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Why an Animated Flying Cat with a Pop-Tart Body Sold for Almost $600k

donatj 6y ago
This strikes me as so frustrating... Its buying swampland in Florida or land on the moon. You’re paying for a certificate no one respects or cares about. Owning a Mark Cuban tweet? What does that even mean? Without legally requiring Twitter to keep that tweet up, we all know Twitter really owns it. Can Mark Cuban delete it or shut down his account? If Mark Cuban gets banned from Twitter is he legally culpable for this persons losses?
- zokier 6y ago
  > You’re paying for a certificate no one respects or cares about. Somewhat tautologically, the people paying big bucks presumably care about the tokens. Sometimes that is enough
- JamesSwift 6y ago
  No one cares, because no one has assigned any value to it. Now that someone has, I would bet more people are going to start caring.
  - freewilly1040 6y ago
    The point is that the crypto token doesn’t actually give you any ownership over the actual digital asset, so any of the things GP could happen and the token owner would have no recourse.
sschueller 6y ago
I don't understand how Nyan Cat has this value as anyone could make an NFT out of it. How is this one more valuable than a copy and how can I be absolutely sure it was created by the original meme creator? From what I understand the NFT doesn't actually contain the image itself. So the actual art could get lost. EDIT: ok, so it looks like these NFTs point to IPFS URLS. However IPFS items can also disappear if no one replicates it.
- me_me_me 6y ago
  This seems like a crypto milioner is throwing money around for showing of or appreciating the meme creator. Who know maybe it means something to him, etc etc, Good for him, at least he is spending the money on something.
- TigeriusKirk 6y ago
  Think of the NFT not so much as the art itself but as the artist's signature on the art. Much as a widely reproduced celebrity photograph can go from essentially valueless to thousands of dollars with the right signature, so too can digital art with the right digital signature.
  - bambax 6y ago
    Yeah ok, but what prevents the artist from signing the same piece again and selling this other signature? A "limited edition" of something easily reproducible can have value (like a photograph) but I don't see on Foundation where the number of signatures for a given piece is advertised. It seems Foundation only sells signatures / NFTs that are indeed verifiably attached to an artist, but the link from the signature to the piece of art isn't guaranteed.
    - gruez 6y ago
      >Yeah ok, but what prevents the artist from signing the same piece again and selling this other signature? Nothing, yet signed photographs/books/collectibles still fetch a healthy premium compared to their non-signed counterparts.
      - bambax 6y ago
        In the physical world there are visible numbers, like "2/15" for instance. And experts that try to make sure each number is in fact unique. I don't see that here, although it would presumably be easier to implement / verify. But maybe it exists and I simply didn't find the info.
bookmarkable 6y ago
All art or collectibles can be destroyed and nothing lasts forever, as Banksy commented on with the shredded painting stunt. This cat art piece is just as valid as other modern art sales, including the original "upside down toilet" that founded modern art. I recommend the book "What Are You Looking At?" to better understand modern art.
- sschueller 6y ago
  Banksy also showed that the value of art is subjective with his movie "exit through the gift shop".
- xref 6y ago
  Toilet, it was a beautiful autographed fountain! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
- djmips 6y ago
  to be pedantic, it was a urinal.
jl2718 6y ago
Imagine getting some crypto years ago, seems fun, wasting it on an NFT, seems fun, and then getting hit with a giant tax bill in real dollars for capital gains on the transaction. Good luck clawing back the losses at $3k a year tax deduction. Not so fun anymore.
ChrisArchitect 6y ago
aside: why isn't this redirected to the original post a day ago? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26223648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26223648
haspoken 6y ago
http://archive.is/Bizpl http://archive.is/Bizpl

This strikes me as so frustrating... Its buying swampland in Florida or land on the moon. You’re paying for a certificate no one respects or cares about. Owning a Mark Cuban tweet? What does that even mean? Without legally requiring Twitter to keep that tweet up, we all know Twitter really owns it. Can Mark Cuban delete it or shut down his account? If Mark Cuban gets banned from Twitter is he legally culpable for this persons losses?

zokier 6y ago
> You’re paying for a certificate no one respects or cares about. Somewhat tautologically, the people paying big bucks presumably care about the tokens. Sometimes that is enough
JamesSwift 6y ago
No one cares, because no one has assigned any value to it. Now that someone has, I would bet more people are going to start caring.
- freewilly1040 6y ago
  The point is that the crypto token doesn’t actually give you any ownership over the actual digital asset, so any of the things GP could happen and the token owner would have no recourse.

sschueller 6y ago

I don't understand how Nyan Cat has this value as anyone could make an NFT out of it. How is this one more valuable than a copy and how can I be absolutely sure it was created by the original meme creator? From what I understand the NFT doesn't actually contain the image itself. So the actual art could get lost. EDIT: ok, so it looks like these NFTs point to IPFS URLS. However IPFS items can also disappear if no one replicates it.

me_me_me 6y ago
This seems like a crypto milioner is throwing money around for showing of or appreciating the meme creator. Who know maybe it means something to him, etc etc, Good for him, at least he is spending the money on something.
TigeriusKirk 6y ago
Think of the NFT not so much as the art itself but as the artist's signature on the art. Much as a widely reproduced celebrity photograph can go from essentially valueless to thousands of dollars with the right signature, so too can digital art with the right digital signature.
- bambax 6y ago
  Yeah ok, but what prevents the artist from signing the same piece again and selling this other signature? A "limited edition" of something easily reproducible can have value (like a photograph) but I don't see on Foundation where the number of signatures for a given piece is advertised. It seems Foundation only sells signatures / NFTs that are indeed verifiably attached to an artist, but the link from the signature to the piece of art isn't guaranteed.
  - gruez 6y ago
    >Yeah ok, but what prevents the artist from signing the same piece again and selling this other signature? Nothing, yet signed photographs/books/collectibles still fetch a healthy premium compared to their non-signed counterparts.
    - bambax 6y ago
      In the physical world there are visible numbers, like "2/15" for instance. And experts that try to make sure each number is in fact unique. I don't see that here, although it would presumably be easier to implement / verify. But maybe it exists and I simply didn't find the info.

bookmarkable 6y ago

All art or collectibles can be destroyed and nothing lasts forever, as Banksy commented on with the shredded painting stunt. This cat art piece is just as valid as other modern art sales, including the original "upside down toilet" that founded modern art. I recommend the book "What Are You Looking At?" to better understand modern art.

sschueller 6y ago
Banksy also showed that the value of art is subjective with his movie "exit through the gift shop".
xref 6y ago
Toilet, it was a beautiful autographed fountain! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
djmips 6y ago
to be pedantic, it was a urinal.

jl2718 6y ago

Imagine getting some crypto years ago, seems fun, wasting it on an NFT, seems fun, and then getting hit with a giant tax bill in real dollars for capital gains on the transaction. Good luck clawing back the losses at $3k a year tax deduction. Not so fun anymore.

ChrisArchitect 6y ago

aside: why isn't this redirected to the original post a day ago? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26223648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26223648

haspoken 6y ago

http://archive.is/Bizpl http://archive.is/Bizpl