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I know this is supposed to mock the metaverse-thing. And the first time I heard about the metaverse, my reaction was: "what a colossal pile of dog shit". My opi

I know this is supposed to mock the metaverse-thing. And the first time I heard about the metaverse, my reaction was: "what a colossal pile of dog shit". My opinion hasn't changed even the slightest. Like why? What sort of sane human beings would put themselves through that? I had this discussion with a friend on Sunday. The sad part is that he agrees with me but said that he was willing to bet that people would blow hundreds of thousands on virtual nft crap for metaverses. Which, even after having worked 8 years in the gaming industry(and seeing the 5-6 figure amounts people spending on in-app purchases) up until not all that long ago, seemed like bs. So we made a bet. Next morning an article pops up about someone spending 600+k on a virtual yacht. I mean what the hell is wrong with people?

ricardobayes 5y ago
We are more detached from real life than ever. Looks like Idiocracy was a documentary, not comedy.
- axegon_ 5y ago
  I take Idiocracy over what we currently have - at least leaders were charismatic.
meheleventyone 5y ago
Thing to remember is that’s 600k of crypto which has probably never been “real” money and may well have been a wash trade anyway. It’s not overly clear to me that it’d be easy to get that nominal value out as USD from the crypto original either. So you see ridiculous, inflated, purchases made. It’s a bit like EVE Online where the existence of PLEX allows for a conversion between USD and the in-game currency ISK and hundreds of thousands of dollars routine gets “destroyed” in big fleet battles.
- vmception 5y ago
  It is just giving some transparency into things that have already been happening Didn’t know people spent that much? Companies selling collectibles and companies selling play 2 earn stuff knew
  - meheleventyone 5y ago
    I'm saying it might be lousy information that's been intentionally distorted and not a realistic view of the actual dollar worth. In the same way hundreds of thousands of dollars of virtual spaceships aren't destroyed even though the conversion can be made. It's an illusory comparison.
    - vmception 5y ago
      $600k in a cryptocurrency is sellable for that much cash. $600K in a NFT is sellable for that much cash, or the nearest bid, no different than Ebay. Wash trades also occur. People are discouraged from that due to transaction fees. Some people aren't discouraged from that.
      - meheleventyone 5y ago
        When someone chucks $600k into an NFT from dollars for some virtual land I'll be much more likely to believe that it's actually worth that (to the individual) if it's demonstrably not a wash trade. And 'or nearest bid' is doing a lot of work. Lots of NFTs out there with a big disparity between bid amounts and asking price.
        vmception 5y ago
        spend 2 minutes on an NFT marketplace? there are many trades between addresses that have registered aliases via ENS, which is the best way to determine if something is not a wash trade. Noteworthy is that you are starting from the opinion that things are wash trades, while the NFT users are not, and given the amount of energy necessary to support this opinion from someone not even participating it makes me wonder if any observation is possible to contradict your stance. would you like a specific trade to debate? does it have to be $600k for this standard? I see some decentraland plots recently traded for $20,000. thinking further about it, its easier if you owned an NFT other people were interested in, because then the bids - if they arise - would be from other people and you'll be one less person that would hold the likely wash trade idea. many NFTs are free to acquire during their initial creation.
ljm 5y ago
In many aspects we've entered a post-scarcity society, to the extent that scarcity has to be invented by things like NFTs. For these people, they might as well have found a game breaking bug in the thing we call existence. Of course, it would be nice if we got more of humanity on board with this first, what with the vast majority of the population being in poverty, or worse.
- thewarrior 5y ago
  How can we be in post scarcity if millions of people are in poverty?
  - Karsteski 5y ago
    Perhaps it depends on who the "we" is.
  - EvanAnderson 5y ago
    It's another case of the future not being evenly distributed[0], presumably. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-h...
  - axegon_ 5y ago
    Well we have two worlds running in parallel as we stand: Most of North America, Europe and certain parts of Asia and the rest of the world. A large portion of what I refereed to "the rest of the world" is as distant from us as the middle ages. Not even apples to oranges at this point. Sure, you could argue that billions are poured into bridging that gap but the simple truth is that never works. Even if there wasn't an insane amount of corruption involved, that still would not cut it or change much: I had a professor back in the day who summed it up perfectly in one sentence: "No one has gotten out of poverty through charity". Though I absolutely adore Hans Rosling's "Factfullness", somehow I cannot find a way to share his optimism. And in his function as a doctor, I recon even he would have dialed down his optimism if he were alive now and witnessed how COVID was being handled for example.
Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
My first reaction when I heard 'Facebook' becoming 'Meta' was "One of my favorite word in my frequently used vocabulary would now be second guessed before using"; Every now and then I used to dream of establishing small meta-science labs in India like Meta-Physics, Meta-Chemistry... Now it's going to be weird to dream about it. More urgently, I'm worried "meta" hyperlink on my forum would be ignored by my visitors thinking it's just a link to Facebook; Where as it's an link to meta discussions about the platform.
simonebrunozzi 5y ago
Or, maybe, the $600k virtual yacht is a stunt, organized by insiders, to convince someone else to pour huge amounts of money in that particular currency.

ricardobayes 5y ago

We are more detached from real life than ever. Looks like Idiocracy was a documentary, not comedy.

axegon_ 5y ago
I take Idiocracy over what we currently have - at least leaders were charismatic.

meheleventyone 5y ago

Thing to remember is that’s 600k of crypto which has probably never been “real” money and may well have been a wash trade anyway. It’s not overly clear to me that it’d be easy to get that nominal value out as USD from the crypto original either. So you see ridiculous, inflated, purchases made. It’s a bit like EVE Online where the existence of PLEX allows for a conversion between USD and the in-game currency ISK and hundreds of thousands of dollars routine gets “destroyed” in big fleet battles.

vmception 5y ago
It is just giving some transparency into things that have already been happening Didn’t know people spent that much? Companies selling collectibles and companies selling play 2 earn stuff knew
- meheleventyone 5y ago
  I'm saying it might be lousy information that's been intentionally distorted and not a realistic view of the actual dollar worth. In the same way hundreds of thousands of dollars of virtual spaceships aren't destroyed even though the conversion can be made. It's an illusory comparison.
  - vmception 5y ago
    $600k in a cryptocurrency is sellable for that much cash. $600K in a NFT is sellable for that much cash, or the nearest bid, no different than Ebay. Wash trades also occur. People are discouraged from that due to transaction fees. Some people aren't discouraged from that.
    - meheleventyone 5y ago
      When someone chucks $600k into an NFT from dollars for some virtual land I'll be much more likely to believe that it's actually worth that (to the individual) if it's demonstrably not a wash trade. And 'or nearest bid' is doing a lot of work. Lots of NFTs out there with a big disparity between bid amounts and asking price.
      - vmception 5y ago
        spend 2 minutes on an NFT marketplace? there are many trades between addresses that have registered aliases via ENS, which is the best way to determine if something is not a wash trade. Noteworthy is that you are starting from the opinion that things are wash trades, while the NFT users are not, and given the amount of energy necessary to support this opinion from someone not even participating it makes me wonder if any observation is possible to contradict your stance. would you like a specific trade to debate? does it have to be $600k for this standard? I see some decentraland plots recently traded for $20,000. thinking further about it, its easier if you owned an NFT other people were interested in, because then the bids - if they arise - would be from other people and you'll be one less person that would hold the likely wash trade idea. many NFTs are free to acquire during their initial creation.

ljm 5y ago

In many aspects we've entered a post-scarcity society, to the extent that scarcity has to be invented by things like NFTs. For these people, they might as well have found a game breaking bug in the thing we call existence. Of course, it would be nice if we got more of humanity on board with this first, what with the vast majority of the population being in poverty, or worse.

thewarrior 5y ago
How can we be in post scarcity if millions of people are in poverty?
- Karsteski 5y ago
  Perhaps it depends on who the "we" is.
- EvanAnderson 5y ago
  It's another case of the future not being evenly distributed[0], presumably. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-h...
- axegon_ 5y ago
  Well we have two worlds running in parallel as we stand: Most of North America, Europe and certain parts of Asia and the rest of the world. A large portion of what I refereed to "the rest of the world" is as distant from us as the middle ages. Not even apples to oranges at this point. Sure, you could argue that billions are poured into bridging that gap but the simple truth is that never works. Even if there wasn't an insane amount of corruption involved, that still would not cut it or change much: I had a professor back in the day who summed it up perfectly in one sentence: "No one has gotten out of poverty through charity". Though I absolutely adore Hans Rosling's "Factfullness", somehow I cannot find a way to share his optimism. And in his function as a doctor, I recon even he would have dialed down his optimism if he were alive now and witnessed how COVID was being handled for example.

Abishek_Muthian 5y ago

My first reaction when I heard 'Facebook' becoming 'Meta' was "One of my favorite word in my frequently used vocabulary would now be second guessed before using"; Every now and then I used to dream of establishing small meta-science labs in India like Meta-Physics, Meta-Chemistry... Now it's going to be weird to dream about it. More urgently, I'm worried "meta" hyperlink on my forum would be ignored by my visitors thinking it's just a link to Facebook; Where as it's an link to meta discussions about the platform.

simonebrunozzi 5y ago

Or, maybe, the $600k virtual yacht is a stunt, organized by insiders, to convince someone else to pour huge amounts of money in that particular currency.