It was nice to be in the office for the first time in almost a month for a few hours today, as I got to have lunch with some colleagues and get back "into it" - meaning teasing each other. I like that with this group, we can rib each other without anyone taking offence - or calling HR.
It was funny today, as one someone (I am the crypto kook) was talking about how ridiculous the prices of some of the NFTs are being sold for and how useless they are.
How can a low quality image of a monkey smoking be worth 400K? What idiot would pay that?
I agreed, it is not worth it. But the "idiot" is likely not quite what they seem.
When people hear large numbers, they think about it in terms of their experiences. Numbers like "$400,000" is the value of a house, something we can relate to and therefore, sounds like a lot. However, the same person hears that the government is spending $15,000,000,000 of tax money on war planes, and doesn't bat an eyelid. But, when it comes to something like a monkey picture, they look at it from their perspective in both usecase (none) and the price from the perspective as if they were to buy it themselves.
But, it is the same arguments people have over buying a Rolex or a Ferrari - Where is the value? However, the people that do buy a Rolex or supercar, aren't spending all of their money on those things. If you are buying a $10K watch, you aren't likely spending the last money in your bank account on it, as you might be worth several million, or more. Same with a Ferrari.
Same with an NFT.
The person spending $400K on an NFT isn't likely transferring the funds from their bank, they are paying in ETH or BTC or some other crypto and, they aren't likely spending a significant percentage of their holdings on it. For example, Ethereum is riding at 3100 dollars today, meaning that, so that expensive NFT is 130-odd ETH. Expensive?
Not really, if you are still holding 50K of the 100K ETH that you bought (or mined) back in 2015 for 70 cents each and have been trading back and forward the last six years. 130 ETH is less than a quarter of a percent of the total holdings and, do you only hold ETH now? Unlikely.
While these kinds of sales make headlines, the fact is that the people likely buying them aren't newcomers into crypto, they are crypto whales who just DGAF about value anymore, because they are stacked. 400K on a stupid picture for bragging rights is nothing when you are worth 150 million. But to the ordinary person doesn't know or understand anything about this kind of life, so they focus on what they understand.
But the same person hears about some rich person buying a G6 plane and think it is fine. A G6 costs around 60 million dollars, but that is not where it ends.
The total annual budget for flying a Gulfstream 650 private jet 200 hours per year is approximately $1,576,211 or $2,426,367 for flying 400 hours per year. source
Seems reasonable!
Most people would say, "fly first class, it is much cheaper!!
Sure - but a billionaire needn't worry about a million, or 60M.
A crypto-whale needn't worry about 400K either.
But, all of this aside, what many don't realize yet is that these early NFTs are like the two pizzas sold for 10,000 Bitcoin - a proof of concept. And now, they are expanding outwardly from being oddities into becoming usable and valuable assets and financial assets in their own right. Not just as a "buy-hold-sell" token, but something that can be used for an owner to generate ongoing income, whether it be through rentals, staking, usage in a game or who knows what else will be developed around them. NFTs are properties, not paintings on the wall.
What is going to be interesting is in the next few years as many of the applications and games that these people use daily start pushing into crypto tokenization in some way, and they say "it is different because...."
This is the development cycle, just like all the people who said they'd never have a mobile phone because they don't need one, but have one now. Those who said that digital cameras are never going to be high enough quality. The people who said that they didn't need a car, their horse was fine.
Innovation happens constantly and just because people don't see the future from today, doesn't mean they aren't going to understand or use it in the future.
I suspect that all of these people will accept it soon enough.
Just like how they accept that now Bitcoin can be used to buy stuff.
I don't know if people still do it, but there used to be a thing where as a gift, they would "buy a star" for a person.
Talk about a useless gift.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
2014 - Can't believe you're wasting valuable money on worthless bitcoin
2022 - Can't believe you're wasting valuable bitcoin on worthless NFTs
A heap of this big sales are just wash trading to boost profile and resale value.
definitelynotmattclarke could sell an NFT on nftshowroom.com to mattclarke, for 50K HP.
Doesn't make it good or valuable.
Seems most of the markets are washtrading, not just NFTs :D
As always, usecase is going to be the value proposition - most have none. Soon, most will have to.
I liked the comparison of NFT and a painting on the wall. I have a few NFT paintings on the wall, prints, not even the real painting. we own maybe two real paintings, from my wifes family members. Limited print runs is what makes the painting prints valuable, numbered and signed. Just like NFT's are becoming today, the digital version of things. Another outlet for artist to earn a little bit of money. Imagine if Bev Doolittle or some of the western print artist put a few of their works into the NFT market. I think they would fetch some pretty good prices. Just like their prints do $1,200 for Bev's "Sacred Ground Print". NFT's are goin to be around I think for a very long time.
It is interesting these days, as there is definitely a drive for more artists to "get in on the craze" and at some point, it won't be a craze, it will be the norm. At that point, the world changes.
It's funny because initially you think of the price tag in USD of things like that but then when you do what you did there, explain it in just Eth regardless of the value of Eth at that moment, it's not a whole lot. I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to do something like that with something like Hive!
I do get the argument, sort-of, on the pixelated NFT though. I know the people who buy them simply don't care but having an NFT that actually does something like in Splinterlands is so much more interesting. I wonder if this type of stuff will take off with these rich people. They can snap up a fun GF Prince Julian and actually do something with it lol. I know that's not really an interest for a lot of them though.
I remember the "name a star" stuff hahaha. That used to be popular back in the day, I had a friend whos parents bought a star and now I'm sure the record of that is probably destroyed. Great marketing for the person who came up with that ruse!
Wouldn't that be awesome - what is one piece of expensive nonsense you would buy?
Potentially. It will be a bit like BTC or a Rolex - they will want scarcity :)
Just keep selling the same star over and over... "You get the moon!!"
😆😆
In all of this I'd say, just make money, once money is speaking, what's an Nft that I can't afford even if it seems non-usable?
I personally, aside not having good knowledge about it early, was surrounded with myths about BTC, some religious myth. Unbelievable.
Everything now kinda revolves around the coin and has made wealth for people who perceived the future and held on to it.
They call something a "dead end" and yet keep popularizing it by making posts on it, soon enough everyone is striving to have some of it.
THis is the way fringe ideas become mainstream :)
Very true.
Lucky for you, if you want a star, you need only ask. I'm right here. I personally enjoy the speculation that the NFT's are money laundering for folks. If only they knew, if anything, they're rinsing crypto- hardly see a reason for it, but then again, I'm not an ETH whale. Yet.
:D I like the confidence!
I sold my 30 ETH. Unfortunately, it was at 90 dollars...
Hahah nice, that's the spirit!
Many of us aren't whales or experienced in spotting these opportunities. Though can be well worth it if you have money to speculate. Others may feel safer with hard assets, Thanks for sharing.
I don't speculate on the kinds of NFTs at all - but the future of the NFT movement is bright.
Well said.
We all choose our priorities be it NFT cards , luxurious cars but we must learn to choose well ..
To choose investment instead of liabities and to always have the long term future in mind.
Financial intelligence is Key.
It is interesting to think what people see as "money well spent" these days - and then complain about not having enough money.
I think that this opinion "idiot" should have changed after NFTs have been integrated in the Metaverse games. I think that NFTs will be what make individualism possible in Metaverse.
Most will change their tune in the coming years, without even realizing they have.
Youngest was quite outraged by that too XD Took me and J explaining nfts to him a few different ways from very different points of view (I only really know nfts and their applications from Splinterlands and art, J knew a tiny bit more as unlike me he has been looking into the technical side of things) before he'd stop being outraged.
Who were you "buying" a star from? o_O
You should write all the versions in a post so we can use them too!
I wasn't buying a star... but I am now wondering if there is a secondary market for them...
In my opinion, your today's conclusions about the value of cryptocurrencies are fair, but ... There is some truth in the words of your opponent, in my opinion. Sorry, but I'm interested in reading and commenting on you, and not approving all your thoughts.
Perhaps the opponent is talking about tokens that have turned into nothing and were originally nothing? Remember how cryptocurrencies were shouted from every iron a few years ago?
So, in my opinion, in the end, cryptocurrencies from the top ten will survive, and all the rest will disappear into oblivion.
He is talking about the Eth gifs and images.
Which top 10? In value, or usage? There is a difference. I think though, that crypto is going to expand into the tens of thousands of tokens, using various connectors for interoperability to combine them.
Did your opponent talk about Ethereum? This will change the case. Then he is definitely wrong.
By value, of course. And not from a dozen, but from a hundred. Although, it is quite possible that there will be up to 500 different connecting tokens.
This is what I have been saying to people for a while now. That $400k they spent is nothing to them. Literally nothing. They have so much money it is ridiculous. @anomandsoul made a good point the other day that many of these transactions are possibly money laundering as well. I don't think that is true for the majority of them, but I would guess it is accurate for some of them.
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Some are likely money laundering for sure, but I reckon a lot of it is just - because they can. Having obscene wealth doesn't require being hyper intelligent or caring about every penny - especially in crypto for the very early adopters.
Very true!
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The prices of NFts are going high this days,many rich guru's are venturing into NFts to buy and hold even if it's millions of dollars.
People plenty, can afford to waste a lot of it.
Hey! nice to hear that you had a nice time together with your colleagues in the office after a long time no matter only for a few hours. Interesting and a very informative discussion. Awaiting more such🙏
It's all about perspective and the situation someone is in. The same can be applied to Hive as well. A person just starting out with a Hive account who just so happens to be living in a developing country with high inflation rates, may get more excited from their first 5 cent upvote, compared to a veteran Hiver and crypto-enthusiast.
We can scale this example up as much as we want and reach the examples you brought up in your post.
Ha! I have one of those useless gifts! But, there is a star out there with my name on it. I think it is one of those unique grandparents' gifts when they don't know what to get you.
I have to admit, I wasn't at all interested in NFT's when they first came out, and I am not really interested in buying most of them, but, one will strike me, or I will get smarter on what to buy, sooner than later. One day, I will see the value and be sorry I haven't bought yet, but, not knowing how to spot the value? That would be me right now.
I like the analogy of the Rolex and you are right. There are things I purchase without thinking twice... like my grandparents buying me a star.
There is a generation who will not adapt crypto at all, and there is an other which will do only partially. Unless their right will be still harmless to use fiat they will not want anything else. Within their world there is no need digital currencies, it’s not more simple rather complicated for them to have a digital wallet. To accept or put up are different.
There were ppl who never tried a car, for them their horse was fine for their whole life.