Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Confession: NFTs Just Confuse Me

I've written posts critical of cryptocurrency before. People have made a lot of money from it, but I still worry it will turn into a house of cards that comes crumbling down at some point (I could be wrong and just look like an out-of-touch old fogey, but so is life). To complicate things further there are now NFTS (Non-fungible tokens), which are basically digital pieces of art that utilize blockchain technology (like crypto uses) to make a piece of art that has unique data making it valuable because...well, just because. This article by Mitchell Clark helps explain things a little bit but don't worry if you're still bewildered, I am too. It's basically jpegs worth thousands or sometimes millions of dollars because they contain unique coding, as I understand it. 

Blockchain mining is of course pretty bad for the environment and some think NFTs just sound like a big scam, but a lot of artists have found it helpful to them when it comes to making some money. Corporations, of course, are interested now too, be they a video-game studio such as Sega, make Magic cards like Hasbro, or comic companies thinking about making NFTs. The whole thing just confuses me even as I try to learn about it. I won't be, "Investing," in NFTs, but more power to those who do.

2 comments:

  1. Like you, I have no interest in NFTs. Those getting the most press seem to sell for insane amounts of money anyway, and are out of reach for your average investor. I'm happy to see creators making money, but it seems like companies will eventually litigate that opportunity away from them, when they can. I can't even fault DC or Marvel for trying to keep the NFT money for themselves. Overall, just seems messy and I'll be staying away.

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    1. "Messy," is a great way of putting it! I am happy some creators are getting money, but with corporations smelling blood/money in the water it seems like soon this will be something just for the super-rich or megacorps to make money off of, and that's if it doesn't come crashing down.

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