John Cleese Sells the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT

Re:John Cleese Sells the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT by asiachick on Sunday March 21, 2021 @08:48PM (#26535579)

I don't like NFTs but your comment triggered a counter argument in my head.

People buy and collect all kinds of worthless tuff. I know several people that spent between $3k and $10k on Magic the Gathering cards. From a non-player's perspective it's ridiculous. The cards are worthless and you could just print out images of the cards on a printer or copy machine if all you cared about was playing the game itself.

And yet people do it.

Is a NFT really any different? Is it wrong for people to spend their money on whatever they want?

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Re:John Cleese Sells the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT by ilikehurdles on Sunday March 21, 2021 @09:52PM (#26536014)

I don’t think anyone will disagree that money will be made by keen NFT creators and collectors, much like money is made by anyone peddling collectibles. The part of the argument where I depart is when proponents argue that this is somehow a transformative technology.

It’s digital baseball cards and pet rocks, “but crypto”.

I also remain convinced that NFTs are a fad in their current iteration. To use a rough analogy, NFTs are taking the record store into crypto when the future lies in building Spotify/Netflix in crypto.

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Re:John Cleese Sells the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT by pmlnr on Monday March 22, 2021 @02:56AM (#26537606)

Collecting is fine, buying is fine - as long as the goal is not bragging. The problem is bragging.

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Re:John Cleese Sells the Brooklyn Bridge as an NFT by bradleyjg on Sunday March 21, 2021 @09:34PM (#26535889)

Wizards of the Coast are making a game. I don’t doubt that the secondary market eventually changed how they operated but at base, they are a game company. That’s ethically different from someone that sets out to create a Ponzi scheme.

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