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Comment by Lev1a | Hacker News Reader

> Investors Spent Millions on `Evolved Apes´ NFTs. ~~Then~~ They Got Scammed.

What the title should be because let's not pretend NFTs are anything other than a thinly disguised vehicle for scams, speculation and ultimately simply wastes of energy.

In any case I can't honestly believe that everyone waxing lyrical about NFTs' supposed upsides or "value" is not someone in it for a quick profit at the expense of gullible people and/or others with the same motives but not as good at scamming. Seeing NFT-peddlers bend themselves over backwards in mock sincerity so someone will buy into their scam is just pathetic.

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Some people may just like the concept and like collecting things and having a personal stake in projects.

Do you have the same anger towards people who collect baseball cards? Think of all the billions wasted in printing and shipping little slips of paper with images on them.

No one goes around saying baseball cards are the future of internet. And I really care because these "investments" are sold/marketed to some of the most gullible "investors", my dad lost quite a chunk of change on alt-coins and nft.

That's on your dad for being gullible. NFTs are the future whether you like it or not.

The JPEG/MP4/HTML/(literally any non fungible asset) is the house. The blockchain is city/state. The NFT is the deed to that house. It's really quite simple.

This is a terrible analogy. A house is a finite asset which only one person can occupy at a time. An infinite number of copies of a JPEG can exist. The city/state has the power to enforce property rights. The blockchain does not. The NFT is just a note in a ledger somewhere which others may or may not respect. It's really quite simple.

There's so many terrible analogies associated with NFTs and blockchains too. It all comes from their confirmation biases. They're already too invested into it to back out. It's too easy to become blind to any valid criticism, so might as well come up with as many analogies as possible to attempt to gather more recruits and justify their decisions.

It's much more like "buying a star" website.

A better analogy would be that the blockchain is a filing cabinet. A deed has the force of law because the city/state is prepared to use violence to enforce the ownership claim inscribed on the deed. What authority is going to enforce your NFT?

All of the people that use the blockchain as the source of truth and authority enforce it. The question you're asking is literally the same as "what gives bitcoin value". The answer is everyone who believes it has value. Why is TSL/SSL an agreed upon encryption scheme? Because people agreed to use it and you're excluded from access if you don't.

When twitter integrates NFTs and requires you to sign a proof of ownership to set an NFT as a profile picture (with a verification check mark), this effectively signals that twitter is enforcing the NFT. When facebook does the same, it signals that Facebook is enforcing the NFT. When Spotify integrates NFT licensing, they will be enforcing it.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I agree that the marketing and hype behind NFTs are pretty toxic. But I don't think its true that all people even tangentially involved in that space are scam artists or gullible.

Can you point to an example of what you would consider a legitimate NFT project?

I don't subscribe or follow any NFTs. I'm generally pessimistic but I don't write it off entirely. I know a few people that bought NFTs and I don't think they're scam artists or naive. They're just having fun and playing around with some money. Maybe using it as an excuse to learn about Blockchain and feel like they're a part of a community. No different than my aws bills for apps that no one uses

Idk it doesn't sound like a very good argument for a real value proposition. Maybe knowingly participating in a highly speculative market isn't exactly being naive or a scam artist, but it still doesn't make NFT's seem any smarter.

> ...NFTs are anything other than a thinly disguised vehicle for scams

can you explain why they are scams?

This is like saying most websites are scams. Tokens are to web3 as websites are to web2.

I'd like to hear why you think that comparison makes sense. I don't see any way in which the two represent similar functions or parts.

If your argument is based around a token being a sort of domain, then that's like comparing owning real land to owning land in an MMORPG. If your argument is around functionality that's like comparing a car to a parking spot.

What does that even mean?

He "invested" bunch of his money on digital tokens, and now needs them to be worth something by throwing words around

It means that tokens are one of the fundamental building blocks and foundational usecases of blockchain/web3. Are you even trying to understand, or just asking in bad faith? Because I know this website hates crypto which is just embarrassing.

Do you actually understand the value of any of that or are you just parroting something you read? What is web 3 and what concrete benefits will it provide?

It automates and decentralizes the entire financial infrastructure of the world and creates consensus around and enforcement of digital assets outside of the control of single governments. If you can't understand why this is revolutionary and haven't bothered to try in the decade you've been given, I'm clearly not going to convince you. My only recommendation would just be to try it out for yourself or go and listen to someone much smarter than me, like Vitalik, speak about it himself.

You’re right, crypto is deeply embarrassing.

Nah, you're like all those newspaper articles back in the day arguing about the internet being useless. It's obvious but you just don't want to see it.

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