"tall columns of money" isn't a convincing argument IMO<p>What metrics are there that indicate long term trust in NFTs? How many % NFTs no longer point to any existant information? How many % NFTs legally relate to ownership of something?<p>People acting like saying "I own this house, signed, me" means that they are entitled to the entire value of a house, And well, sure, Dollars are like that with "I own X worth of gold not really, signed the government", but we already have funny fiat, we already have funny cryptocurrencies with zero backing value, now we have funny cryptocurrency thingamabobs with zero backing value.<p>How is this ever more than re-inventing a re-invented re-invented re-invented wheel? Why should one care this time, other than to ride the pump and dump?
> Another perspective is that we are watching the real time creation of a new status game. Each individual that would normally drop $50,000 to $1,000,000 to purchase a car, watch, house, boat, etc is now realizing that you can spend the same money on a digital good and flex in front of more people on the internet. Only so many friends can check out your house and be impressed. But millions of people a month will see your Twitter avatar.<p>I can't name a single person who spent 5 figures+ on an NFT. Unless twitter or insta create a badge verifying NFT ownership, I don't see how it's a flex. On the other hand, I can take a picture of myself wearing a 100k watch and people will be pretty sure I own that watch. For this reason many people reasonable assume it's mostly money laundering or inside dealing. I could create a series of NFTs and buy them from another account and drive up the prices or launder money. An interesting solution to this would be an NFT market that burns X% of the coins to ensure that there is a significant cost to this behavior.<p>My main issue with NFTs is that when people write about them they obfuscate what is actually being bought and sold. You're not buying a JPG. You're buying a number that some group says is a JPG. Calling it digital property is dishonest, unless that property is a 128 hex number on a particular blockchain that an arbitrary issuer claims is tied to some asset.
> But millions of people a month will see your Twitter avatar.<p>Except for the part that I can take the image, copy it and make it my Twitter avatar. NFTs do not offer any way to actually enforce uniqueness and ownership. I really can't take too seriously any article about NFTs that ignore this fact.<p>For all the other parts... NFTs are just a way to show ownership of a token (not necessarily the underlying asset) in a blockchain. If an AI bot or a changing image doesn't seem interesting, why would they be interesting when you add the "NFT" word?
I guess I'd buy an NFT from someone as a means of directly supporting their work, say as an alternative to a donation, patreon, twitch subscription...
Other than that I must be old because I don't see the point of the whole thing.
I think there's some good ideas in NFTs but people are going around like it's a magic pricing gun that imbues items with the value they stick on the label.<p>I can see the appeal to people who feel like owning the Original is far better than owning an indistinguishable copy, but someone really actually needs to want it. If your only concern is as an investment then it could just as easily have been a NFT connected to a different thing rendering it into a non-scarce commodity.
Would NFT make sense in trading of physical goods (wheat, cotton, oil, etc.) when there is a certification company (SGS, Bureau Veritas, etc)?
NFTs (PDFs) could validate that the goods match the requirements?
Or could NFTs be used in the land register?<p>(I am trying to understand NFTs outside obvious money laundering usecases....)
If you're a buyer, NFTs is another way of bag holding and telling everyone about it. Even worse if you bought it at the height of the euphoria and the market collapses.<p>Then you will be waiting years to find another fool willing to buy it off you for even higher.<p>I can always copy it for free. So why would I buy it off them at any price?
Money and property are backed by governments and law, not by math.<p>Until governments and law respect crypto, this is exceedingly dangerous sand to build your castles upon.<p>When your key leaks, gets phished, or is cracked by quantum or better algorithms, you're entirely out of luck. (In the latter scenario, the entire house of cards would crumble.)<p>Is the US government going to protect you and your losses?