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I used meta because I assumed you’d be aware of what I was referring to instead of cryptovoxels, sommium space, or webaverse. If you grant that the meta example

by gfodor 5y ago

I used meta because I assumed you’d be aware of what I was referring to instead of cryptovoxels, sommium space, or webaverse. If you grant that the meta example would be useful if it exists, then we’d just be haggling over if eg cryptovoxels has enough analogous utility to pull it into the set of things you consider worthy.

Volundr 5y ago
I'm not familiar with any of these, but then I'm not familiar with Meta Horizon either. I'll be the first to admit I'm not up on what the "cool kids" are doing. If it helps feel free to imagine your explaining this to your culturally clueless but technically savvy grandpa. But looking at these, I'm just not seeing the value that NFTs have provided vs already existing methods. For example I'm looking at https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3402?elv=-0.68 https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3402?elv=-0.68. I assume the art on the walls here are NFTs no? And I'd have to be the owner of the NFT if I wanted to take it to my own "parcel"? But what prevents me from simply taking the source image and simply minting my own NFT and displaying it? And why would I want to use a space like this instead of something like Second Life or VR Chat where I can go the much more direct route of simply uploading a PNG? That's the piece that I have yet to see answered clearly. I certainly get it's technically possible to build something based around NFTs, and given that they are currently trending I'm not in the least bit surprised someone has. I just can't see how it's superior either via ease of use or in technical capability to something that already exists.
- gfodor 5y ago
  > But what prevents me from simply taking the source image and simply minting my own NFT and displaying it? Because the NFT isn't just a pointer to an image, it's a tuple that also includes which wallet address is granting you that NFT. So, the "real" NFT for a work is the one granted by the original artist or other authority people culturally agree upon as the one that has real social and economic value. (For example, the artist may post the public key somewhere authoritatively that conveys it is the one they've sanctioned.) It effectively acts as a fully-provable (and scarce) signature by the artist, and eventually if it isn't already, will be displayed visually on the work in these apps to confer legitimacy. Putting up an image that isn't signed by the original artist will be possible, but it won't confer the same status to a person the genuine NFT would, since observers will be able to know it is not the genuine NFT. And of course, the reason you'd want to use this kind of environment is self-referential: you want to use it because you want the status or other benefits that come from being able to put your genuine NFTs on display. For example, it can show how wealthy you are, show that you are willing to patronize artists, cause the original artist to come visit your showroom, etc.
  - zepto 5y ago
    > For example, it can show how wealthy you are, show that you are willing to patronize artists, cause the original artist to come visit your showroom, etc. Many different kinds of publicity stunt can achieve these things. NFTs offer no unique benefits.

by gfodor 5y ago

Volundr 5y ago

I'm not familiar with any of these, but then I'm not familiar with Meta Horizon either. I'll be the first to admit I'm not up on what the "cool kids" are doing. If it helps feel free to imagine your explaining this to your culturally clueless but technically savvy grandpa. But looking at these, I'm just not seeing the value that NFTs have provided vs already existing methods. For example I'm looking at https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3402?elv=-0.68 https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3402?elv=-0.68. I assume the art on the walls here are NFTs no? And I'd have to be the owner of the NFT if I wanted to take it to my own "parcel"? But what prevents me from simply taking the source image and simply minting my own NFT and displaying it? And why would I want to use a space like this instead of something like Second Life or VR Chat where I can go the much more direct route of simply uploading a PNG? That's the piece that I have yet to see answered clearly. I certainly get it's technically possible to build something based around NFTs, and given that they are currently trending I'm not in the least bit surprised someone has. I just can't see how it's superior either via ease of use or in technical capability to something that already exists.

gfodor 5y ago
> But what prevents me from simply taking the source image and simply minting my own NFT and displaying it? Because the NFT isn't just a pointer to an image, it's a tuple that also includes which wallet address is granting you that NFT. So, the "real" NFT for a work is the one granted by the original artist or other authority people culturally agree upon as the one that has real social and economic value. (For example, the artist may post the public key somewhere authoritatively that conveys it is the one they've sanctioned.) It effectively acts as a fully-provable (and scarce) signature by the artist, and eventually if it isn't already, will be displayed visually on the work in these apps to confer legitimacy. Putting up an image that isn't signed by the original artist will be possible, but it won't confer the same status to a person the genuine NFT would, since observers will be able to know it is not the genuine NFT. And of course, the reason you'd want to use this kind of environment is self-referential: you want to use it because you want the status or other benefits that come from being able to put your genuine NFTs on display. For example, it can show how wealthy you are, show that you are willing to patronize artists, cause the original artist to come visit your showroom, etc.
- zepto 5y ago
  > For example, it can show how wealthy you are, show that you are willing to patronize artists, cause the original artist to come visit your showroom, etc. Many different kinds of publicity stunt can achieve these things. NFTs offer no unique benefits.