4 ms·

I crowdfunded a novel using cryptocurrency

18 points by rmason 5y ago

8note 5y ago
> Owning an NFT just means you are the verified owner of something This doesn't seem quite true unless the thing is on the blockchain and also the thing has a license that grants the owner exclusive rights to the item. Otherwise it means you own a pointer to something
j0hns0n 5y ago
The systems the privileged and wealthy create to shuffle resources and capitol back and forth to one another never ceases to amaze.
- Melting_Harps 5y ago
  Preface: I say this as a former fintech founder within the 'crypto space' (Bitcoin), with a stint in the corpo World as a developer and consultant for what was mainly multi-nationals. I also did my time in kitchens in Europe and the US during my apprenticeship and later as a chef. > The systems the privileged and wealthy create to shuffle resources and capitol back and forth to one another never ceases to amaze. This is a topic I have spent the better part of nearly 20 years trying to understand. But I agree, it's called accounting; and it seems that the oldest recorded use of written the language we have was for this very usecase in meosptamia using sanskirt [0]. The length to which the entire breadth of retail, mercantile and political classes has dedicated to ensure that accurate records are kept about how money is transferred as credits and debts in the story of Humanity is overwhelming to truly fathom. Especially since the average life-span of most currencies is about ~40 years, meaning they typically imploded with major consequences when they did--think Wiemar Republic, Hungary, Zimbabwe and Venezuela hyper inflation. Personally, my biggest take away is that most of Humanity simply doesn't understand or doesn't care enough about money to take the time to care about it unless it personally affects them directly. With that said, I recently came across what seemed on the surface like a total cashgrab to cash in the opaque NFT 'Web 3.0 space' [1], wherein restaurateurs are deciding to simply anticipate the imminent collapse of the restaurant industry as we know it and create an alternative; they decided to revert to the private diner's club model that, I will remind you was the reason why the modern credit model has become as prevalent as it has in the US, seems entirely unorthodox unless you have a unique perspective like mine where you have a background in both fintech and the culinary industry. You see, Private diner clubs aren't held to the regulatory capture that most restaurants are: they operate on a vague and opaque existence wherein they do not service the general public and are therefore not bound to the myriad of forced compliance (especially in NY) that eats into profits with exorbitant operational costs and since COVID the nebulous and often tragically-comical levels of absurdity when it comes to being allowed to operate [2]. What this operation did was essentially what every seasoned startup founder would love to do if/when he decides to take on his next project: have a closed seed round in the millions that will have enough runway to pilot test and prototype, but will remain as a sort of closed beta that only services the owners of those NFTs. Which means they can potentially create a new paradigm in which future Diner Clubs interested in following this model can curate relationships with suppliers, vendors and ideally local farmers for food and beverages on their own terms without a need for permits and licensees and bypassing the regulatory bureaucracy entirely! This alone is worthy of immense respect, because most will never realize the nightmare that comes with all this needless compliance of running a restaurant, which has created a sort of license mafia--try getting a liquor license in a historical city, no amount of money can buy you one and if you can't sell liquor along your food you're pretty much waiting your inevitable death as the highest ROI come from FOH bar sales. Again, I think the NFT craze was just like the ICO craze: mainly a passing fad that was heated by a broken Market in disarray and flooded with cheap cash with promises of overnight riches and no real substance, which in the end crashed as it had very limited actual uses cases beyond 'grifting the next guy.' But what it did do was serve as a foundation for what is possible to build actual tech around, and I think if successful it can be a way for many established restaurateurs and chefs to continue to exist in an Industry that has been absolutely decimated in the last 3 years with countless blunders that the very politicians who enact and enforce these supposedly critical health measures and do not follow them in practice [2]. I'm personally excited to see the disruption occur if this becomes a viable, because it could potentially decentralize the food and beverage Industry model moving forward in a way only the most stringent farm to table concepts could only begin to explore and implement; and the truth is most like most startups (even prior to COVID) most restaurants failed within the first 1-3 years, those that survived COVID are hanging on by a thread from a myriad of things from high debt loads, lower customer turnover, labour shortages etc... and the writing is on the wall: we could potentially lose a large sector of the economy and more importantly a critical part of our culture. And it goes away because politicians decided to do what they've always done: choose winners and losers not based on merit but rather proximity to power. This at least gives us a chance to retain some of our local culture and preserve our beloved eateries from bureaucratic incompetence, and corrupt regulatory capture. 0: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697796 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697796 1: https://ny.eater.com/2022/1/13/22880787/worlds-first-nft-restaurant-flyfish-club-opening-nyc https://ny.eater.com/2022/1/13/22880787/worlds-first-nft-res... 2: https://abc7news.com/los-angeles-country-restaurant-owner-viral-video-coronavirus-restrictions-covid-rates-cases/8530341/ https://abc7news.com/los-angeles-country-restaurant-owner-vi... 3: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/gavin-newsom-french-laundry-california-governor/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/gavin-newsom-fre...
  - ShamelessC 5y ago
    What you're talking about is the fetishization of capitalism and transactions. Count me out.
    - Melting_Harps 5y ago
      I'm going to address this with a response to another message you made that elucidates my actual point way better than I could if I took the time to write an actual rebuttal. > Wealth inequality is traditionally exacerbated by lack of government regulation. Further, I don't actually see cryptocurrencies actively trying to attack the problem of wealth inequality. Rather, they are staunch proponents of free markets which, left unchecked, result in massive wealth inequality. It is exactly that Government regulation I discussed at length in my previous message and the lack of respect for it by the very same politicians who imposed it on 'the plebs' that resulted in severe wealth inequality: a large segment of first time small business owners are now beholden to creditors and banks due to ever changing closure restrictions that has led to mass bankruptcies in the Industry throughout COVID and a consolidation of over all Market share by major food chains with lobbyists and large conglomerates who are reporting record profits. This act of Government regulation alone curtailed so much upward mobility in the US, most don't even realize that a large segment of restaurants owned in the US are held by first generation immigrants as it's a typical way for them to allow themselves and other immigrants to enter the labour force that would otherwise overlook them due to a lack of (recognized) formal education or experience. Often with savings or loans pooled together from family and friends in their home country that rely on them to send money back. Many food industry workers, like experienced bartenders or servers in busy well known restaurants with no college education who could once live a solid middle class lifestyle are now struggling to get by: I know, because those people are my friends. Cooks have been riding a gravy train for the first time ever and have been seeing healthy wage increases, but that window has been closing now that the PPP funds are running out and restaurants have to carry payroll on their own now and the numbers aren't adding up. You're simply deluded if you think Government regulation does anything but perpetuate the very wealth extraction and wealth inequality you're lambasting and that has been seen to date by the State: that is it's MO since the days of feudalism and slavery before that.
alisonkisk 5y ago
jbirer 5y ago
I think a lot of people developed hatred towards NFTs based on the silly stuff they have seen lately (Bored Ape BS) An NFT has a metadata field where you can put data like game keys, books like in OPs case, AirBnB lock codes, various encryption methods and more. It allows a person to possess something as an item and trade it like you would real life items. It's important to look past the embarrassing stuff we have seen and look at the technology.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ShamelessC 5y ago
  The technology doesn't seem to work very well, unfortunately.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ShamelessC 5y ago
> To put it simply: In the traditional publishing world, an author has to sell 42,000 copies of their book at $15 apiece to earn $100,000. Using the creator economy, an author has to sell 1,000 subscriptions at $9/month to earn $100,000. In the web3 world, an author only has to sell one NFT to earn $100,000. This reads like a scam. Enticing people to "win the lottery" so that more liquidity enters the system and the major players can cash out. > In this way, purchasing an NFT is like low-stakes angel investing. You might not have $1.2 million to pour into a startup you’re interested in getting off the ground, but you might have $200 to invest in a piece of art. And if the art you fund becomes successful, then your stake in it goes up in value and your $200 could turn into $2,000, or even $20,000. Not only that, but it is totally within your power to increase its value. Same thing going on here.
- throwawayffffas 5y ago
  Exactly my thoughts as well, the only words that came to my mind when reading this was "Reverse Funnel Scheme". What really gets me is the lack of self awareness the article displays, it reads to me as if it's written in earnest, as if it's not realizing the thing they are describing is a scam.
salamandersauce 5y ago
> Someone doesn’t purchase a Bored Ape NFT because they want to own the picture of an ape on their phone, they purchase it because it could go up in value in one day. But why would it go up in value if nobody likes it? It doesn't make sense to buy stuff, especially expensive stuff on the off chance it could go up in value. Everything "could" go up in value. It could also go down. Especially if it's ugly and nobody wants it. Even if it's rare.

18 points by rmason 5y ago

> Owning an NFT just means you are the verified owner of something This doesn't seem quite true unless the thing is on the blockchain and also the thing has a license that grants the owner exclusive rights to the item. Otherwise it means you own a pointer to something

j0hns0n 5y ago

The systems the privileged and wealthy create to shuffle resources and capitol back and forth to one another never ceases to amaze.

Melting_Harps 5y ago
Preface: I say this as a former fintech founder within the 'crypto space' (Bitcoin), with a stint in the corpo World as a developer and consultant for what was mainly multi-nationals. I also did my time in kitchens in Europe and the US during my apprenticeship and later as a chef. > The systems the privileged and wealthy create to shuffle resources and capitol back and forth to one another never ceases to amaze. This is a topic I have spent the better part of nearly 20 years trying to understand. But I agree, it's called accounting; and it seems that the oldest recorded use of written the language we have was for this very usecase in meosptamia using sanskirt [0]. The length to which the entire breadth of retail, mercantile and political classes has dedicated to ensure that accurate records are kept about how money is transferred as credits and debts in the story of Humanity is overwhelming to truly fathom. Especially since the average life-span of most currencies is about ~40 years, meaning they typically imploded with major consequences when they did--think Wiemar Republic, Hungary, Zimbabwe and Venezuela hyper inflation. Personally, my biggest take away is that most of Humanity simply doesn't understand or doesn't care enough about money to take the time to care about it unless it personally affects them directly. With that said, I recently came across what seemed on the surface like a total cashgrab to cash in the opaque NFT 'Web 3.0 space' [1], wherein restaurateurs are deciding to simply anticipate the imminent collapse of the restaurant industry as we know it and create an alternative; they decided to revert to the private diner's club model that, I will remind you was the reason why the modern credit model has become as prevalent as it has in the US, seems entirely unorthodox unless you have a unique perspective like mine where you have a background in both fintech and the culinary industry. You see, Private diner clubs aren't held to the regulatory capture that most restaurants are: they operate on a vague and opaque existence wherein they do not service the general public and are therefore not bound to the myriad of forced compliance (especially in NY) that eats into profits with exorbitant operational costs and since COVID the nebulous and often tragically-comical levels of absurdity when it comes to being allowed to operate [2]. What this operation did was essentially what every seasoned startup founder would love to do if/when he decides to take on his next project: have a closed seed round in the millions that will have enough runway to pilot test and prototype, but will remain as a sort of closed beta that only services the owners of those NFTs. Which means they can potentially create a new paradigm in which future Diner Clubs interested in following this model can curate relationships with suppliers, vendors and ideally local farmers for food and beverages on their own terms without a need for permits and licensees and bypassing the regulatory bureaucracy entirely! This alone is worthy of immense respect, because most will never realize the nightmare that comes with all this needless compliance of running a restaurant, which has created a sort of license mafia--try getting a liquor license in a historical city, no amount of money can buy you one and if you can't sell liquor along your food you're pretty much waiting your inevitable death as the highest ROI come from FOH bar sales. Again, I think the NFT craze was just like the ICO craze: mainly a passing fad that was heated by a broken Market in disarray and flooded with cheap cash with promises of overnight riches and no real substance, which in the end crashed as it had very limited actual uses cases beyond 'grifting the next guy.' But what it did do was serve as a foundation for what is possible to build actual tech around, and I think if successful it can be a way for many established restaurateurs and chefs to continue to exist in an Industry that has been absolutely decimated in the last 3 years with countless blunders that the very politicians who enact and enforce these supposedly critical health measures and do not follow them in practice [2]. I'm personally excited to see the disruption occur if this becomes a viable, because it could potentially decentralize the food and beverage Industry model moving forward in a way only the most stringent farm to table concepts could only begin to explore and implement; and the truth is most like most startups (even prior to COVID) most restaurants failed within the first 1-3 years, those that survived COVID are hanging on by a thread from a myriad of things from high debt loads, lower customer turnover, labour shortages etc... and the writing is on the wall: we could potentially lose a large sector of the economy and more importantly a critical part of our culture. And it goes away because politicians decided to do what they've always done: choose winners and losers not based on merit but rather proximity to power. This at least gives us a chance to retain some of our local culture and preserve our beloved eateries from bureaucratic incompetence, and corrupt regulatory capture. 0: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697796 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40697796 1: https://ny.eater.com/2022/1/13/22880787/worlds-first-nft-restaurant-flyfish-club-opening-nyc https://ny.eater.com/2022/1/13/22880787/worlds-first-nft-res... 2: https://abc7news.com/los-angeles-country-restaurant-owner-viral-video-coronavirus-restrictions-covid-rates-cases/8530341/ https://abc7news.com/los-angeles-country-restaurant-owner-vi... 3: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/gavin-newsom-french-laundry-california-governor/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/gavin-newsom-fre...
- ShamelessC 5y ago
  What you're talking about is the fetishization of capitalism and transactions. Count me out.
  - Melting_Harps 5y ago
    I'm going to address this with a response to another message you made that elucidates my actual point way better than I could if I took the time to write an actual rebuttal. > Wealth inequality is traditionally exacerbated by lack of government regulation. Further, I don't actually see cryptocurrencies actively trying to attack the problem of wealth inequality. Rather, they are staunch proponents of free markets which, left unchecked, result in massive wealth inequality. It is exactly that Government regulation I discussed at length in my previous message and the lack of respect for it by the very same politicians who imposed it on 'the plebs' that resulted in severe wealth inequality: a large segment of first time small business owners are now beholden to creditors and banks due to ever changing closure restrictions that has led to mass bankruptcies in the Industry throughout COVID and a consolidation of over all Market share by major food chains with lobbyists and large conglomerates who are reporting record profits. This act of Government regulation alone curtailed so much upward mobility in the US, most don't even realize that a large segment of restaurants owned in the US are held by first generation immigrants as it's a typical way for them to allow themselves and other immigrants to enter the labour force that would otherwise overlook them due to a lack of (recognized) formal education or experience. Often with savings or loans pooled together from family and friends in their home country that rely on them to send money back. Many food industry workers, like experienced bartenders or servers in busy well known restaurants with no college education who could once live a solid middle class lifestyle are now struggling to get by: I know, because those people are my friends. Cooks have been riding a gravy train for the first time ever and have been seeing healthy wage increases, but that window has been closing now that the PPP funds are running out and restaurants have to carry payroll on their own now and the numbers aren't adding up. You're simply deluded if you think Government regulation does anything but perpetuate the very wealth extraction and wealth inequality you're lambasting and that has been seen to date by the State: that is it's MO since the days of feudalism and slavery before that.

alisonkisk 5y ago

jbirer 5y ago

I think a lot of people developed hatred towards NFTs based on the silly stuff they have seen lately (Bored Ape BS) An NFT has a metadata field where you can put data like game keys, books like in OPs case, AirBnB lock codes, various encryption methods and more. It allows a person to possess something as an item and trade it like you would real life items. It's important to look past the embarrassing stuff we have seen and look at the technology.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ShamelessC 5y ago
The technology doesn't seem to work very well, unfortunately.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

ShamelessC 5y ago

> To put it simply: In the traditional publishing world, an author has to sell 42,000 copies of their book at $15 apiece to earn $100,000. Using the creator economy, an author has to sell 1,000 subscriptions at $9/month to earn $100,000. In the web3 world, an author only has to sell one NFT to earn $100,000. This reads like a scam. Enticing people to "win the lottery" so that more liquidity enters the system and the major players can cash out. > In this way, purchasing an NFT is like low-stakes angel investing. You might not have $1.2 million to pour into a startup you’re interested in getting off the ground, but you might have $200 to invest in a piece of art. And if the art you fund becomes successful, then your stake in it goes up in value and your $200 could turn into $2,000, or even $20,000. Not only that, but it is totally within your power to increase its value. Same thing going on here.

throwawayffffas 5y ago
Exactly my thoughts as well, the only words that came to my mind when reading this was "Reverse Funnel Scheme". What really gets me is the lack of self awareness the article displays, it reads to me as if it's written in earnest, as if it's not realizing the thing they are describing is a scam.

salamandersauce 5y ago

> Someone doesn’t purchase a Bored Ape NFT because they want to own the picture of an ape on their phone, they purchase it because it could go up in value in one day. But why would it go up in value if nobody likes it? It doesn't make sense to buy stuff, especially expensive stuff on the off chance it could go up in value. Everything "could" go up in value. It could also go down. Especially if it's ugly and nobody wants it. Even if it's rare.