This has to be a scam of some sort, but i don’t even see how the people at the top are making money.

  • fubo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s a multi-level scam.

    The people at the top convince other people to put their money and effort in. They tell those people “this is going to be the next big thing, you just have to tell the world about it.”

    Then those people write this stuff for them.

    This sort of thing isn’t written by the people at the top of the scam. It’s written by their suckers, or their suckers’ suckers.

    • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Even if these weren’t a scam, they use intensive computer resources to add a layer of property ownership bullshit on top of an existing open data architecture simply so certain people can claim “ownership” over information. It’s a way to push the ideology that we should have “ownership” over the things we post to the internet, rather than it being a memetic collage of humanity.

      All knowledge is based on previous knowledge. For knowledge to grow, access to information is important. NFTs is an attempt to make technology move backwards and deny access to information via technological means. I’d personally rather have places like Sci-Hub, which is dedicated to sharing information freely for the benefit of science worldwide.

      Worse than just being a rejection of the open nature of data and how easily it can be transferred, it doesn’t actually do what it claims to do. One of the people who helped create the NFT spec in a programming jam calls out NFT peddlers by pointing out an NFT doesn’t contain any actual art, it only has enough bits to hold the URL to a piece of art. Technically, if the server the hosts your NFT disappears… so does your NFT. Because the NFT itself is just a hardcoded link to a piece of art that is verified by a series of hash-checks.

      • fubo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes, but this is just a scam. It’s about getting people to pay money for wisps of digital vapor.

        • STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          it’s really not a scam because people know exactly what they’re buying, they just beleive in a crazy backwards concept

          • fubo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If I convince you to believe in a crazy backwards concept of magical water, and I use that to sell you homeopathic “medication” for your actual medical condition, I am still a scammer even if you believe in it.

            • STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              But NFTs don’t lie about curing diseases, they claim to be a receipt to a code that’s associated with an image. Which is honestly what they are. The issue is that it’s extremely overvalued but there’s nothing legally fraudulent about that, just consumers who have overvalued a dumb concept. I hate them but I’m just saying it’s not technically a scam

  • fearout@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs for short are shaking up the virtual universe, transforming how we vibe with digital assets.

    Oh hello fellow humans. Let’s vibe with our digital assets for a bit since it’s something we do so often in our virtual universe. What assets do you especially enjoy vibing with?

  • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This one is actually pretty straightforward. The middleman here charges interest and hopes the borrowers default so they can sell the assets at a profit.

    • BaconIsAVeg@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Fuck anyone who pushes this shit.

      Please don’t. There’s enough pollution in the gene pool as it is.

  • king_dead@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Same way pyramid schemes do: convince others that it makes cash and sell it to some sucker down the line

  • dap@lemmy.onlylans.io
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    1 year ago

    This video is a must watch for explaining the fundamental problems of crypto/NFTs.

    Warning: it long, like feature movie long, but really informative.

  • hahattpro@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Thank you for asking. Let me tell you the truth. NFT gamings, all of them, are Ponzi scheme.

    If you look at NFT game as a game, sure, some games are good and have entertainment value, such as Axie Infinity.

    But if you look at NFT games as source of income, then they are all Ponzi ?

    Think, where the money comes from? Who will pay for the token, the “pet” you breed, the item you get from lootbox ? New user, i.e: new Investors.

    That’s it. Use money from new investors to pay old investors.

    If you are unlucky enough to hold the bag. I.e: player who have not sell their NFT before the game close. You lost your initial investment.

  • boringbisexual@lib.lgbt
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to pretend this article was mostly written by a bot and that there’s no way a living, breathing human sat down and wrote this. I’m lying to myself probably, but it helps keep me sane.

    • Poggervania@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t be surprised if crypto was 99% being used for this purpose.

      Don’t forget, it was popular on The Silk Road because it was hard to trace - a lot of rich folk probably saw an opportunity to move their wealth there

      • Shere_Khan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        1 year ago

        except that the exchanges get hacked/shutdown/blackamiled every third wednesday. Ooops, lost a thumb drive, there goes 10 grand of crypto.

  • fiat_lux@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The repo and NFT itself is symbolic, it’s just a digital signature on a contract. The people who are benefiting most from this are people laundering money who get to leverage traditional financial, legal and even extra-legal services with their equity. Even money is symbolic, given most of it doesn’t physically exist and it may not even be pegged to a physical resource.

    This is how, for instance, a Saudi prince might invest in a new business which he doesn’t politically want to be seen as involved with. Should the business fail, the loan system ensures some form of potential loss recovery and debtor verification. Should the business succeed, nobody else needs to know and everyone is happy.

  • zlatiah@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Ah… so you’re specifically mentioning about the news article in question?

    If you repay the loan, [your NFT token] comes back home. If not, [the token] gets a new owner. Simple as that!

    I guess this explains everything… Probably just ppl hustling each other lol. And I assume given what types of shady characters are into NFTs, there are probably a lot of them who want to hustle another person out of some cash

    • Shere_Khan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      yeah, but its like, people are scamming people with nfts, using those scammed nfts to issue “loans” to scam people with cypto, so they can scam people with nfts, etc etc like is anyone actually making making money from this mess?

      • zlatiah@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised if someone does. I mean banks also just shuffle money around and guess who has a bunch of cash lying on hand so… Goes back to the gold rush era, but there are folks who mine the gold and folks who mine the miners

        Also some tech companies can be at a loss for years but run on VC money

        So… I don’t know, but again I wouldn’t be surprised if they are making something to keep this nonsense going