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Summary: “I was pretty sure NFTs were pointless, but they’re so hyped that I thought I must be missing something. So I bought one and sure enough, they are poin

by japhib 5y ago

Summary: “I was pretty sure NFTs were pointless, but they’re so hyped that I thought I must be missing something. So I bought one and sure enough, they are pointless.”

pier25 5y ago
We live in a hype-based culture, very often devoid of any rational thinking.
AtlasBarfed 5y ago
Are NFTs the new diamond? Are these things that people haven't tried to sell in large enough quantities that people can't see that the purchase price is completely ridiculous? Or are there various cabals manipulating the price and hype? I've heard there are money laundering schemes underlying a lot of it, but there can't be that much criminal money out there.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
- heyitsguay 5y ago
  > There can't be that much criminal money out there. There can be and there is, especially in cryptocurrency. The only economic use for Bitcoin back in its early days was in black market transactions. The holders of early extremely large positions in crypto are techie early adopters who liked messing around with the technology (significant, but only gets you so far), and criminal groups. The former are probably more interested in the crypto ecosystem, the latter are highly motivated to find ways to turn their massive positions into cash. That isn't to say that every high-priced or weird NFT purchase/crypto transaction/whatever is part of a nefarious money laundering scheme, just that if there are spaces that make money laundering easier, you can bet that people with money to launder are trying to take advantage of them in general.
  - Apocryphon 5y ago
    Also criminal might not be as "dark web" lurid-sounding as it might sound- it might just be otherwise law-abiding citizens from certain countries trying to move capital out.
  - duskwuff 5y ago
    > There can be and there is, especially in cryptocurrency. Consider ransomware, for example. When a company pays up, the ransomware vendor ends up with a huge chunk of cryptocurrency they need to launder before converting it into cash -- and shuffling it through both real and fake sales of NFTs could be a highly effective way of doing that.
sdfgsdf 5y ago
I bought a JPEG
- devortel 5y ago
  If you bought an NFT, it's more likely you bought an address that points to a JPEG, not the JPEG itself. Of course you can save the JPEG locally just like any other JPEG unrelated to NFTs.
  - miracle2k 5y ago
    How did they buy the address? In what sense do they own the address? They don't own the domain, do they? And can't I just copy & paste the address myself, so I own it to?

by japhib 5y ago

Summary: “I was pretty sure NFTs were pointless, but they’re so hyped that I thought I must be missing something. So I bought one and sure enough, they are pointless.”

pier25 5y ago

We live in a hype-based culture, very often devoid of any rational thinking.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago

Are NFTs the new diamond? Are these things that people haven't tried to sell in large enough quantities that people can't see that the purchase price is completely ridiculous? Or are there various cabals manipulating the price and hype? I've heard there are money laundering schemes underlying a lot of it, but there can't be that much criminal money out there.

alisonkisk 5y ago
heyitsguay 5y ago
> There can't be that much criminal money out there. There can be and there is, especially in cryptocurrency. The only economic use for Bitcoin back in its early days was in black market transactions. The holders of early extremely large positions in crypto are techie early adopters who liked messing around with the technology (significant, but only gets you so far), and criminal groups. The former are probably more interested in the crypto ecosystem, the latter are highly motivated to find ways to turn their massive positions into cash. That isn't to say that every high-priced or weird NFT purchase/crypto transaction/whatever is part of a nefarious money laundering scheme, just that if there are spaces that make money laundering easier, you can bet that people with money to launder are trying to take advantage of them in general.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  Also criminal might not be as "dark web" lurid-sounding as it might sound- it might just be otherwise law-abiding citizens from certain countries trying to move capital out.
- duskwuff 5y ago
  > There can be and there is, especially in cryptocurrency. Consider ransomware, for example. When a company pays up, the ransomware vendor ends up with a huge chunk of cryptocurrency they need to launder before converting it into cash -- and shuffling it through both real and fake sales of NFTs could be a highly effective way of doing that.

sdfgsdf 5y ago

I bought a JPEG

devortel 5y ago
If you bought an NFT, it's more likely you bought an address that points to a JPEG, not the JPEG itself. Of course you can save the JPEG locally just like any other JPEG unrelated to NFTs.
- miracle2k 5y ago
  How did they buy the address? In what sense do they own the address? They don't own the domain, do they? And can't I just copy & paste the address myself, so I own it to?