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This is the second time in as many days I stumble upon a piece explaining how NFTs and the whole ecosystem around them are at least problematic. While I share

This is the second time in as many days I stumble upon a piece explaining how NFTs and the whole ecosystem around them are at least problematic. While I share the sentiment, I am not sure if it is because I just haven't understood the details behind NFTs, crypto and so on or if I actually understand enough to grasp a reality. But I just can't understand how or why I should pay for something that basically is some arbitrary calculation being stored in an arbitrary public data structure representing (more often than not) a link from a central entity towards a link target that could change (or be taken offline) at any time. Why talking about decentral stuff when there is a central entity managing the link. Why paying for something that is burning energy to create but doesn't add any additional protection against central parties' control or even loss of the link target. As said - maybe I just don't know enough. That is my mental model to be able to continually learn and unlearn. But somehow I just don't get NFTs. I get that everything can be an object of speculation. That part is totally clear to me. From tulips to stocks and NFTs. I just don't get the rest (if there is one) and the rhetoric.

nfw2 5y ago
My understanding is that access to the image (or whatever) is absolutely not the point of NFT's. It's all about bragging rights. People want to be able to say they are considered the owner of something. Sure, the ownership only exists in people's imaginations, but that's often the case with these sort of honors. At my high school, we had an honor society. In addition to needing good grades, you needed to pay in 10 bucks every semester. They never gave me a clear explanation why I needed to pay, so I stopped paying. The only impact that had was not being able to sit in an exclusive section for the honors kids during graduation. As far as I'm aware, every single other student (or their parents, more likely) who had the grades paid the fee.
- Dma54rhs 5y ago
  It's the same with clothing brands, especially the "luxury" ones. For me both expensive clothing brands and NFT's are bullshit but it doesn't mean there's no bragging rights market for it. And it looks its huge, possibly I would have cared more about these rights when I was still a youth.
  - dkersten 5y ago
    I agree, but at least with expensive clothing brands you may get something that might actually have some value. For example, someone gave me some branded clothing for christmas a few years ago, that I would never have bought myself, and it turned out to both be super comfortable and lasted far, far longer than the cheap brands I bought. Of course, there is also much expensive brand clothing that's garbage, so its certainly not a given, but my point is that with clothing you at least have something you can wear, which may or may not have value in itself, while with NFT's you just have the brand.
antifoo 5y ago
I think the technical jargon (a mix of crypto, distributed systems, and finance) leads people to believe that what's going on in crypto is smarter than it is. It's what P.T. Barnum might have called "flim flam"; ~ "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit." Relevant discussion in the "Line Goes Up" Youtube video that's very good but extremely long (2h!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=8m36s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=8m36s
- twirlock 5y ago
dataangel 5y ago
My understanding is that while some idiots are putting links to S3 servers like you describe that some NFTs use IPFS links which AFAICT are not vulnerable to being taken offline.
rsynnott 5y ago
> While I share the sentiment, I am not sure if it is because I just haven't understood the details behind NFTs, crypto and so on or if I actually understand enough to grasp a reality. NFTs have been around for five years (or longer, depending on definition). Given that in that time no-one has been able to convincingly articulate why they're useful, one could be forgiven for assuming that there is no there there.

nfw2 5y ago

My understanding is that access to the image (or whatever) is absolutely not the point of NFT's. It's all about bragging rights. People want to be able to say they are considered the owner of something. Sure, the ownership only exists in people's imaginations, but that's often the case with these sort of honors. At my high school, we had an honor society. In addition to needing good grades, you needed to pay in 10 bucks every semester. They never gave me a clear explanation why I needed to pay, so I stopped paying. The only impact that had was not being able to sit in an exclusive section for the honors kids during graduation. As far as I'm aware, every single other student (or their parents, more likely) who had the grades paid the fee.

Dma54rhs 5y ago
It's the same with clothing brands, especially the "luxury" ones. For me both expensive clothing brands and NFT's are bullshit but it doesn't mean there's no bragging rights market for it. And it looks its huge, possibly I would have cared more about these rights when I was still a youth.
- dkersten 5y ago
  I agree, but at least with expensive clothing brands you may get something that might actually have some value. For example, someone gave me some branded clothing for christmas a few years ago, that I would never have bought myself, and it turned out to both be super comfortable and lasted far, far longer than the cheap brands I bought. Of course, there is also much expensive brand clothing that's garbage, so its certainly not a given, but my point is that with clothing you at least have something you can wear, which may or may not have value in itself, while with NFT's you just have the brand.

antifoo 5y ago

I think the technical jargon (a mix of crypto, distributed systems, and finance) leads people to believe that what's going on in crypto is smarter than it is. It's what P.T. Barnum might have called "flim flam"; ~ "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit." Relevant discussion in the "Line Goes Up" Youtube video that's very good but extremely long (2h!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=8m36s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=8m36s

twirlock 5y ago

dataangel 5y ago

My understanding is that while some idiots are putting links to S3 servers like you describe that some NFTs use IPFS links which AFAICT are not vulnerable to being taken offline.

rsynnott 5y ago

> While I share the sentiment, I am not sure if it is because I just haven't understood the details behind NFTs, crypto and so on or if I actually understand enough to grasp a reality. NFTs have been around for five years (or longer, depending on definition). Given that in that time no-one has been able to convincingly articulate why they're useful, one could be forgiven for assuming that there is no there there.