6 ms·

I think there is a very important use-case for NFTs, and it got downranked to -4 in this comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29745788 https://new

I think there is a very important use-case for NFTs, and it got downranked to -4 in this comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29745788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29745788 I'd rather see myself as a contrarian than an idiot. Basically if you watch a movie or listen to some music, and it is just some copy you picked up from somewhere, how do you know who actually created it? You go to the first instance of it: and that may be found on a blockchain via its fingerprint. Another way to look at it: if PG writes an essay and fingerprints it to the blockchain upon publication, you can trace it back to him, and at that point you can establish a relationship and give money, or whatever. Artists can't control who copies or consumes their work, but they can leverage that they had it first, and timestamp it to themselves.

obviyus 5y ago
This actually sounds like a fairly good use-case. Enforced attribution (credits?) in the blockchain. But again, what’s stopping a malicious entity from making slight modifications to the source material and publishing it as their own?
- bruce511 5y ago
  Nothing, except the timestamp would indicate which was first. (I don't know, but I'm guessing, an NFT has a timestamp?)
- adrianwaj 5y ago
  They can publish it as their own, but will anyone see it if the creator send fans to collect their works from any and all sources of their own choosing? (eg a torrent file) I'm trying to work out if it'll work for code as well.. what if you write a program and can then tally up whose code you used to help make it.. at that point you could donate (or pay) if you wanted to. An honesty system. Even users could pay and see where their funds will wind up.
  - obviyus 5y ago
    Fair enough. Something that attributes code back to the creator would be fantastic for OSS. I dread to imagine code tallies being used to gauge candidates
    - adrianwaj 5y ago
      Yep. It could be gamed as well, creators donating/paying themselves to boost their own rankings. Like authors buying their own books to get on bestseller lists. Another interesting use case for NFTs is tickets, if you issue tickets for an event at $10 and they end up at $100, at least the issuer can collect a bonus on every subsequent sale... isn't that how OpenSea works? So a ticket could be auctioned first, and then more is made by the issuer on post-auction sales. It's also very public, so the performer has better information about their worth in the market. So yeah, digital goods and tickets... that's where it's at for me.
bruce511 5y ago
So I almost disagreed with your post in the sense that no consumer would check a block chain to determine ownership. However your last paragraph is actually meaningful. Yes, it provides a way for digital assets to be time stamped. And that has value, not for consumers but for creative. Narrow your use case to the creator rather than the consumer and you have a worthwhile point. Of course right now it means little, I could basically NFT my neighbors digital art, before he does, and thus "prove" I had it first. However, assuming this catches on, having a common way of time stamping copyright materials has significant value.
- adrianwaj 5y ago
  >> no consumer would check a block chain to determine ownership Your browser or media player could check ownership metadata. You could donate a fixed amount per month to the most used sites or creators, or whatever you decide. The web is free, but what's say $5 a month for a better experience paid straight to creators to run alongside uBlock Origin? More useful than paying $2000 for a useless NFT monkey with one leg.
  - bruce511 5y ago
    I think the number of people who would care about the NFT of the meta-data is basically 0% for some definition of 0. That's a straight up solution looking for a problem. And if you want to donate direct to creators, then Patreon already exists. And again, the % of people using that is a rounding error. Useful to be sure, but it shows that only the tinyest fraction of consumers are prepared to pay for that kind of content. For more quality content we pay streaming services and they pay the creators for us (Netflix et al). Between youtube red, Patreon, Netflix etc i have plenty of ways to pay creators - no NFT required.
    - adrianwaj 5y ago
      Regarding Netflix, if they gave away all their content for free. At some point people would want more, and then they can raise money on the promise (and delivery) of new content based on prior works. As long as people pay the right person, they can expect to get more. Perhaps an NFT can facilitate this. Some people will free-ride and lurk, but so what?! https://www.weargustin.com/store https://www.weargustin.com/store - they presell all their clothes before production. That should be adapted to content. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/PledgeMusic https://wikipedia.org/wiki/PledgeMusic - it died in 2019 - perhaps it could be recreated around crypto and NFTs.

obviyus 5y ago

This actually sounds like a fairly good use-case. Enforced attribution (credits?) in the blockchain. But again, what’s stopping a malicious entity from making slight modifications to the source material and publishing it as their own?

bruce511 5y ago
Nothing, except the timestamp would indicate which was first. (I don't know, but I'm guessing, an NFT has a timestamp?)
adrianwaj 5y ago
They can publish it as their own, but will anyone see it if the creator send fans to collect their works from any and all sources of their own choosing? (eg a torrent file) I'm trying to work out if it'll work for code as well.. what if you write a program and can then tally up whose code you used to help make it.. at that point you could donate (or pay) if you wanted to. An honesty system. Even users could pay and see where their funds will wind up.
- obviyus 5y ago
  Fair enough. Something that attributes code back to the creator would be fantastic for OSS. I dread to imagine code tallies being used to gauge candidates
  - adrianwaj 5y ago
    Yep. It could be gamed as well, creators donating/paying themselves to boost their own rankings. Like authors buying their own books to get on bestseller lists. Another interesting use case for NFTs is tickets, if you issue tickets for an event at $10 and they end up at $100, at least the issuer can collect a bonus on every subsequent sale... isn't that how OpenSea works? So a ticket could be auctioned first, and then more is made by the issuer on post-auction sales. It's also very public, so the performer has better information about their worth in the market. So yeah, digital goods and tickets... that's where it's at for me.

bruce511 5y ago

So I almost disagreed with your post in the sense that no consumer would check a block chain to determine ownership. However your last paragraph is actually meaningful. Yes, it provides a way for digital assets to be time stamped. And that has value, not for consumers but for creative. Narrow your use case to the creator rather than the consumer and you have a worthwhile point. Of course right now it means little, I could basically NFT my neighbors digital art, before he does, and thus "prove" I had it first. However, assuming this catches on, having a common way of time stamping copyright materials has significant value.

adrianwaj 5y ago
>> no consumer would check a block chain to determine ownership Your browser or media player could check ownership metadata. You could donate a fixed amount per month to the most used sites or creators, or whatever you decide. The web is free, but what's say $5 a month for a better experience paid straight to creators to run alongside uBlock Origin? More useful than paying $2000 for a useless NFT monkey with one leg.
- bruce511 5y ago
  I think the number of people who would care about the NFT of the meta-data is basically 0% for some definition of 0. That's a straight up solution looking for a problem. And if you want to donate direct to creators, then Patreon already exists. And again, the % of people using that is a rounding error. Useful to be sure, but it shows that only the tinyest fraction of consumers are prepared to pay for that kind of content. For more quality content we pay streaming services and they pay the creators for us (Netflix et al). Between youtube red, Patreon, Netflix etc i have plenty of ways to pay creators - no NFT required.
  - adrianwaj 5y ago
    Regarding Netflix, if they gave away all their content for free. At some point people would want more, and then they can raise money on the promise (and delivery) of new content based on prior works. As long as people pay the right person, they can expect to get more. Perhaps an NFT can facilitate this. Some people will free-ride and lurk, but so what?! https://www.weargustin.com/store https://www.weargustin.com/store - they presell all their clothes before production. That should be adapted to content. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/PledgeMusic https://wikipedia.org/wiki/PledgeMusic - it died in 2019 - perhaps it could be recreated around crypto and NFTs.