environment stuff is really just marketing. I just read a story about how the UK tax bureau realized they can charge VAT on NFTs and the erections they got upturned desks all over the building so NFTs being popular as unregulated money makers is probably ending soon.