No Fire Tacos

Yeah... We're Going There

HOUSE UPDATE: All furniture is now where it belongs and most of the “storage” stuff is in the basement (which will eventually be converted into both a storage room AND studio/man-cave for me… can’t wait to start detailing that process). Hoping to knock out all the boxes that are currently in the family room and living room this weekend, but it’s a busy weekend. I haven’t made much progress with anything else, but I’m hoping that Friday night (while I’m at a Scout camp thing) I can knock out some things. Let’s just jump straight into today’s VERY touchy subject!

NFTs/Blockchain

Full Disclosure: There was a very brief time when I jumped into the Dogecoin craze. And while I got out mostly because I can’t handle the anxiety of investing, I’ve since lumped crypto in with NFTs and recognize the bad vibe they have.

I will also say at the top of this, if there are legitimate articles you can source to say NFTs aren’t bad, I’ll be happy to read them—but as it mostly stands, I don’t see anything positive about this technology.

Okay… let’s go.

I’ve avoided talking about NFTs because, in all honesty, I think they’re lame. The idea of buying digital art or what have you isn’t really appealing to me. Chances are if I like that art enough to spend money on it, I plan on framing it and putting it on my desk or wall. I’m assuming you can probably do the same with that NFT, but at its core, NFTs are about the digital landscape.

The reason I bring it up now is that a friend texted me the other day about NFTs and when I said I’m not into them and they seem like a bad vibe. His response almost led to me going on some sort of Twitter rant, but I was moving furniture and decided that I’d rather think about what I wanted to say a bit more deeply (we both had a conversation back and forth about it; neither one of us really budging from where we stood… to be fair, I also wasn’t trying to convince him to move… did you read the part about moving furniture?). That response, while my friend meant no ill-will, was:

“You don’t know enough about them yet then”

I probably could have articulated this better to my friend (I simply mentioned I’ve read articles and threads from both sides of the argument), but that’s the kind of toxic response we need to eliminate from the conversation. Now, I use toxic very loosely… no one was harmed by that response, but to assume the person you’re talking to hasn’t done their homework to form their opinion is no good. There is totally a world where that statement is true! But I don’t think it’s fair to assume that (and I’m certain I’m guilty of this line of thinking with others, so I’m certainly taking it as a learning moment too). Bottom line, a differing opinion doesn’t automatically equal one person is less versed in the subject than the other.

Great Kev, but why do you think they have a bad vibe?

Good question, again something I definitely didn’t articulate with my friend at all (again, I was moving furniture and was more in a “let me listen to your side” mode).

Note: I won’t be using the name of any friends unless I’m citing something that was in the public space. And yes, there’s like a 97% certainly that these friends will likely read this! So a gentle reminder that this isn’t a direct response or attack on anything that’s been said or talked about privately… it’s just what prompted me to take my thoughts on the subject matter public.

Scammy

It’s hard to pinpoint what I dislike the most about NFTs, but feeling a bit scammy is certainly up there. I first learned about NFTs on Twitter (shocking, I know). A different friend posted their clear stance against NFTs. I did a LITTLE digging at this time (about 10 months ago) and that same friend shared the following screengrab:

Image

You may not know this about me, but I’m indie AF. Clerks made me that way. When I started podcasting in 2007, my success was owed to promoting local bands and comedians. While I do listen to some “popular” podcasts, most of my library are those creators who I’d consider indie. And when the NFT community harms any indie community, well you’re attacking my community too. This interview with Eriana Ura-Smith is a pretty good read that details the scammy nature of NFTs. An excerpt I want to put front and center focuses on art theft:

Are you aware of any instances where someone stole your work and sold it as an NFT? Or any other artists you know of personally who have experienced this?

I do not regularly scan NFT trading sites for my own work, mostly because from what I have seen from others, these markets are very reluctant to pull minted artwork, even with proof that the person who minted them does not own the actual work. Given that NFTs were initially touted as protecting artists by attaching their name permanently to the work, the amount of current fraud in the marketplace completely undermines this "selling point."

There are many documented cases of art theft in NFT markets. The Twitter account NFTtheft has put in a great deal of time and effort to record these incidents, as has digital artist and YouTuber Ross O'Donovan.

There are two links in that quote you should absolutely check out to further see the theft that is going on in the NFT Community. If your argument is that this is just the start of what NFTs are and it’s paving the way to better use of the technology, I ask you this: “Is it worth theft of someone else’s work?”

One last excerpt from the same interview with Eriana Ura-Smith that I think hits the nail on the head about what NFTs feel like:

The biggest negative of NFTs is clear: The market as it currently exists is a classic Ponzi scheme. Users invest in something more-or-less intangible, a digital receipt of ownership of an infinitely replicable image or other online object. The general consensus is that they will, in turn, be able to sell this intangible thing for absurd returns. Early investors are paid out from the money coming in from new investors, seeing the success of the early ones. Wash trading inflates the value of NFTs, and original owners slowly cash out by selling off the NFTs they've minted for extraordinary prices.

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Environmental Effects

It’s clear that NFTs/Crypto/Blockchain are bad for the environment. And yeah, there are a lot of things bad for the environment that need to be fixed too. But adding something that honestly doesn’t feel like it provides many (if any) benefits are bad. One of the places that I’ve used to support many indie creators is making the turn to Blockchain and it’s disheartening. But it opened up a conversation about the environmental effects and how possible carbon-neutral NFTs (and the like) are. Jeeyon Shim, a fantastic creator of keepsake games, posted a wonderful thread on the subject that you should totally check out.

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? The hope is that NFTs become more Green or that there are ways to offset their harm. But what is offsetting? Jeeyon has a fantastic statement about it:

Jeeyon isn’t the only one with these metaphors that hit home (for me at least). While less about the environmental effects that NFTs have and more about the general awfulness of them, Chris Pollock has this great thing to say on fixing a fundamental logical problem:

Chris’s Tweet above is part of a larger discussion about denouncing NFTs that you can find here.

Bottom Line

Is there a world where NFTs, Crypto, and the Blockchain are good and useful things? Maybe. But I honestly don’t think so. Or, if it is a possibility, I don’t think the damage they’re doing in the meantime is worth it. Ask me where I stand and I’ll deliver a variation of Mark Twain’s quote that’s been used both in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."

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