NFTs

[Stevo985]

I'm really struggling to understand these.

I understand the concept of being able to buy something that proves you own the original of something digital. I get that.

 

What I don't get is how there's any money in all these random NFTs people are "dropping". Surely if you buy a picture of a cartoon ape that's the same as 10,000 other picture of cartoon apes with a very slight difference, the only way you'll make money is if somebody else wants to buy it off you for far more money.

But why would anyone do that? Unless one of these pieces of art becomes extremely valuable then surely the NFT is effectively worthless. but they're not going to become valuable when people are spawning them by the thousands.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

 

[Davkaus]

8 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

 

But why would anyone do that? Unless one of these pieces of art becomes extremely valuable then surely the NFT is effectively worthless. but they're not going to become valuable when people are spawning them by the thousands.

And...why would it become extremely valuable? Even if a prominent person created a really cool piece of art...why would anyone spend a sum of money proving they're the "owner" when anyone can just copy it? It's absolutely not like owning an original physical piece of art, when a screenshot has the exact same quality and properties other than a digital papertrail.

The tech has value, but what we're seeing now is an industry of con-artists selling valueless nonsense to the gullible.

[HanoiVillan]

The key to understanding their 'value' is a type of fraud called 'wash trading', which is how these absurd 'valuations' are created.

The fraud is extremely simple. I have a thing, and you have another version of the same thing. We both have a shared interest in the value of the thing being vastly inflated. So we can come to an agreement, that I will buy your thing for £2 million, and you buy my thing for £2 million, and neither of us are out any money but we have helped create a market price of £2 million (for example). Then I can sell the thing at auction with the bidding starting at £2 million. The beauty of this type of fraud is that you don't even need another person, especially in the crypto space, as you can just do the same transaction between two of your own accounts if you want.

The amusing thing though, is that the IRS have started to ponder aloud whether people should have been paying taxes on these vastly inflated purchases, so hopefully a few people get some nasty surprises from the taxman.

[Rds1983]

17 hours ago, Davkaus said:

And...why would it become extremely valuable? Even if a prominent person created a really cool piece of art...why would anyone spend a sum of money proving they're the "owner" when anyone can just copy it? It's absolutely not like owning an original physical piece of art, when a screenshot has the exact same quality and properties other than a digital papertrail.

The tech has value, but what we're seeing now is an industry of con-artists selling valueless nonsense to the gullible.

Agree with what you are saying about NFT's but I'd argue that even the original physical piece of art is over inflated in price and can be easily copied. The only difference between an original and a print is knowing yours was originally done by the famous person. The print still looks exactly the same. 

[Xela]

[Davkaus]

 

[villa89]

Well to the surprise of nobody with a brain NFT's have turned out to be a worthless scam. 

[PieFacE]

1 hour ago, villa89 said:

Well to the surprise of nobody with a brain NFT's have turned out to be a worthless scam. 

Wouldn't call them a scam. They are what they are and they haven't tricked anyone into buying them. 

NFT art imo is largely complete garbage, but i've never bought one and never would. But always figured it's just not my bag cos I know plenty of people that love them for whatever reason.

Never really understood it but each to their own I guess. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by PieFacE