3 ms·

What a dystopian future. Humanity is finally maybe glimpsing a scarcity free society and people literally fall over themselves to reinvent scarcity out of nothi

What a dystopian future. Humanity is finally maybe glimpsing a scarcity free society and people literally fall over themselves to reinvent scarcity out of nothing.

Spivak 5y ago
Without scarcity trading cards aren't as fun, same with rare loot in video games. This is that but for Twitter profile pictures. Can't really hate people for having fun with social media's Black Lotus card.
_aavaa_ 5y ago
Scarcity free sounds nice for the digital goods, but people who make digital content still need to find a way to get paid too afford all those scare physical goods.
- libertine 5y ago
  Up until now no one who made digital content: art, games, ebooks, newsletters, 3D assets, etc, ever made a single cent? If it wasn't for NFTs no digital goods would be monetized?
- jdashg 5y ago
  Digital artists already get paid, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) I know this because I pay my digital artists already, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) I also know this because I have friends who are digital artists who receive payments for goods and services, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) It's an outsider view that artists have any serious payment problem outside of a tendency to set their prices too low out of modesty/imposter syndrome. (which is a common problem for many kinds of independent contractors)
dataangel 5y ago
We've never not had scarcity for digital goods, you just have to look at it at the level of the producer rather than a specific digital goods. You can have unlimited copies of the same jpeg once it exists, but there has always been a scarcity of human beings to produce new original art. Enforcing scarcity of the former is just a trick to deal with scarcity of the latter.
- Scea91 5y ago
  So basically billions of dollars invested in NFTs solve the problem of not having enough profile pic jpegs to choose from?
rytill 5y ago
There is no such thing as a scarcity-free society of humans. Who gets to be king? Who mates with who? Who is friends with who? Who is the Biggest Fan of <celebrity>? Social graphs have scarcity built-in. Time, attention, and influence are permanently scarce and valuable.
fbrusch 5y ago
Digital scarcity seems like a fundamental concept also in the digital realm. Consider games: if you only have a certain number of weapons, lives, or limited time, isn't that digital scarcity? If you play capture the flag, the fact that there is only one flag, and only one team can "own" it at any one time, isn't that digital scarcity? Aren't the points you get from sweating arbitrarily "scarce"? Or isn't the first position a ranking "scarce"? It seems to me that scarcity is at the heart of many fundamental social mechanics, be they physical or digital.

What a dystopian future. Humanity is finally maybe glimpsing a scarcity free society and people literally fall over themselves to reinvent scarcity out of nothing.

Spivak 5y ago

Without scarcity trading cards aren't as fun, same with rare loot in video games. This is that but for Twitter profile pictures. Can't really hate people for having fun with social media's Black Lotus card.

_aavaa_ 5y ago

Scarcity free sounds nice for the digital goods, but people who make digital content still need to find a way to get paid too afford all those scare physical goods.

libertine 5y ago
Up until now no one who made digital content: art, games, ebooks, newsletters, 3D assets, etc, ever made a single cent? If it wasn't for NFTs no digital goods would be monetized?
jdashg 5y ago
Digital artists already get paid, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) I know this because I pay my digital artists already, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) I also know this because I have friends who are digital artists who receive payments for goods and services, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally) It's an outsider view that artists have any serious payment problem outside of a tendency to set their prices too low out of modesty/imposter syndrome. (which is a common problem for many kinds of independent contractors)

dataangel 5y ago

We've never not had scarcity for digital goods, you just have to look at it at the level of the producer rather than a specific digital goods. You can have unlimited copies of the same jpeg once it exists, but there has always been a scarcity of human beings to produce new original art. Enforcing scarcity of the former is just a trick to deal with scarcity of the latter.

Scea91 5y ago
So basically billions of dollars invested in NFTs solve the problem of not having enough profile pic jpegs to choose from?

rytill 5y ago

There is no such thing as a scarcity-free society of humans. Who gets to be king? Who mates with who? Who is friends with who? Who is the Biggest Fan of <celebrity>? Social graphs have scarcity built-in. Time, attention, and influence are permanently scarce and valuable.

fbrusch 5y ago

Digital scarcity seems like a fundamental concept also in the digital realm. Consider games: if you only have a certain number of weapons, lives, or limited time, isn't that digital scarcity? If you play capture the flag, the fact that there is only one flag, and only one team can "own" it at any one time, isn't that digital scarcity? Aren't the points you get from sweating arbitrarily "scarce"? Or isn't the first position a ranking "scarce"? It seems to me that scarcity is at the heart of many fundamental social mechanics, be they physical or digital.