Why People Are Paying $100K+ to Change Their Profile to a Digital Ape | Hacker News Reader

Why People Are Paying $100K+ to Change Their Profile to a Digital Ape

creatoreconomy.so

17 pointsgmays8 comments

Article didn't mention what kind of benefits you get for the current 100k+ valuation, so I went to their website

> [...] and grants access to members-only benefits, the first of which is access to THE BATHROOM, a collaborative graffiti board

Looks worth it.

Why don’t I just screen shot the ape and use that?

Because you couldn't prove ownership of the several hundred thousand dollar piece of art, which is the real point of this whole thing, conspicuous consumption, because when poor people have found a way to make fakes of all your clothes and wear them, and influencers can post pics of their rented Lambourghinis that look like the ones you take with your you bought with cash, having a public digital wallet that proves your unique ownership of an expensive item is the new way to show off status in a way that can't be duplicated.

I think proof of ownership and non duplicability arguments apply strongly in the case of something like a Lamborghini( because obviously it has tremendous value) . But I dont really think a digital drawing warrants that sort of value because the non duplicity of something like that is far too subjective. An owner of that ape drawing may live under the impression that the painting is well and truly his, but its non duplicity can easily be questioned with a Ctrl+C Ctrl+V.

You can duplicate the artwork but you can not duplicate the ownership. If anything, you using a copy of the artwork increases the value of the ownership by signalling it is an appreciated piece. Why would a digital drawing not be valuable when some paper drawing can be sold for millions like van Gogh's La Mousmé ?

I'm sure the participants in the 17th century Tulip mania bubble had explanations just as irrational as this. It's déjà vu all over again.

Seems silly to me to pay more than a few dollars to participate in something like this, but I'm glad artists are finding more unique ways to support themselves.

Meanwhile he pays his Latina slaves less than ten dollars an hour

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