NFTs - Not a Fan, Ta

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Noted this week that Paramount, in addition to depriving Euro fans of legitimate access to Discovery/Strange New Worlds/Prodigy etc (and I may be attempting Evil Goth Hologram Janeway next time I go to a convention, btw)...

 

...have gone full Ferengi and launched the Continuum - a line of Trek digital collectibles receipts for dodgy links to things you'll never actually own, have no intrinsic functional use, and which can be easily stolen along with your c****y MSPaint apes if you're not incredibly tooled up on your personal PC/Mac security.

 

The reaction from the fandom has been a) swift b) merciless c) correct. NFTs are - IMnpHO* - a sop for corporations so desperate for punters' money that they can't be bothered to create anything valuable or interesting for them to buy first. I'm also not sure what platform Continuum's built on, but the complexity of NFT transactions means the damn things need to devour whole planets to keep up the power, like some ravaging evil Space Cornetto...

 

...ahem. I'm expecting some kind of non-humble "we heard you" post from Paramount any minute now as they're wiped from history faster than Tasha Yar.

 

And in general, I'm not an NFT fan, in case you couldn't tell. What do you lot think**, and is there anything that might tempt you or that has put you off completely?

 

_{*In My (not particularly) Humble Opinion}

[Black Zot]

Well, unlike the lion's share of NFTs currently floating around, the people doing this actually own what they're selling.

 

Still doesn't excuse this shit.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

3 minutes ago, Black Zot said:

Well, unlike the lion's share of NFTs currently floating around, the people doing this actually own what they're selling.

 

Truth. Anything that gets posted on DeviantArt these days is apparently fair game for getting NFTized without the artist's permission, with the usual response being "yah-boo sucks for you you don't understand the technology lol", and/or precisely zip from the sales platform in question.

 

BTW, I forgot one detail. The tokens are required to play a "forthcoming" (...mayyybeeee...) pay-to-earn Trek game, wherein grinding will earn you more of these things.

While, incidentally, also grinding your system resources to generate more of the darn things. So, if you don't mind frying a GFX card or two to fly your starship...

Massively: Trek announces plans for P2E game

 

[Frostbiter]

I still got all my money in these babies:

 

 

I'm sure lots of people have already made the comparison but it's very apt.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

6 minutes ago, Frostbiter said:

I'm sure lots of people have already made the comparison but it's very apt.

 

Yup - mainly all the sharp/mean kids convincing/bullying the newbies into handing over the rare ones in exchange for worthless ones or ramping the value of specials.

Weirdly: one of my many nephews was a shady Pokémon dealer of that nature when he was young.

He's now a merchant banker and has been poking me about blockchain and crypto tech. Clearly, it's a gateway drug.😂

[TheOtherTed]

Not a fan of any of these tech-driven pyramid scheme "pocket economies" (i.e., digital transactions that have virtually no bearing outside their digital bubbles).  Granted, I'm old and cranky, but these sorts of things break all my investment rules (mostly variations of "you can't cheat an honest man" and "if you can't explain how it makes money, don't buy into it").

 

Also agree with @Frostbiter - the first time I heard about NFTs, I immediately thought, "virtual Beanie Babies?"

 

On a tangential note, I recently re-read Charles Stross' book Accelerando.  Last time I read it was before the whole crypto currency thing, and now it seems like a whole new book...

 

Edit:  Just wanted to add that I'm amazed and sickened that this sort of nonsense is associated with Star Trek in any way.

Edited April 9, 2022 by TheOtherTed

[Frostbiter]

I mean if you want to invest in fossil fuels why not just invest straight into fossil fuels? At least fuel prices would come down.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

With my corporate hat on, if I have a specific worry on behalf of Paramount and its fans, it's security.

Recently, there have been a number of threads/jokes/memes (and explainers like the one below) about people getting their apes ripped off...

 

One of the aforementioned less-than-sympathetic tech bros decided to mansplain at a thread author about how "easy" it was to secure a machine ready for NFTs.

It went on for about 10-12 tweets, and aside from your basic "don't click stupid links", it included running your Metamask in a sandboxed and sandbagged VM with strictly limited external access, keeping your stuff in a fully secured hardware wallet, scrupulously checking any inbound mail for potentially compromised links - including genuine email from friends, in case of MITM attacks - and a number of other things. 

 

I've worked in and around a number of tech environments - mostly media dahlink, but also oil, general industry and a couple of brief stints working with US.mil and intel. None of the above practice the level of security allegedly required, and the last two whinged about having to do even basic opsec. Passwords on Post-Its, that kind of thing.

 

If we don't expect the kind of people who should be practicing Srs Security Stuff to be locking their kit down that strongly, expecting it of casual users is a bit much. On top of that: Paramount should expect their user database, web presence and socials to come under heavy attack. Not just to steal the actual weird fuzzy starships - to target users for other Quarkcoin schemes. 

 

In short: this is the worst idea to hit Star Trek tech since Wesley got horny and ran a sentient virused copy of Slaver Queens Of Orion on the holodeck. 

Edited April 9, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[DougGraves]

I consider NFT's to be slightly better than crypto currency.  They are both digital collectors items.  They have value if people think they have value, which is true of all collectors items.

[merrypessimist]

My personal opinion is that NFTs are specifically designed and structured to facilitate money laundering.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

6 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

My personal opinion is that NFTs are specifically designed and structured to facilitate money laundering.

I don't think they started off that way. But it didn't take long to get that way once the sharks moved in.

 

They're obviously far from the only thing crims and 1%ers can use to defraud people or move/hide money - think art, wine, property deeds - but by far the most portable, and a bit more tricky to seize for enforcement purposes.

Edited April 12, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Cancrusher]

@ThaOGDreamWeaver You should search Cracked NFT's on youtube.  😂

[InvaderStych]

9 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

My personal opinion is that NFTs are specifically designed and structured to facilitate money laundering.

 

Well, they are certainly well designed to facilitate it.  But then again, are Snapchat and Instagram:

 

 

Scammers gonna scam, folks who need Mules are gonna find 'em.  A hammer can build or a hammer can destroy. 🤷‍♂️

 

@ThaOGDreamWeaver

 

If the Star Trek NFTs get your hackles up, then allow me to incite full on rage with this "gem:"

 

https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-nft-gripnr-blockchain-dnd-ttrpg-1848686984

 

Author's Note:  The NFT landscape is complex, and I am certainly no fan of the direction it has taken for the most part.  I follow several photographers on IG who have been able to leverage them in order to further the causes in which they believe (for these folks, mostly wilderness conversation causes, etc).  It is as with any tool since we first discovered how to create fire.  Just a tool, leveraged for good or leveraged for evil, it is still just a tool.

 

🍻

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

1 hour ago, InvaderStych said:

...it is still just a tool.

 

As is the guy in the below quoted tweet.

FWIW, while I'm an entirely unsuitable person to be a judge of any kind, I would also be irritated by this person.

Probably without knowing what they did or who they were, just due to the Redolent Aura Of Smug +5.

(30' radius, roll d100 to check vs instant grumpiness, murderous rage on Critical Fail)

 

Also, I hadn't run into Gripnr before. That didn't produce rage, just a resigned sigh: you know what kind of folks they're going to be by the fact they have a loose -R on the end of their app, like Flickr, Tumblr, Grindr, Scissr etc-r. I guess they're all just wannabe pirates.

Edited April 12, 2022 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[InvaderStych]

18 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

As is the guy in the below quoted tweet.

 

Now now, there is no reason to insult tools by association with such ilk.  Tools are useful. That individual is sub-human trash and should be dealt with accordingly. 😉

 

 

[Hyperstrike]

I look at NFT crap the same way I look at other "collectible" things like baseball cards, card games, etc.
Except there's no actual physical token.

It's a waste of time and money.

And the whole thing, mis-attributed to PT Barnum, about the birth rate of suckers has accelerated.

[battlewraith]

7 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Now now, there is no reason to insult tools by association with such ilk.  Tools are useful. That individual is sub-human trash and should be dealt with accordingly. 😉

 

 

 

Aside from the issues of grifting and money laundering, I believe there is a general criticism against the tool itself. The resource requirements necessary to support crypto transactions are extremely wasteful and damaging to the environment. Any good that comes out of crypto is unlikely to offset the damage it inflicts.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

20 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

The resource requirements necessary to support crypto transactions are extremely wasteful and damaging to the environment.

That varies a bit depending on the system used: DogeCoin's authors, despite creating it as a spoof/joke, fixed a lot of the inherently wasteful processes and problems of the original Bitcoin. Thus proving that you have to do things better than the original for comedy, but I digress.

 

As a rough guide:

• One (1) successfully completed DOGE transaction requires ~0.1kWh of energy.
  This is about the same as running a gaming laptop for about an hour: it's also equivalent to the total end-to-end energy cost of 8 credit card transactions.
  So, a fair amount, but not ludicrous.
   
• Estimates vary as to how much a BTC transaction costs. According to Statista, it's now over 2,000 kWh - and this will only go up as Bitcoin's built-in artificial scarcity tightens. (Only 10% of the maximum BTC remain to be mined.)
  Again, for comparison, that's roughly the amount electricity an average household of four would use in six months.

So, 

[DougGraves]

6 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

I look at NFT crap the same way I look at other "collectible" things like baseball cards, card games, etc.
Except there's no actual physical token.

 

The lack of a physical thing is actually a point in favor of NFTs.

 

Imagine you buy Action Comics 1.  It is a physical item.  It could get destroyed.  That cannot happen to your NFT.

 

Additionally, someone might find another copy of Action Comics 1.  Yours would be less rare, so the value would go down.  That cannot happen with an NFT.

 

So assuming the NFT is not a fraud, it is in theory a better collectible than a physical item.  Of course just like any collectible its value is based on finding someone willing to buy it.

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, DougGraves said:

 

The lack of a physical thing is actually a point in favor of NFTs.

 

Imagine you buy Action Comics 1.  It is a physical item.  It could get destroyed.  That cannot happen to your NFT.

 

Additionally, someone might find another copy of Action Comics 1.  Yours would be less rare, so the value would go down.  That cannot happen with an NFT.

 

So assuming the NFT is not a fraud, it is in theory a better collectible than a physical item.  Of course just like any collectible its value is based on finding someone willing to buy it.

The non-physicality is a problem as well.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law...

I view the industry as identical to bridge salesmen and Arizona oceanfront property realtors.

Blow up a couple electrons and poof.  What do you own?

[DougGraves]

25 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Blow up a couple electrons and poof.  What do you own?

 

That's true of your bank balance and basically everything else that is now tracked electronically.

[Hyperstrike]

7 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

That's true of your bank balance and basically everything else that is now tracked electronically.

I dunno about you.  I still have paper statements.
And my account books.
And records of all my deposits.

So if my account goes "poof", I can fairly easily show fault.

[Techwright]

On 4/12/2022 at 2:02 AM, merrypessimist said:

My personal opinion is that NFTs are specifically designed and structured to facilitate money laundering.

Rule of Acquisition #82:  The flimsier the product, the higher the price.   (Or in this case, the more money it moves.) Sounds like someone studied the Ferengi.

 

On 4/13/2022 at 6:48 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Possession is 9/10ths of the law...

Rule of Acquisition #219: Possession is eleven-tenths of the law!

 

(Sorry, couldn't disengage from the list fast enough. 😁)

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

I'm tempted to set up a fake NFT advice Twitter bot posting thinly-disguised Rules Of Acquisition, and see how fast one of the following happens:

a) I get an endorsement deal

b) I get hacked to punt dodgy NFTs (several blue-tick accounts were taken over last week to push SneakerHead NFTs)

c) people notice

 

 

[TheOtherTed]

1 hour ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I'm tempted to set up a fake NFT advice Twitter bot posting thinly-disguised Rules Of Acquisition, and see how fast one of the following happens:

a) I get an endorsement deal

b) I get hacked to punt dodgy NFTs (several blue-tick accounts were taken over last week to push SneakerHead NFTs)

c) people notice