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There must be a strong correlation between how willing people are to buy NFT and how easy they are to scam. Even as someone technical who understands a bit of

There must be a strong correlation between how willing people are to buy NFT and how easy they are to scam. Even as someone technical who understands a bit of the ecosystem I feel uncomfortable making transactions without double- and triple-checking everything, including looking at the contract code. I can't even imagine doing anything as a non-technical person in crypto.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
Then there must also be a decent correlation between greedy people and easily scammed people.
postsantum 4y ago
This might be another reason behind the mass removal of .eth from twitter bios a couple of months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30958870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30958870
- Animats 4y ago
  Managing domain names on a blockchain was one of the few good blockchain ideas. It offered a way to get rid of domain registrars, who were originally just record-keepers and managed to become rent-seeking landlords. But no. The .eth domain was implemented in a way that requires annual payments to somebody.
libertine 4y ago
The first time I came across a pyramid scheme was in my late teens - where the game was literally: "you give money to me and they'll give money to you". A lot of friends of mine were "playing" it. Regular people. I didn't play not because I was smarter then them, but because I didn't care and I didn't have much money to play around with, but in the end it's all about mixing: - how you're introduced to the game by people you trust (like friends); - the prospect of wins; - naivety; I'm sure the large majority of the people that bought NFTs didn't even thought about the technical part of the game. And you just need to attend some communities on discord and reddit to understand the level a lot of people were playing. Some people actually believed that complex games were going to be created, that would bring NFTs ingame - similar to Ready Player One movie - and everything would interact with that world. Everyone was having fun, and some even made money, how can kids understand it was all a scam? So the question might even be, how didn't more people get scammed? Like, what stopped people from hopping in this frenzy? Maybe the reality was that they were just busy with other stuff. Social engineering alone was enough to perform criminal activities with little to no repercussions.
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  Was it the airplane game?
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    I had the same thought. Though - to be fair - that old pyramid scheme costed only little money[1], so it was "affordable" to many, when we are talking of NFT's (or of those people that get burned because they put all their savings in a cryptocurrency that goes down to 0 or similar) and of hundreds of thousands (or millions) it is perplexing (to me) how they can risk all that money. [1] taking into acoount inflation and what not it could have been at the time the same as 100 or 200 Euro, or if you prefer a dinner or two at the restaurant.
- cortesoft 4y ago
  Chain letters were a thing when I was a kid 30 years ago. You were supposed to send a dollar to the person a the top of a list of like 4 people, then move everyone up one spot on the list and and put your name at the bottom and send it to 10 people with the same instructions. If everyone did it, you would end up receiving $10,000. Of course, some simple math will tell you that you will run out of people in the world very quickly. People love free money and are bad at math.
- nunez 4y ago
  airplane game!
anony23 4y ago
I'm involved with NFTs as an artist, developer, and trader. Slip ups do happen and I just consider them the cost of doing business. Losses can be mitigated with some basic opsec like using multiple hardware wallets, etc.
- lupire 4y ago
  "basic opsec" and you've already lost 90% of the audience. If you are next positive in NFT world, you are either a scammer or profiting indirectly from the scam. The funds are coming from people getting scammed.
  - anony23 4y ago
    This is a very myopic view of the NFT space. There's more to it than monkey and punk profile pictures. There's a thriving community of digital artists supporting each other, think along the lines of patreon, etc. Of course it's a moot point to discuss this if you think all NFTs are a scam. I assure you there are different types of NFT collectors with various expectations. My favorite stuff is 100% on chain generative art. Take a look at Art Blocks for an example. There are also thriving NFT communities on cheap chains like Tezos, where the NFTs are very cheap and many folks approach it from a healthy perspective of having fun and supporting digital creators.
    - elbigbad 4y ago
      Could you point me to a thriving community of real people who are artists? Like, a forum of people who are making real art and then selling it? Of course “real art” is a bit of a loaded term, but I mean traditional artists like painters or sculptors (not ${RANDOM_APE}) who are thriving or making their money through NFTs?
      - anony23 4y ago
        Take a look at MakersPlace, lots of traditional artists on there that are selling NFTs. On Tezos there's a budding generative art scene as well.
bombcar 4y ago
The 419 scammers intentionally make their scam emails/letters super obviously scams so that the only people who reply are those who are scammable. It's likely that something similar will develop in crypto scams.
- giaour 4y ago
  > It's likely that something similar will develop in crypto scams. Disagree with your use of the future tense here. NFTs were Nigerian prince emails from the beginning.
- hef19898 4y ago
  One has to properly manage his sales funnels, right?
foobiekr 4y ago
The main thing that’s going to come out of this phase of crypto is curated lists of people who are suckers.
- pbhjpbhj 4y ago
  Half of Facebook (that's an exaggeration) is stories that are gathering lists of suckers it seems. Presumably, if you like on of those "like to win $100 from Microsoft" type stories then you get a "you won, give us your bank details so we can pay you" message?
- pavlov 4y ago
  And weirdly, many of those curated sucker lists were built up with hundreds of millions of VC funding, so they’re going to be treated like ordinary corporate assets. Take OpenSea. Assuming the NFT hype doesn’t suddenly resurrect itself, there’s no way the company can ever reach 2021 revenues and the lofty valuations it enjoyed in its Series C round. VCs won’t have endless patience for funding down rounds. But the sucker list can be monetized by less-than-scrupulous actors. Maybe we’ll see a special brand of private equity operators who buy these distressed former crypto high-fliers and milk the remaining user bases for years to come.
  - dehrmann 4y ago
    > VC funding I suppose Masayoshi Son will be at the top of the sucker list?
scollet 4y ago
We can't discount MLM. I believe that a large motivator is the desire to transcend a middle class lifestyle. I harbor a certain schadenfreude - a hope - that these folks burn out and develop a drug addiction, are forced derelict in the divorce, eventually succumbing to the horrors of the underclass that they struggled so hard to avoid. :) If only.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago

Then there must also be a decent correlation between greedy people and easily scammed people.

postsantum 4y ago

This might be another reason behind the mass removal of .eth from twitter bios a couple of months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30958870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30958870

Animats 4y ago
Managing domain names on a blockchain was one of the few good blockchain ideas. It offered a way to get rid of domain registrars, who were originally just record-keepers and managed to become rent-seeking landlords. But no. The .eth domain was implemented in a way that requires annual payments to somebody.

libertine 4y ago

The first time I came across a pyramid scheme was in my late teens - where the game was literally: "you give money to me and they'll give money to you". A lot of friends of mine were "playing" it. Regular people. I didn't play not because I was smarter then them, but because I didn't care and I didn't have much money to play around with, but in the end it's all about mixing: - how you're introduced to the game by people you trust (like friends); - the prospect of wins; - naivety; I'm sure the large majority of the people that bought NFTs didn't even thought about the technical part of the game. And you just need to attend some communities on discord and reddit to understand the level a lot of people were playing. Some people actually believed that complex games were going to be created, that would bring NFTs ingame - similar to Ready Player One movie - and everything would interact with that world. Everyone was having fun, and some even made money, how can kids understand it was all a scam? So the question might even be, how didn't more people get scammed? Like, what stopped people from hopping in this frenzy? Maybe the reality was that they were just busy with other stuff. Social engineering alone was enough to perform criminal activities with little to no repercussions.

BeFlatXIII 4y ago
Was it the airplane game?
- jaclaz 4y ago
  I had the same thought. Though - to be fair - that old pyramid scheme costed only little money[1], so it was "affordable" to many, when we are talking of NFT's (or of those people that get burned because they put all their savings in a cryptocurrency that goes down to 0 or similar) and of hundreds of thousands (or millions) it is perplexing (to me) how they can risk all that money. [1] taking into acoount inflation and what not it could have been at the time the same as 100 or 200 Euro, or if you prefer a dinner or two at the restaurant.
cortesoft 4y ago
Chain letters were a thing when I was a kid 30 years ago. You were supposed to send a dollar to the person a the top of a list of like 4 people, then move everyone up one spot on the list and and put your name at the bottom and send it to 10 people with the same instructions. If everyone did it, you would end up receiving $10,000. Of course, some simple math will tell you that you will run out of people in the world very quickly. People love free money and are bad at math.
nunez 4y ago
airplane game!

anony23 4y ago

I'm involved with NFTs as an artist, developer, and trader. Slip ups do happen and I just consider them the cost of doing business. Losses can be mitigated with some basic opsec like using multiple hardware wallets, etc.

lupire 4y ago
"basic opsec" and you've already lost 90% of the audience. If you are next positive in NFT world, you are either a scammer or profiting indirectly from the scam. The funds are coming from people getting scammed.
- anony23 4y ago
  This is a very myopic view of the NFT space. There's more to it than monkey and punk profile pictures. There's a thriving community of digital artists supporting each other, think along the lines of patreon, etc. Of course it's a moot point to discuss this if you think all NFTs are a scam. I assure you there are different types of NFT collectors with various expectations. My favorite stuff is 100% on chain generative art. Take a look at Art Blocks for an example. There are also thriving NFT communities on cheap chains like Tezos, where the NFTs are very cheap and many folks approach it from a healthy perspective of having fun and supporting digital creators.
  - elbigbad 4y ago
    Could you point me to a thriving community of real people who are artists? Like, a forum of people who are making real art and then selling it? Of course “real art” is a bit of a loaded term, but I mean traditional artists like painters or sculptors (not ${RANDOM_APE}) who are thriving or making their money through NFTs?
    - anony23 4y ago
      Take a look at MakersPlace, lots of traditional artists on there that are selling NFTs. On Tezos there's a budding generative art scene as well.

bombcar 4y ago

The 419 scammers intentionally make their scam emails/letters super obviously scams so that the only people who reply are those who are scammable. It's likely that something similar will develop in crypto scams.

giaour 4y ago
> It's likely that something similar will develop in crypto scams. Disagree with your use of the future tense here. NFTs were Nigerian prince emails from the beginning.
hef19898 4y ago
One has to properly manage his sales funnels, right?

foobiekr 4y ago

The main thing that’s going to come out of this phase of crypto is curated lists of people who are suckers.

pbhjpbhj 4y ago
Half of Facebook (that's an exaggeration) is stories that are gathering lists of suckers it seems. Presumably, if you like on of those "like to win $100 from Microsoft" type stories then you get a "you won, give us your bank details so we can pay you" message?
pavlov 4y ago
And weirdly, many of those curated sucker lists were built up with hundreds of millions of VC funding, so they’re going to be treated like ordinary corporate assets. Take OpenSea. Assuming the NFT hype doesn’t suddenly resurrect itself, there’s no way the company can ever reach 2021 revenues and the lofty valuations it enjoyed in its Series C round. VCs won’t have endless patience for funding down rounds. But the sucker list can be monetized by less-than-scrupulous actors. Maybe we’ll see a special brand of private equity operators who buy these distressed former crypto high-fliers and milk the remaining user bases for years to come.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  > VC funding I suppose Masayoshi Son will be at the top of the sucker list?

scollet 4y ago

We can't discount MLM. I believe that a large motivator is the desire to transcend a middle class lifestyle. I harbor a certain schadenfreude - a hope - that these folks burn out and develop a drug addiction, are forced derelict in the divorce, eventually succumbing to the horrors of the underclass that they struggled so hard to avoid. :) If only.