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> An alternative explanation is that they _are_ the normies who have bought into the techno-grift in exchange for social status in a small community of believer

> An alternative explanation is that they _are_ the normies who have bought into the techno-grift in exchange for social status in a small community of believers. I don’t think it’s just a small community. And I say this as a heavy skeptic of cryptocurrency and NFTs. I think the article’s author has a point. With or without NFTs, conspicuous consumption of digital goods is already a normalized thing of minor social consequence in the form of video game cosmetics. It started out as a freemium monetization model, but games like Fortnite, Destiny, etc. have solidly cemented the link between spending real money and digital self expression, including the implied social status that comes with specific rarer cosmetics vs. more accessible ones. And to some extent the social status part follows you back into the real world if you all know each other in person. I don’t think it’s a large leap to a scenario where people pay for designer avatars to bring into digital spaces if online, immersive socialization in some grand unified space becomes a thing. I don’t like that idea, but I think it’s not that much of a stretch.

kmlx 5y ago
> I don’t think it’s just a small community. it’s the smallest of communities: > Between late February and November [2021], there were 360,000 NFT owners holding 2.7m NFTs between them. Of those, about 9 per cent — or 32,400 wallets — held 80 per cent of the value of the market, Chainalysis found. from: https://www.ft.com/content/e95f5ac2-0476-41f4-abd4-8a99faa7737d https://www.ft.com/content/e95f5ac2-0476-41f4-abd4-8a99faa77...
dsign 5y ago
> I don’t think it’s a large leap to a scenario where people pay for designer avatars to bring into digital spaces if online, This already happens routinely for VRChat, a popular VR socialization platform. In their defense, users mostly don't care about NFTs, they just trade avatar design services (sans NFT) or design their own monstrosities. Tbh, for many in VRChat making their own avatar could be the first time ever that they use a computer for a creative endeavor of any kind, and they may even learn about "textures" "normal maps" and "non-photorealistic shaders". So, not the worst outcome ever.
- munchbunny 5y ago
  Absolutely, my point was that the social phenomenon of paying money for digital conspicuous consumption is already here with or without NFT's, though I'm solidly in the camp that NFT's don't add value in this interaction. Taking what I had intended to say one step further, if you look at the denominator of "people who participate in digital conspicuous consumption," the NFT people that this article discusses is just a niche/fringe in a movement that already has lots of momentum. Personally, I hope the digitization leads to far more people becoming creators and not just consumers, but I'm not holding my breath for that outcome.
pjc50 5y ago
> conspicuous consumption of digital goods Yes, and I think this is a big part of how big the flashpoint is. We're about to hit a big economic squeeze, especially for energy costs, and people for whom everyday consumption of food, housing and energy is becoming less affordable are going to be really unimpressed with the new virtual yacht class. Smaller cosmetics seem to have become OK, in the way that people will generally not begrudge each other wearing branded sports gear that's surprisingly expensive. Multi-thousand-dollar ugly profile pics though are entirely out of reach.

kmlx 5y ago

> I don’t think it’s just a small community. it’s the smallest of communities: > Between late February and November [2021], there were 360,000 NFT owners holding 2.7m NFTs between them. Of those, about 9 per cent — or 32,400 wallets — held 80 per cent of the value of the market, Chainalysis found. from: https://www.ft.com/content/e95f5ac2-0476-41f4-abd4-8a99faa7737d https://www.ft.com/content/e95f5ac2-0476-41f4-abd4-8a99faa77...

dsign 5y ago

> I don’t think it’s a large leap to a scenario where people pay for designer avatars to bring into digital spaces if online, This already happens routinely for VRChat, a popular VR socialization platform. In their defense, users mostly don't care about NFTs, they just trade avatar design services (sans NFT) or design their own monstrosities. Tbh, for many in VRChat making their own avatar could be the first time ever that they use a computer for a creative endeavor of any kind, and they may even learn about "textures" "normal maps" and "non-photorealistic shaders". So, not the worst outcome ever.

munchbunny 5y ago
Absolutely, my point was that the social phenomenon of paying money for digital conspicuous consumption is already here with or without NFT's, though I'm solidly in the camp that NFT's don't add value in this interaction. Taking what I had intended to say one step further, if you look at the denominator of "people who participate in digital conspicuous consumption," the NFT people that this article discusses is just a niche/fringe in a movement that already has lots of momentum. Personally, I hope the digitization leads to far more people becoming creators and not just consumers, but I'm not holding my breath for that outcome.

pjc50 5y ago

> conspicuous consumption of digital goods Yes, and I think this is a big part of how big the flashpoint is. We're about to hit a big economic squeeze, especially for energy costs, and people for whom everyday consumption of food, housing and energy is becoming less affordable are going to be really unimpressed with the new virtual yacht class. Smaller cosmetics seem to have become OK, in the way that people will generally not begrudge each other wearing branded sports gear that's surprisingly expensive. Multi-thousand-dollar ugly profile pics though are entirely out of reach.