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It's righteous anger at a waste of resources and critical lack of understanding. NFTs aren't commodities or assets, they're just conspicuous consumption. Dram

It's righteous anger at a waste of resources and critical lack of understanding. NFTs aren't commodities or assets, they're just conspicuous consumption. Dramatically showing off how much money a person can waste on an illusion is cringe-worthy. It makes me annoyed in the same way pay-to-play games annoy me.

UncleMeat 5y ago
Yup. Especially since a lot of people have made gazillions in crypto for doing no labor so spending this sort of “funny money” as a lark is a frustratingly common occurrence.
- merpnderp 5y ago
  Why must they do labor to earn money? If I mow lawns for a summer, then invest in a lawn mower which I then lease out to someone else to mow lawns, am I not entitled to the lease money because I'm not doing the labor? Investing the fruits of one's labor is widely considered a human right, and is even explicitly listed in the Declaration of Human Rights. And hedging ones investments with gold, silver, bonds or crypto is not an unreasonable thing to do.
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    Striking it rich on doge or whatever is still meaningfully different than investing in rentals.
idoh 5y ago
Agreed, and it's a very weird type of conspicuous consumption. You can't really hang the NFT on your wall, or drive up to a fancy dinner in an NFT. I guess you can brag about it?
- B1FF_PSUVM 5y ago
  Don't they have a trophy wall in Instafachatwiktok? They should.
- oneeyedpigeon 5y ago
  I don't get how you can even brag about it. You can't say "I own this piece of art", you have to say "I own a pointer to this piece of art". And even that could end up a null pointer on somebody else's whim.
- benlivengood 5y ago
  NFTs are the sole value they encode, ala cryptokitties. NFTs that people pretend are related to real-world objects are basically Moon or Florida[1] real estate. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida
donatj 5y ago
> they're just conspicuous consumption I mean aren't they arguably also wealth redistribution from the stupid-enough-to-buy-an-nft to the insanely-lucky? This is going to put Charlie through college no doubt.
- benlivengood 5y ago
  That's about as good as lotteries which I also find cringe-worthy.
randyrand 5y ago
the wealth is just transferred. not used. You should be concerned about where society consumes resources. labor. concrete. gold. machine time. These things, in a given year, have limited supply. You should not be very concerned about society consuming dollars - which is impossible to do (apart from burning it or fed decisions). Dollars are often a useful proxy for resources, but are not intrinsically linked. In the case of NFTs, the stock market, etc, they don’t consume as many resources as the large dollar figures would imply. Yes there is some electricity use, I know. etc. Point being, a wealth transfer does not consume resources. Carry on.

UncleMeat 5y ago

Yup. Especially since a lot of people have made gazillions in crypto for doing no labor so spending this sort of “funny money” as a lark is a frustratingly common occurrence.

merpnderp 5y ago
Why must they do labor to earn money? If I mow lawns for a summer, then invest in a lawn mower which I then lease out to someone else to mow lawns, am I not entitled to the lease money because I'm not doing the labor? Investing the fruits of one's labor is widely considered a human right, and is even explicitly listed in the Declaration of Human Rights. And hedging ones investments with gold, silver, bonds or crypto is not an unreasonable thing to do.
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  Striking it rich on doge or whatever is still meaningfully different than investing in rentals.

idoh 5y ago

Agreed, and it's a very weird type of conspicuous consumption. You can't really hang the NFT on your wall, or drive up to a fancy dinner in an NFT. I guess you can brag about it?

B1FF_PSUVM 5y ago
Don't they have a trophy wall in Instafachatwiktok? They should.
oneeyedpigeon 5y ago
I don't get how you can even brag about it. You can't say "I own this piece of art", you have to say "I own a pointer to this piece of art". And even that could end up a null pointer on somebody else's whim.
benlivengood 5y ago
NFTs are the sole value they encode, ala cryptokitties. NFTs that people pretend are related to real-world objects are basically Moon or Florida[1] real estate. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida

donatj 5y ago

> they're just conspicuous consumption I mean aren't they arguably also wealth redistribution from the stupid-enough-to-buy-an-nft to the insanely-lucky? This is going to put Charlie through college no doubt.

benlivengood 5y ago
That's about as good as lotteries which I also find cringe-worthy.

randyrand 5y ago

the wealth is just transferred. not used. You should be concerned about where society consumes resources. labor. concrete. gold. machine time. These things, in a given year, have limited supply. You should not be very concerned about society consuming dollars - which is impossible to do (apart from burning it or fed decisions). Dollars are often a useful proxy for resources, but are not intrinsically linked. In the case of NFTs, the stock market, etc, they don’t consume as many resources as the large dollar figures would imply. Yes there is some electricity use, I know. etc. Point being, a wealth transfer does not consume resources. Carry on.