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NFTs occupy an interesting intersection between being relatively low effort to implement but having a very high ability to grab headlines and free publicity. C

NFTs occupy an interesting intersection between being relatively low effort to implement but having a very high ability to grab headlines and free publicity. Can you think of any other easy feature that would get Photoshop into the headlines? Adding NFT functionality to anything is an easy way to get free press right now. It’s also why so many of the aimless influencers are rushing to NFT topics: They can use those free headlines to build followings and communities. But despite all the hype, it doesn’t seem to be the starving artists making money on NFTs. It’s all established crypto speculators and crypto businesses selling shovels in this gold rush. The starving artists are just a clever narrative to distract from who’s actually profiting.

pavlov 5y ago
> “… it doesn’t seem to be the starving artists making money on NFTs” Starving artists are the marks for this scam. They spend $50 on Ethereum and other fees to mint some NFTs, nobody buys them, and they remain starving — but the crypto ecosystem has extracted another chunk of real money from hopefuls at the base of the pyramid.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  A few of them have to make money, otherwise the ponzi scheme blows up right away. Some of the artists involved likely understand that dynamic and they are betting on being a early adopter, getting paid and getting out before the flames consume the house. Some of the victims are merely aspiring coconspirators, if not most.
  - findalex 5y ago
    > aspiring coconspirators I feel like this describes the majority of "victims" here.
- rchaud 5y ago
  We saw the same thing with the dropshipping craze. The real money was made after one got in early, made some money, then began selling dropshipping courses to other hopefuls.
- nickthegreek 5y ago
  Agreed. I have had several artists reach out to me to help them mint NFTS and I explained to them why its a bad idea and how they will most likely lose money. Only one of them ended up minting an NFT and are still in the red.
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    But at least he always will have a non-fungible token of appreciation and maybe some allegedly unique cat picture.
Amorymeltzer 5y ago
>Can you think of any other easy feature that would get Photoshop into the headlines? Reminds me of, circa 2017-2018, when anything with blockchain or ICO or the like would make a headline. The most obvious ones that stick in my mind were the "Long Island Iced Tea" rename[0] and the KodakCoin.[1] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Blockchain_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Blockchain_Corp 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin
bko 5y ago
> But despite all the hype, it doesn’t seem to be the starving artists making money on NFTs. It’s all established crypto speculators and crypto businesses selling shovels in this gold rush. The starving artists are just a clever narrative to distract from who’s actually profiting. That's the weird thing about NFTs. I hear its supposed to help artists, but a lot of the popular NFTs have literally no names or public people associated with them. Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong ones, but for instance look at Bored Ape yacht club. You can't find the name of a single person associated with it. The art is cool sure, but you don't know what you're supporting. For all we know it could be a spin-off of a Russian bot farms with art lifted from other places. It was all trademarked last month. It's still pending! [0] https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/ https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/
- dorkwood 5y ago
  > I hear its supposed to help artists That's the grift. A handful of artists get paid and push the story that NFTs help artists. Throngs of starving artists throw their money onto the pile, only to never receive a cent.

pavlov 5y ago

> “… it doesn’t seem to be the starving artists making money on NFTs” Starving artists are the marks for this scam. They spend $50 on Ethereum and other fees to mint some NFTs, nobody buys them, and they remain starving — but the crypto ecosystem has extracted another chunk of real money from hopefuls at the base of the pyramid.

willcipriano 5y ago
A few of them have to make money, otherwise the ponzi scheme blows up right away. Some of the artists involved likely understand that dynamic and they are betting on being a early adopter, getting paid and getting out before the flames consume the house. Some of the victims are merely aspiring coconspirators, if not most.
- findalex 5y ago
  > aspiring coconspirators I feel like this describes the majority of "victims" here.
rchaud 5y ago
We saw the same thing with the dropshipping craze. The real money was made after one got in early, made some money, then began selling dropshipping courses to other hopefuls.
nickthegreek 5y ago
Agreed. I have had several artists reach out to me to help them mint NFTS and I explained to them why its a bad idea and how they will most likely lose money. Only one of them ended up minting an NFT and are still in the red.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  But at least he always will have a non-fungible token of appreciation and maybe some allegedly unique cat picture.

Amorymeltzer 5y ago

>Can you think of any other easy feature that would get Photoshop into the headlines? Reminds me of, circa 2017-2018, when anything with blockchain or ICO or the like would make a headline. The most obvious ones that stick in my mind were the "Long Island Iced Tea" rename[0] and the KodakCoin.[1] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Blockchain_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Blockchain_Corp 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin

bko 5y ago

> But despite all the hype, it doesn’t seem to be the starving artists making money on NFTs. It’s all established crypto speculators and crypto businesses selling shovels in this gold rush. The starving artists are just a clever narrative to distract from who’s actually profiting. That's the weird thing about NFTs. I hear its supposed to help artists, but a lot of the popular NFTs have literally no names or public people associated with them. Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong ones, but for instance look at Bored Ape yacht club. You can't find the name of a single person associated with it. The art is cool sure, but you don't know what you're supporting. For all we know it could be a spin-off of a Russian bot farms with art lifted from other places. It was all trademarked last month. It's still pending! [0] https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/ https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/

dorkwood 5y ago
> I hear its supposed to help artists That's the grift. A handful of artists get paid and push the story that NFTs help artists. Throngs of starving artists throw their money onto the pile, only to never receive a cent.