"But NFTs communities host individuals of both low- and high-status positions, making them fundamentally different from country clubs or VIP lounges. Anyone can join, if they have the money."
Actually it's not fundamentally different at all!
I never see any discussion about the actual art behind the NFTs. When classic art pieces are sold as NFTs, someone else often still owns the actual art. NFT discussion is 100% about the price. The art is a convenient sideshow.
In fact, most of the hyper NFTs seem to come from series of generic artwork with variations in the 1000s or 10,000s. The goal isn’t to produce good art, it’s to produce a massive quantity of low-effort or algorithmically generated pieces so they can be sold and traded in volume.
I have feeling that everyone in and out of NFT communities are fully aware that this isn’t about the art at all. It’s about hype and trading and profit. The art just happens to be an excuse to mint new tokens now that the crypto coin market has been flooded with 1000s of altcoins for a decade.
If you have cash to burn and want a 'status' symbol, why not build a school or a clinic in a developing country? Get your name plaque put on it. Much better bragging rights than an NFT. $10k - $20k to http://thejunipertrust.org should do it.
No. They're just another crypto pog designed to fleece dumb money with the hope that no one goes to jail for securities fraud.
Fabricated demand, Person A purchases NFT_1, Person A as Person B buys NFT_1 from Person A. Person C thinks NFT_1 is worth at least what Person A paid for it and buys it, hoping to make a profit.
Yes they are. I don't see it as a problem though. People also spend fortunes on designer handbags which have little intrinsic value.
Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on this stuff, but I don't get the anger. Perhaps people feel upset that others are making significant money from this and it doesn't feel 'fair'?
I think, culturally, NFT boosters are close to multi-level marketers in coolness. I can't imagine them being actual status symbols, except for the way those who were able to make a quick buck are able to parlay that money into conventional status, such as it is.
I know this is kind of arrogant, but to me the whole NFT debate, whether it's good or not, is a "hand me the popcorn" thing, partly, because I think the answer is entirely obvious
Fool's gold. Like literally.
What the F happened to folks like Alexis Ohanian or Kevin Rose? Their Twitter stream screams bored, rich signalling.
For those of you trashing NFTs, have you ever bought one? If not, I suggest picking something up on a drop from Nifty Gateway. Of course, research the artist first. I also check out the artist's Twitter page and Discord server to make sure they have a solid community established already.
Isn't fungibility only one of many aspects of a token?
They can be totally differnt besides their fungibility.
Not really. I'd argue that a true status symbol commands the respect of any person in it's presence, whereas any sufficently educated person will look at your 77" OLED NFT display case and scoff before walking away.
Yeah, it definitely is a status symbol. A negative one.
The article is a good read but the comments here are below what I remember being the quality standards of news.yc; has this place declined?
"Anyone can join, if they have the money."
Yep, status symbols. NFTs are just internet bling/flexing, like digital cold chains and chunky rings.
Its simply a way to make some money off a generation that didn't grow up with napster.
Yes. I would download a car.
They're a status symbol, and the symbol is being gullible, or maybe having considerable disposable income.
It's fine, though, it brings back money into the economy. Not much different from extracting huge sums for champagne with a few milligrams of gold sheet, or jeweled smartphones. The only difference is that they're buying an imaginary luxury object.
I think if it exactly the same as replacing your hair with surgically implanted gold chains.
Of course they are. You're only buying one thing: artificial scarcity.
Has anyones status been raised by owning a specific NFT (outside of the NFT ecosystem)? No. Maybe they could sell it for an amount of money that raises their status elsewhere but at this point in time the answer is no.
Is owning a rare baseball card a status symbol?
Gotta catch em all
Interesting piece by W. David Marx that situates NFTs within the category of Status Symbols. Marx is among the most lucid watchers of culture with a focus on Japan, where fashion and futurism converged decades ago.
no.
They know it is a scam, since that the only winners are the celebrities, influencers, meme creators. The collectors who keep buying NFTs however, have to wait and find another fool willing to buy it off of them for even higher.
Steph Curry 'bought' an NFT, made it his avatar, asked about getting into crypto, and then immediately announced he had a deal with FTX to be a sponsor/investor (coincidentally right after another FTX celebrity sponsor, Tom Brady, replied to his tweets about crypto).
It wasn't purchased by Steph Curry on a whim as a status symbol. It was probably given to him as part of his roll out deal with FTX.
It's nearly the same roll out move every other FTX celebrity sponsor has made, of which, there are now many. They get paid to act like they're interested.
None of this is organic. It is all a sham.