Crooks' Paradise: The Dark Side of the NFT
NFT (Abbreviation for Non Fungible Token) has become one of the big trends of 2021. It is a certificate of ownership embedded in a blockchain on a digital asset, and allows any image, video, song or file to be turned into a commodity that can be bought and sold, so to speak, even though in practice Still anyone else can own it and print for themselves a copy exactly identical to the original.
In the NFT world there is an internal joke, 'Right Click & Save' - anyone can save your NFT, so what's the point?
In other words, the only difference between someone who pays a lot of money for an NFT and someone who does not pay anything for the same digital creation is that he pays for what the rest of the world can get for free.
Take for example the story of Julian Lennon, the son of John Lennon, who this month sold six rare items as NFT: three Gibson electric guitars he received as a gift from his father; A robe his father wore while filming! Help; Afghan coat Shalanon Sr. wore during the filming of the movie Magical Mystery Tour; And the highlight - a page with comments written by Paul McCartney on the song "Hey Jude". Lennon did not sell the items themselves, but videos in which they were filmed in 360 degrees against the background of his narration, but it is doubtful that anyone who submitted an offer to purchase the items - which sold for $ 11,520 to $ 76,800 - realized that even after the sale these videos would remain available for anyone interested in by watching it on the web.
Another worrying phenomenon is inflating trades in a technique called Wash Trading: Because digital wallets are anonymous, each trader can use several wallets simultaneously, transferring NFT from one pocket to another to inflate his value. The innocent buyer will look at the transaction history, and believe that the value of the NFT he acquires has indeed increased over time organically. Some scammers even set up dedicated groups in Discord or CotCot (a popular chat platform among NFT traders) in order to create credibility for the items they sell.
Last month, the Opensea platform, the world's largest marketplace for NFT, admitted that 80% of the NFT items featured on their platform for sale were in fact "stolen works, counterfeit collections and spam."
Suppose you managed all the hurdles we talked about and managed to get your hands on an authentic NFT. You may be disappointed to find that a version of the file you purchased at a low resolution will appear in your digital wallet after the purchase. Want to view the image you purchased in high quality? You'll need to access a public link - yes, that link is available worldwide for free. The file itself, unlike NFT, is not stored in the blockchain at all. There is always the possibility that someone will delete it from the network or change its URL so that you will end up with an NFT confirming that you paid a lot of money for a property that no longer exists.
Last month, Dan Olson, the YouTuber behind a page called Folding Ideas, released a video called Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs in which over more than two hours and with impressive thoroughness he sends his half into the world of illusions of blockchain, crypto and NFT. The video has so far garnered almost 6 million views, and has shocked the illusionists involved in the field.
Olson's main conclusion is that NFTs are a pyramid scam, in which participants must find a buyer for their goods in order to get back the money they have invested.
The illusion sellers were shocked by the video just as the boy's call that the king is naked shocked the two tailors who sold the king nothing in exchange for very much gold.
Take your valuable time to watch the not less valuable video.
00:00:00 Preface
00:01:12 0. In 2008 The Economy Collapsed
00:07:09 1. Bitcoin
00:18:18 2. Ethereum
00:24:34 3. The Machine
00:39:07 4. NFTs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
00:57:54 5. The Unbearable Cringe Of Crypto
01:11:46 6. A Self-Organizing High Control Group
01:16:57 7. Crypto Reality
01:25:36 8. There Is No Privacy On The Chain
01:32:52 9. If This "Looks Like Scam" Then Every NFT Room I'm In Looks Like Scam LOL
01:38:29 10. Play To Earn Exists To Get You To Buy Crypto
01:46:39 11. We're All Gonna Make It And By "We" I Mean "Us" Not You
01:56:08 12. DAOs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
02:13:21 13. I Know It's Rigged, But It's The Only Game In Town
Sources and Further Reading:
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/03/11/nfts-crypto-grifters-try-to-scam-artists-again/
https://amycastor.com/2021/03/14/metakovan-the-mystery-beeple-art-buyer-and-his-nft-defi-scheme/
https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html
https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchains-are-not-what-they-say/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/who-goes-crypto-eth-bitcoin-etc-financialization-gamestop-class-wealth/
https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/1478017698676228099?s=20
https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/cryptocurrency-is-garbage-so-is-blockchain-3e80078e77fe
https://marker.medium.com/fintech-is-a-scam-a-listicle-in-eight-parts-7b6161f3a35a
https://naavik.co/business-breakdowns/axie-infinity/#axie-decon=
https://www.gawker.com/culture/the-future-is-useless-expensive
https://twitter.com/NFTtheft
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-05-baseless-nft-hype-hits-a-crescendo-but-its-play-to-earn-thats-worth-watching-opinion
https://www.technollama.co.uk/platform-is-law-the-cautionary-tale-of-stolen-nfts
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/02/12/libra-shrugged-chapter-6-banking-the-unbanked/
https://twitter.com/Bitfinexed
The video written and performed by Dan Olson.
Dan Olson Crowdfunding: https://www.patreon.com/foldablehuman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman
In other words, the only difference between someone who pays a lot of money for an NFT and someone who does not pay anything for the same digital creation is that he pays for what the rest of the world can get for free.
Take for example the story of Julian Lennon, the son of John Lennon, who this month sold six rare items as NFT: three Gibson electric guitars he received as a gift from his father; A robe his father wore while filming! Help; Afghan coat Shalanon Sr. wore during the filming of the movie Magical Mystery Tour; And the highlight - a page with comments written by Paul McCartney on the song "Hey Jude". Lennon did not sell the items themselves, but videos in which they were filmed in 360 degrees against the background of his narration, but it is doubtful that anyone who submitted an offer to purchase the items - which sold for $ 11,520 to $ 76,800 - realized that even after the sale these videos would remain available for anyone interested in by watching it on the web.
Another worrying phenomenon is inflating trades in a technique called Wash Trading: Because digital wallets are anonymous, each trader can use several wallets simultaneously, transferring NFT from one pocket to another to inflate his value. The innocent buyer will look at the transaction history, and believe that the value of the NFT he acquires has indeed increased over time organically. Some scammers even set up dedicated groups in Discord or CotCot (a popular chat platform among NFT traders) in order to create credibility for the items they sell.
Last month, the Opensea platform, the world's largest marketplace for NFT, admitted that 80% of the NFT items featured on their platform for sale were in fact "stolen works, counterfeit collections and spam."
Suppose you managed all the hurdles we talked about and managed to get your hands on an authentic NFT. You may be disappointed to find that a version of the file you purchased at a low resolution will appear in your digital wallet after the purchase. Want to view the image you purchased in high quality? You'll need to access a public link - yes, that link is available worldwide for free. The file itself, unlike NFT, is not stored in the blockchain at all. There is always the possibility that someone will delete it from the network or change its URL so that you will end up with an NFT confirming that you paid a lot of money for a property that no longer exists.
Last month, Dan Olson, the YouTuber behind a page called Folding Ideas, released a video called Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs in which over more than two hours and with impressive thoroughness he sends his half into the world of illusions of blockchain, crypto and NFT. The video has so far garnered almost 6 million views, and has shocked the illusionists involved in the field.
Olson's main conclusion is that NFTs are a pyramid scam, in which participants must find a buyer for their goods in order to get back the money they have invested.
The illusion sellers were shocked by the video just as the boy's call that the king is naked shocked the two tailors who sold the king nothing in exchange for very much gold.
Take your valuable time to watch the not less valuable video.
00:00:00 Preface
00:01:12 0. In 2008 The Economy Collapsed
00:07:09 1. Bitcoin
00:18:18 2. Ethereum
00:24:34 3. The Machine
00:39:07 4. NFTs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
00:57:54 5. The Unbearable Cringe Of Crypto
01:11:46 6. A Self-Organizing High Control Group
01:16:57 7. Crypto Reality
01:25:36 8. There Is No Privacy On The Chain
01:32:52 9. If This "Looks Like Scam" Then Every NFT Room I'm In Looks Like Scam LOL
01:38:29 10. Play To Earn Exists To Get You To Buy Crypto
01:46:39 11. We're All Gonna Make It And By "We" I Mean "Us" Not You
01:56:08 12. DAOs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
02:13:21 13. I Know It's Rigged, But It's The Only Game In Town
Sources and Further Reading:
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/03/11/nfts-crypto-grifters-try-to-scam-artists-again/
https://amycastor.com/2021/03/14/metakovan-the-mystery-beeple-art-buyer-and-his-nft-defi-scheme/
https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html
https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchains-are-not-what-they-say/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/who-goes-crypto-eth-bitcoin-etc-financialization-gamestop-class-wealth/
https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/1478017698676228099?s=20
https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/cryptocurrency-is-garbage-so-is-blockchain-3e80078e77fe
https://marker.medium.com/fintech-is-a-scam-a-listicle-in-eight-parts-7b6161f3a35a
https://naavik.co/business-breakdowns/axie-infinity/#axie-decon=
https://www.gawker.com/culture/the-future-is-useless-expensive
https://twitter.com/NFTtheft
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-05-baseless-nft-hype-hits-a-crescendo-but-its-play-to-earn-thats-worth-watching-opinion
https://www.technollama.co.uk/platform-is-law-the-cautionary-tale-of-stolen-nfts
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/02/12/libra-shrugged-chapter-6-banking-the-unbanked/
https://twitter.com/Bitfinexed
The video written and performed by Dan Olson.
Dan Olson Crowdfunding: https://www.patreon.com/foldablehuman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman