Make a living selling NFTs?

[Sirius Glass]

Actually, he wrote:

“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.”

1926 September 18, The Evening Sun, As H. L. Sees It by H. L. Mencken, Quote Page 7, Column 2, Baltimore, Maryland.

Note that he pointed his comment at “the plain people,” not everyone.

Yes something like that, but conciseness is a virtue.

 

[VinceInMT]

Yes something like that, but conciseness is a virtue.

Conciseness gave us the 110 film format.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Conciseness gave us the 110 film format.

No that was Kodak pushing the market to shoot film with smaller amounts of silver.

 

[Cholentpot]

Conciseness gave us the 110 film format.

And thank goodness for that. I love the stuff.

 

[Pieter12]

And thank goodness for that. I love the stuff.

I'd rather have an NFT.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Interesting report. Doesn't give one confidence in NFT's.

Cent, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace known for selling an NFT of the first tweet from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for the equivalent of $2.9 million USD, has announced it is halting most of its transactions on account of 'widespread fraud.'

This is an issue that also plagues the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, currently valued at $13.3 billion, who recently revealed that at least 80% of the items traded on its platform are either plagiarized or fake. Cent's CEO and co-founder Cameron Hejazi tells Reuters that his company, as of February 6th, has temporarily stopped allowing its users to buy and sell NFTs.

'There's a spectrum of activity that is happening that basically shouldn't be happening - like, legally,' Hejazi says. The three problems, in his estimation, are people selling unauthorized copies of NFTs, creating content that doesn't belong to them, and selling NFTs that represent a security.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/47227...ly-halts-most-trading-due-to-widespread-fraud

 

[Pieter12]

Interesting report. Doesn't give one confidence in NFT's.

Cent, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace known for selling an NFT of the first tweet from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for the equivalent of $2.9 million USD, has announced it is halting most of its transactions on account of 'widespread fraud.'

This is an issue that also plagues the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, currently valued at $13.3 billion, who recently revealed that at least 80% of the items traded on its platform are either plagiarized or fake. Cent's CEO and co-founder Cameron Hejazi tells Reuters that his company, as of February 6th, has temporarily stopped allowing its users to buy and sell NFTs.

'There's a spectrum of activity that is happening that basically shouldn't be happening - like, legally,' Hejazi says. The three problems, in his estimation, are people selling unauthorized copies of NFTs, creating content that doesn't belong to them, and selling NFTs that represent a security.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/47227...ly-halts-most-trading-due-to-widespread-fraud

All that affects buyers. If you're selling, it is moot--unless someone is selling (not reselling) your content as theirs. Kind of like forging a copy of a well-known print or painting and selling it. There are always going to be bad players, although the internet certainly seems to have brought out a ton of them.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

All that affects buyers. If you're selling, it is moot--unless someone is selling (not reselling) your content as theirs. Kind of like forging a copy of a well-known print or painting and selling it. There are always going to be bad players, although the internet certainly seems to have brought out a ton of them.

But the NFT company that's valued at $13 billion shut down because 80% of the NFT's traded on its platform are fraudulent. That's not a confidence builder.

 

[Pieter12]

I have limited understanding of most of this, but If I have my money--virtual or not--from the sale of an NFT, should that matter to me? The lack of confidence in the platform may limit my sales, but I'm not losing anything unless the virtual currency I get paid in is on the same platform. It is kind of like being represented by a shady gallery that gets burglarized or is no longer trusted--if my stuff is sold and paid for, it does not affect me.

 

[Luckless]

I have limited understanding of most of this, but If I have my money--virtual or not--from the sale of an NFT, should that matter to me? The lack of confidence in the platform may limit my sales, but I'm not losing anything unless the virtual currency I get paid in is on the same platform. It is kind of like being represented by a shady gallery that gets burglarized or is no longer trusted--if my stuff is sold and paid for, it does not affect me.

Do you want your reputation as an artist tied to a shady gallery that was caught scamming its clients and selling worthless junk at inflated prices?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I have limited understanding of most of this, but If I have my money--virtual or not--from the sale of an NFT, should that matter to me? The lack of confidence in the platform may limit my sales, but I'm not losing anything unless the virtual currency I get paid in is on the same platform. It is kind of like being represented by a shady gallery that gets burglarized or is no longer trusted--if my stuff is sold and paid for, it does not affect me.

Of course, you have interest in making money from a sale. However, to sell anything you need an interested buyer who will find value from buying it. I have yet to see what value there is for a buyer other than hoping some other fool will be willing to pay more for it. (The "greater fool" concept.)

But what is an NFT's intrinsic value? If I buy a 12x18 photo, I can frame it and hang it on the wall to look at and appreciate. What do I do with an NFT?

 

[MattKing]

No more, or less value than an ounce of gold, or a piece of paper currency.
Or even better, a cheque (aka as a check, for those of you in the USA).
The value of each is based on the value people place on it. NFTs are an attempt to add some practical advantages that a $20.00 bill doesn't have.
They need a lot more work before they are without serious problems, but one could have said the same for e-transfer, which actually works quite well now.

 

[Pieter12]

Do you want your reputation as an artist tied to a shady gallery that was caught scamming its clients and selling worthless junk at inflated prices?

An artist's reputation is not usually tied to the gallery that represents them. I don't think the image of any of the artists at Doug Chrismas' Ace Gallery suffered. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/los-angeles-dealer-douglas-chrismas-arrested-1993722

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

No more, or less value than an ounce of gold, or a piece of paper currency.
Or even better, a cheque (aka as a check, for those of you in the USA).
The value of each is based on the value people place on it. NFTs are an attempt to add some practical advantages that a $20.00 bill doesn't have.
They need a lot more work before they are without serious problems, but one could have said the same for e-transfer, which actually works quite well now.

You haven;t described why I as a buyer would want to buy it other than hoping that I can find some other person who might want to pay me more for it later. You can't compare it to gold. Gold has intrinsic value, never mind it's been accepted as money for thousands of years. You can use gold in the electronic industry and make jewelry from it. What do you do with an NFT?

 

[MattKing]

Alan clearly has a heart of gold, because he has great difficulty when I describe gold as having no more or less value than a personal cheque!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Alan clearly has a heart of gold, because he has great difficulty when I describe gold as having no more or less value than a personal cheque!

Well, if I offered you a cheque or gold or an nft, which would you take?

 

[Sirius Glass]

NFTs and BitCoins have no value for me and will not until and unless they become more established and excepted.

 

[Cholentpot]

I'd rather have an NFT.

16mm/110 look is extremely difficult to replicate via digital. Its a challenge to shoot, develop, scan and reload these days. I like a nice challenge.

 

[Pieter12]

NFTs and BitCoins have no value for me and will not until and unless they become more established and excepted.

So you're not the target audience. Neither is Larry David. The point is, there are some willing to buy NFTs so who cares why.

 

[Down Under]

Me, I would never even consider investing in one of these shonks in a purple fit - so as Aussies so succinctly, say "bugger it!!"

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

So you're not the target audience. Neither is Larry David. The point is, there are some willing to buy NFTs so who cares why.

If you can't explain why someone wants a product, why would you invest in it? If you're going to buy it, shouldn't you have a reason you're buying it other than I hope somebody else will buy it for more in the future? A product should have a practical value, a purpose, in the end. Otherwise, you're just shooting craps.

 

[lecarp]

Im holding out for the giant solar flare! And, a new reality series starring Bezos and Alexa in lost in Space.

 

[Craig75]

So you're not the target audience. Neither is Larry David. The point is, there are some willing to buy NFTs so who cares why.

The why in many cases involves a lot of illegal money stored in crypto being converted into "art".

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

If a photographer was selling an actual photo print and an NFT, why would I buy the NFT rather than the print? It's still not clear to me what you're buying in an NFT.

 

[Luckless]

The point is, there are some willing to buy NFTs so who cares why.

Some people are willing to hand over their personal information and cash to the "CRA/IRS" agent calling them to say the police are on their way to arrest them unless they pay up now... But why should society care if they willingly fall for a harmful scam?