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The difference is that video games have a way to enforce ownership. CS:GO skins are valuable because Valve doesn’t let you just upload your own skins. I can do
by elil17 5y ago
The difference is that video games have a way to enforce ownership. CS:GO skins are valuable because Valve doesn’t let you just upload your own skins.
I can download any NFT and use it as my own profile picture.
- capableweb 5y ago> I can download any NFT and use it as my own profile picture. You cannot, unless you have a vastly different understanding of what an NFT is than what it actually is. A NFT is not a picture, it's a cryptocurrency that only has one item. You could download the data representing a NFT (it's just ascii data), but not sure what you'd get out of that.
- tshaddox 5y agoIf I understand NFTs correctly, anyone can verify who owns the NFT. No one is claiming the NFT is literally just the bytes of the profile picture. The NFT is the control of the token on the blockchain. Likewise, anyone could download the bytes of a 3D model of a weapon or hat in a video game. The only difference is that Valve’s software will check the canonical source of ownership, which isn’t much different than if Twitter or any other social network writes code to verify the ownership of an NFT representing some profile picture.
- meheleventyone 5y agoThe latter only works if Twitter stops you uploading any old image. Hence trying to find some way to differentiate regular profile pictures from NFT profiles. But the latter still only works if the general population of Twitter thinks it’s cool. Otherwise you’re marking yourself out as a rube. Whereas skins and other DLC are broadly accepted in games if only from the perspective that most people don’t care what skin you use. That and most games with DLC charge a fixed rate and offer it to everyone rather than making individual items scare.
- tshaddox 5y ago> The latter only works if Twitter stops you uploading any old image. Sure, or if they check the images you upload (YouTube does this on a massive scale). Or if they show a checkmark on verified images. Or if they prevent uploading unverified profile images at all (presumably this is how Valve games work, so that everyone can't just download a copy of the expensive item and use it online). > But the latter still only works if the general population of Twitter thinks it’s cool. Yes, of course, but as you explain, that's no different than with video games, especially if the items are purely cosmetic.
- meheleventyone 5y agoI don’t think you can just snip all the context out of what I said and pretend I agree. I explain in the post you quote what the meaningful differences are.
- arcticbull 5y agoI believe I can take a BAYC, mint my own NFT of it, upload it and still get the check mark haha.
- tshaddox 5y agoIndeed, unless Twitter were to check each profile picture against some database of known images. That would be silly, of course, but precisely as silly as YouTube checking 100s of hours of video footage every minute against known copyrighted footage.
- listenallyall 5y agoThe more attention the BAYC receives, the more it increases its value. Having people so desperate to own one that they would counterfeit it, that's enormous social proof. Will your personal version ever have monetary value? The blockchain ensures that it won't, as detecting a counterfeit is simple.
- arcticbull 5y agoWho's desperate? Anyone can have the image whenever they want. The receipts, who cares? I don't want some crappy monkey profile pic haha. I was just speculating about the check mark.
- dmarcos 5y agoSure, but It won’t be minted with the same BAYC contract and hence won’t have same provenance. Twitter could easily add visual or text (e.g: logo name of author / collection) provenance info that yours won’t have.
- almostkorean 5y agoI think it's safe to assume that you would only get the check mark if your NFT is minted from the original contract. This is an issue for brand new collections (and you see this happen on OpenSea where people fork new a new popular collection). But it's really easy to just whitelist the original BAYC contract address
- 5y ago
- elil17 5y agoYeah but why would Twitter do that?
- listenallyall 5y agoSure, and that benefits the NFT owner, by increasing attention and exposure to the NFT he/she owns. If you'd like to use an NFT I own as your profile pic, you have my express permission. I'll help you do it!
- maccolgan 5y agoThat's the use for it though. If Valve hypothetically minted NFTs for each unique individual CSGO skin variation, it'd be valued and would create a secondary market free of Valve's constant rent seeking. I see that as a very legitimate use of the technology.