#nft owners are going to hell

[hallow-yeen]

or hear me out, windows users win + shift + s opens snipping tool who cares about preserving image quality am I right

[ghostreblogging]

Ngl this is a short one.

So Danny comes to Gotham. Down on his luck. But lo and behold, he still has access to the kingly vaults! He doesn't have to worry about money!!! He can just buy a small apartment and live out his miserable little life In luxury!

But then he is stopped on a horrible and a dark stump in his plan. How in the 7 hells is he gonna explain it to the IRS ??????

Money laundering????

Can't he just say he found a mysterious big pile of gold and be done with it?

No, Danny . How are you gonna explain the fact that you keep finding mysterious little gold files to the tax man . Jazz says emphatically through a video call . Which is a multi dimensional cuz I can't explain why sam wont just give him the money. And btw the just assume that the vaults has a magic function to give the money to him in the local currency.

Sso from that day onwards Gotham had a new little cafe in a quiet little nook. The prices are super cheap. And it by far has the best fudge in all of Gotham. If you exclude Alfred's.

The gothamites love it. It's a favorite college hangout. Everyone is pretty sure the cafe is a front. Everyone is 100% sure of it. But in this economy who the hell cares. At least it's not nfts.

People can actually benefit from this because we can get like a whole breakfast for like 4 dollars ( an au where like Danny's 2000s world is like super cheap compared to the modern Gotham city and nobody taught the poor boy common prices of this world. Danny's thinking like how do I keep accidentally going into these rich people stores with their ridiculous prices, Ughh guess I'll have to buy this I don't want to go farther) and the quality is good too. The scrawny little twink owner sure as hell does not know much about ingredients prices or did the bare minimum study of business.

Anyway when the bats came sniffing (the scrunkly little guy was innocent blame Fenton luck) and we'll tried to interrogate the owner people actually chained themselves to the front like the worlds most confused save the trees activists.

[sepdet]

Remember when some redditors propped up Gamestop stock to prank Wall Street traders…

only to become an apocalyptic cult, appointing the failed CEO of a pet supply shop as their oracle

and themselves as the righteous faithful out to expose Wall Street corruption through the beleaguered vessels of Gamestop and Bed Bath and Beyond, whose second coming will crash the market and allow the real (not fake) stock owners to exploit a glitch that grants them infinite money, lets them hold the world monetary system to ransom, forces the US government to accede to all their demands, anoints them god-kings, and transforms the world.

No really. This is a comic, tragic, what-the-fuck-is-happening-you-can't-be-serious-oh-hell-they-are-serious video that I highly recommend, along the same lines as that "A BOOMERANG!" takedown of Sherlock. It's funny but it's long, good background for knitting, phone games, or doing chores.

(The author's "Line Go Up" vid on crypto and nfts is also amazing— but more sobering, as their cultists proponents really do have some impact on the real world.)

[quatiumcomics]

Underground self made millionaire of urban anime label and brand and the true owner of LosttimeLLC@gmail.com flip mode the shifty tried takeover by evil people. Creates New label to keep creating continuing continuous growth and success with the comic anime books title stories such as Nambi Ichi and the Forsaken, ZERO ZOO, THE DIARY OF JET JULY

And others....

Leave losttime you see now alone. As the art is stolen and the imposters try to be me. The .o ey goes Into nothing you fans want. Expartner screwed everyone involved to investors to people who put the heart and soul into the Project.

Next time listen and do want I say it my company, I'm the one who pays everyone. Not them. None of us got paid, not even me.

Worker hard than. Before because I have less time to do this with. I can still get you guys' money back and still build something better than losttime, it grew and learned and evaluated that together as a team, we can take back what is ours and then some. Project losttime block chain members, I tried to tell you cut him out he was fired for causing chaos and stealing all kinds of money online AND real time. White ain't always right. It is just comfortable to believe in.

Now, round one, rough draft, successful but management were unprofessional and stole the company app and revenue stream of 250 million. Shut down studio, block chain, made the founder homeless, broke and paid people not to help him, and still does. May they all burn in hell....

Kelly Hallman and Stephen Joshua Nix do not have permission to sell, use, manipulate, make deals, sign contracts, or Anyway shape or format represents Adrian C. EUGENE, Adrian Eugene, LosttimeLLC, LOSTTIME COMICS NFT APP, LOSTTIME ENTERTAINMENT, LOSTTIME INC, OR ANY FUTURE ARTWORK ,PROJECTS , BUSINESS VENTURES, I WILL SUE ALL THOSE THAT CONTINE TO SELL MY STOLE ARTWORK SINCE 2020 AS VIOLATION OF US COPYRIGHT LAWS.

I lost that round, but not the fight... moving forward. Thanks goes out to GOD, ME, and my awesome earth angels of tiktok

LoL, Now with this behind me I can truly let go and show shine like I'm supposed too.

I need some sponsorship to stabilize and speed up the come back process,

This includes a equipment list...

1. A computer tower master with a awesome strong fast motherboard graphic,sound card with monster process and mega load of memory. All in one scanner and printer with. high resolution, 2 big hard drives to store data.

2. 8x11 card stork bright white paper case, 8x11 regular bright white typing paper case, mirror pens from size 000.1 - 0.8 bamboo brush pen black different sized, iwata dual trigger airbrush gun 3 of them. Sharpie BLACK MARKERS ALL SIZES

3. Adobe Photoshop Cs5 on Disk or any Adobe Photoshop software 3 and up on disk. Why? Because without the internet, I can still work on projects without being online. Light oars and drawing tablet to draw on the computer with pen with different tips.

Toon Boom Harmony system and a computer tower to be able to run the software completely different data base from the master co.puter system. This one would be the master for the work stations for colorist and aniamtion section.

A adim tower with Microsoft Word, pdf, and other CPA software and printer

A building type warehouse that can be modified into what I need it to be. Plus spe I'll seprate ethernet system firewall from the heavens to block everyone. Lol.

Now you are up to date....

[everythingismadeofchaos]

The whole nft thing bothers me so much

Like. I've had people try to explain what they are to me before. It is only literally within the past couple of months that it suddenly hit me: nfts are just pieces of intellectual property. Like you can buy a CD, or you can buy the rights to the album, which are going to cost you a hell of a lot more. You can buy a book in a bookstore, but you have to negotiate with the author's agent to buy the right to turn the book into a movie officially. An nft is just The saleable rights to a piece of mass-produced art. You can also sell a copy of the art to a person, but the copies aren't the same as the nft; the nft is just the intellectual property right to that art.

It struck me when I was thinking about Newsradio, that sitcom from the '90s. There's a scene where the crazy billionaire owner of the radio station buys all the employees Miatas except one; that one he gives a box of cassette tapes and says he bought him Amos and Andy. Which is really weird and throughout the episode you're trying to figure out what the hell it means because it sure seems to mean that he bought the guy a $40 set of cassette tapes when he bought everybody else cars. And then ultimately it turns out that he bought him the right to the entire radio show, Amos and Andy, or whatever it is. I think it's a radio show.

Anyway. You, a human, create an algorithm which creates dozens of similar pieces of art. These pieces of art are technically created by you, a human being, using an art tool, kind of a cheesy one, an AI image generator. Then you can sell the rights to all of these images, just like the agents for bands sell the rights to use the band's music in a commercial.

The difference, of course, is that nobody gives a shit about having the right to this stupid picture of a monkey with a hat. Nobody's going to be beating your door down to use this picture for the back of a set of playing cards or something. Why would they bother?

Made me feel pretty stupid when I figured that out. The trick is that the word "nft" doesn't really need to exist because we already had that concept, that's all

look. dolphins using sound to encode detailed information in the contours of a sand dollar. ok?

More.

[howtofightwrite]

Do heist stories still work in the modern world, especially the developed world? More and more wealth these days seems to be intangible and electronic, and more and more of the physical stuff that's still valuable is marked and traceable so that even if you take, it's hard to spend or unload it anywhere. What are macguffins that a thief in today's world could still physically steal today and realistically hope to profit from (without the profiting getting him caught)?

Heists still happen in the modern world. Hell, the entire NFT “economy” crashed last year as a result of a multiple heists. The Axie Infinity hack last year saw over $600 million worth of crypto tokens stolen. There have been many, many, famous heists, and there is no sign of them slowing down anytime soon.

So, in the vague sense of, “is it realistic?” It happens today, in the real world.

What gets stolen? Anything of sufficient value is a potential target. Art is one of the classic examples, and it remains a tempting target. Any liquid asset is tempting, and no matter how good the tracking is, chances are, someone will find a way to defeat it. In theory, crypto tokens are impossible to scrub, as the entire history of that token will be publicly logged on the block chain... so, thieves were using places like Tornado Cash to launder their cryptocurrency. (Incidentally, the US Treasury has sanctioned Tornado Cash, as of August last year.)

How realistic is it to get away with a heist? There are a lot of unsolved heists. Both, of physical items, and also with a lot of crypto thefts in the last few years. Some of the latter are believed to have been the product of state actors (read: Hacker groups believed to be working for authoritarian states with few extradition treaties.)

Art theft is alive and well. Now, I'm not an expert on laundering stolen paintings, however, from the ones that have been found, a lot find their way into private collections. Art collectors, and brokers who aren't particularly bothered with the legality of a given piece will move stolen art. It's not going to command the prices it would on the open market. (If someone estimates a stolen painting as worth four million dollars, expect that the thieves will get considerably less than that when they fence it, and while the fence will make enough to justify their risk, they're probably not going to be raking in millions either. Once it's made its way to a new owner, it will likely go up on a wall in a private gallery, or get carefully stored in a vault, and never seen again by the outside world for decades (or longer.)

Of course art theft can also be sculptures, books, or really anything else.

When it comes to other things, any liquid asset is a potential target for a heist. Cash, precious metals, and gem stones, are probably the most obvious examples, though, certainly not the only options.

The heist is, generally, a fairly consistent (if modular) structure.

It starts with identifying a vulnerable asset. The reason for the vulnerability may be important for the story, but not for the genre itself. This may be as simple as, “the asset exists,” and the PoV character learns of it, or it could be a situation where an exploitable flaw in the electronic tracking for the item is identified.

Once that's happened, then the ringleader starts assembling a team of specialists (and, amusingly, it is almost always specialists), to fill necessary roles in the heist. Usually this is a mix of technical specialists, social specialists, and at least some muscle.

So, assembling the team is something very specific to the formula, and not reflected in reality. A lot of real world heists simply need bodies, and prefer to have as few people as possible involved. The reasons are twofold. First, the less people involved, the less ways the resulting cash has to be split. Second, the fewer people involved, the fewer people that can lose their nerve and screw up, or rat their partners out to the police.

Once the team has assembled and they have a plan (this is usually hammered out along with the recruitment phase of the story, though that doesn't make a lot of sense when you step back and think about it), then they identify the preceding steps that need to be completed before executing the heist. This involves prepwork, sometimes smaller thefts to obtain the resources they need, and other necessary activities. (Again, this is more of a formula consideration, than a strictly realistic one. Especially the perpetration of earlier crimes. Those crimes can easily result in errors that would lead law enforcement to identify the heist before it occurred, and also help with identifying the thieves. To be fair, this is sometimes handled intelligently while staying within the formula to build tension. As the police close in on the team before they've even gotten started.)

After this, the team goes to execute the heist. Expect several things to fail simultaneously, with members of the team scrambling to salvage the heist. So, I don't want to harp on this too much, but this is another one of those places where the formula structure is extremely unrealistic. When looking at real heists, these kinds of fumbles will usually either botch the heist on the spot or provide the police with the threads they need to find the perpetrators. From a narrative perspective, it makes sense, it help build tension moving into the climax. So, while it's not realistic, that's not the point.

Once the team has the item, then they need to extract with it. Sometimes you'll see this skimmed over, but, getting the thing you're stealing away from the people trying to arrest the thieves is a somewhat important consideration. Generally speaking, yeah, a loud extraction with gunfights and car chases is going to end with the police response scaling to the point where escape is impossible. Also, generally speaking, most writers have a difficult time keeping stealth sequences tense, especially when their instinct is to transition into action.

Once they're out, lot heist stories end. The thieves, “won,” and the climax has played out. From a writing perspective, this makes sense. They won, and everything from here is going to be downhill. The team will break up. The actual process of fencing the stolen goods are going to be fairly dry, and, alternately, the process of laundering any cash they may have stolen isn't going to be that interesting either. There might be some lingering character threads to resolve, but the story is over, at least until you start another.

The main purpose for dragging a story beyond the heist is if you're setting up a tragedy. Probably with the police hunting them down for whatever errors they made along the way. I know I've cited it before, but Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is an excellent example of how the heist structure can be turned into a tragedy. (It's also a rare case that reworks a lot of the formula into something more realistic.)

On the whole, I'd say the heist genre is as relevant today as it's ever been. The specific stumbling blocks your characters will encounter are different. That always changes, and your ability to tune your story to your setting is always important. From a strictly mechanical perspective, there's no difference from your character accidentally leaving his driver's license behind at the scene of the heist, and failing to identify a tracker concealed in the stolen object. Both of them create a direct line from the crime back to that character. In a very real sense, a lot of the particulars for how this plays out is simply flavor. If you want your heist to be a techno-thriller, then you can absolutely do that, though you will probably have to spend quite a bit of time studying modern security methods and technology, but you can do that.

-Starke

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Right-Clicker-Mentality

Having coined a few terms in my day, I revel in new coinages that capture something really gnarly and interesting.

Take “bezzle” — JK Galbraith’s term for “the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it.” So much of our contemporary economy is captured by that delicious term!

https://pluralistic.net/tag/bezzles/

Recently, I happened on another coinage that is marvellously apt for our current moment: “right-clicker mentality.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgzed/what-the-hell-is-right-clicker-mentality

The term comes to us from the world of NFTs, which have blown up into a massive, fraud-ridden speculative bubble that is blazing through whole rain-forests’ worth of carbon while transfering billions from suckers to con-artists. A bezzle, in other words.

The creators of NFTs envisioned them as a kind of bragging right that described the relationship between a creator and a member of their audience. When you paid for an NFT, you recorded the fact that you had made a donation to the artist that was inspired by a specific work. That fact was indelibly recorded in a public ledger — the blockchain — so everyone could see it.

Instantly, the idea of supporting artists with NFTs was converted into a financial bubble. The point of an NFT wasn’t to support an artist — it was to acquire a tradeable asset that would go up in value because the buyer thought they could unload it for even more.

In this age of stock markets that boom in response to mass unemployment, supply-chain collapse, monopoly and runaway climate emergencies, NFTs aren’t really that weird. They represent the dream of “retail investors” to participate in the rigged lottery that minted 412 new billionaires during the covid lockdown.

In the NFT bezzle, NFT “owners” deliberately blur the distinction between owning the right to say you helped an artist and the right to say you own their work. They treat the NFT as equivalent to the image it refers to, rather than a bit of metadata that relates to that image. That’s not surprising, as speculators are far more interested in inflating, tradeable assets than in arts patronage!

In response, NFT skeptics are wont to troll speculators by right-clicking the NFT image, choosing “Save As…” and making a copy of the image. Then they taunt NFT bros with the copy, driving home the point that their speculative bubble is trading in something even more abstract than a digital image.

On Oct 26, an NFT bro calling himself Midwit Milhouse coined the term “right-clicker mentality” to refer to these spoilsports who insist on pointing out the inconvenient truth of his white-hot ponzi scheme.

Milhouse used the term to disparage an amateur chef who made his own version of a $2,000 “Salt Bae” steak for $90. Salt Bae is a trendy London chef who charges tens of thousands for gold-leaf-covered steaks that he showers with salt in a kind of tableside piece of performance art.

Milhouse called this person “a great example of right-clicker mentality,” whose homemade steak didn’t deliver “the satisfaction, flex, clout that comes from having eaten at Salt Bae’s restaurant.”

https://twitter.com/kenlowery/status/1455662848345055232

Milhouse went on: “The value is not in the cost of the steak. Go ahead, make yourself a gold-coated steak at home. Post a picture of it on Instagram. See how much clout it gets you.”

And then, displaying galactic-scale lack-of-self-awareness, “Salt Bae’s dish costs around 1500GBP because people want to pay 1500 GBP to show off that they can afford to pay that much. It’s all about the flex.”

You really couldn’t ask for a better encapsulation of the NFT bezzle: buy an NFT to “flex” and “show off you can afford to pay that much.” Ignore the intrinsic value or satisfaction of the underlying work. You’re doing this for “clout.”

Right-clicker-mentality is a value we should all aspire to. As Matthew Gault wrote on Motherboard: “Sometimes a word or phrase comes along that’s so perfect it almost makes you angry.”

“To right-click is one thing, but to have a right-clicker mentality implies an ontological break between crypto-fans and critics. Indeed, it implies the person saving the JPEG to their hard drive isn’t just wrong, they’re broken in some way.”

Image: Nenad Stojkovic https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hand_on_the_computer_mouse_-_50202556601.jpg

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[lastoneout]

Since people are asking yeah there was like some kind of NFT/Crypto conference where the organizers didn't know there was a difference between black lights like for a rave or haunted house, uv lights for like removing the yellowing off plastic and acrylic/doing art restoration/I think quickly setting acrylic nails, and industrial UV sterilization lights like for labs and other such operations. The former is generally safe, the middle is safe-ish but can be dangerous if you don't wear eye protection/aren't careful/expose yourself to it for extended periods of time, and the later is, according to what I've seen, literally so dangerous in typical settings they're locked in special rooms where no light can escape at all and you aren't even allowed to be in there when they're on.

NFT/Crypto/Tech Bros are fucking idiots who assume expensive = better and could not be bothered to do their research and make sure they weren't buying extremely dangerous industrial equipment that is not even remotely safe for the average person to stand under for hours without protection, and thus many attendees suffered severe uv burns to their skin and some suffered temporary and/or iirc permanent blindness as a result.

Now people aren't actually entirely sure what the hell happened at the Trump rally.

The owners of the event hall didn't do the lighting, Trump's team used their own lights, so we know it has to do with the company contracted to handle all that. However said company released a statement claiming they do not use any UV lights, and while the lights were used all over the whole stage, only people on one side were injured which is weird because as far as I know there isn't like, a safe setting and a danger setting with these kinds of lights, so if they hurt some people they should have hurt everyone. Also one person complained of burning inside their nostrils which would not be possible with UV lights unless the light got up their nose somehow?? but aside from that all of the injuries are 100% typical for UV exposure and the nostril person said that was the mildest of their symptoms so...??

Some people have speculated that this was a chemical attack or just reaction to chemicals that were in the air for some reason(cleaning, I guess?) but the Secret Service says since no harm came to Trump they aren't investigating and if there was a mysterious chemical attack they obviously would, plus the HVAC system had been kept up properly and cleaned recently, and if it did have to do with chemicals in the air we would have seen a much wider area of effect.

Some people have said other types of lights, if set up improperly can emit UV radiation, and UV radiation can also apparently increase the levels of ozone in the air and ozone is a poison that's dangerous to breathe in if it's not diluted enough, so my theory is that these were either UV lights and the company is lying and ozone is why that one person complained of nasal discomfort, or they were some other kind of light set up incorrectly that gave off radiation and fucked with the ozone and resulted in burns, mild airway damage, and temporary blindness to the people who stood in front of them for an hour. Either that or it really was just UV lights and the guy with nose issues was holding a reflective sign that shined the light up into their face from below and into their nose in some sort of weird snow-blindness adjacent situation.

Anyway that's just what I gathered from the handful of articles I've read and speculation from different people, it's possible we may never know exactly what went wrong although there is apparently some sort of investigation going on. It's possible people might try to sue the lighting company but idk if Trump voters are really gonna risk attacking someone who works for their messiah but an investigation would help them with that if they went that route. They all seem to be recovering just fine, although I do not envy the increased risk of skin cancer this probably gave them. They suck but they're still people and as someone who tries to be a disability rights advocate I do think it's fucked up that this happened to them and I hope they get the medical help they need. And also maybe don't go to another Trump event again. Tbh I know Harris joked at the debate that we should go see his rallies ourselves but after that I wouldn't feel safe at an event where his people were in charge of any aspect of the set up, this is legit dangerous and it should not have been allowed to happen.

But yeah this is indeed the second time some dipshit event organizers have injured attendees with UV lights and it truly is WILD that it's happened twice.

WAIT TRUMP'S MEDIA TOUR TEAM PULLED AN NFT/CRYPTO UV LIGHT STUNT AND BLINDED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE AT HIS RALLY IN TUCSON!?!?!?! AND NO ONE TOLD ME!?!??!?!

[bitchesgetriches]

To get this one out early to all your followers who I'm sure will eventually be asking: NFTs are essentially a scam. They're the digital equivalent of the creator of parks and rec scribbling you an autograph saying "Piggy owns parks and rec now, love, Mike" on the back of a napkin and jotting his phone number down on the bottom of it in case anyone wanted to ring and confirm that he did actually sign this autograph.

It's *technically* not actually a scam because deep in the small print it does usually specify that your NFT grants you zero rights zero ownership and is absolutely meaningless despite the marketing claims, and in theory the NFT in itself *could* have some sort of collectors' value (like an autograph could) but the marketing around them is VERY scammy making all kinds of ownership promises and rights implications that they really can't deliver on. It's also got a whole 'nother level that the whole scam essentially exists to suck real fungible money into the eretheum system, which as a previous poster has already pointed out is also a proof-of-work-based environmental disaster. NFTs are essentially a barely legal cash fleece to prop up the crypto bubble.

So buyer beware people, if you wouldn't pay that for an autograph from whoever it is, don't pay it for their NFT.

I suppose we should also cover "What is an NFT" shouldn't we?

An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token. What does that mean you might ask? Well fungible means it's practically exchangeable for anything else like it in the same class. The best idea of this is money. A ten dollar note is fungible. If I have my ten dollar note, or I swap it for a different ten dollars with you, or I swap two of them for a twenty, I don't fundamentally care. Ten dollars is ten dollars.

Non-Fungible is like an autograph. If I have an autograph from Joe Biden, it's not immediately and self-evidently equivalent to an autograph from Barack Obama. Sure, you might *decide* to make the trade, it might be worth it to you, but they're not inherently interchangeable. If you woke up one morning and someone had swapped out your Joe autograph for a DJT one, or your mom borrowed your Joe and promised she'd replace with a Ford one later, you'd be well within your rights to be pissed in a way that you just wouldn't be with a simple ten bucks.

An NFT takes this idea and makes it ~digital~. It's built on the same idea as crypto currency but they've made each one unique. Like putting different people's autographs on a ten dollar bill, I suppose - now your Joe Biden $10 IS different to your mom's Barack one (very ELI5 don't @me).

What they claim to do is provide digital "ownership" of art, or music, etc. As we all know, digital artwork can be copied and pasted to your heart's content, and no one can really own an original. Copyright law can come into play, but who *owns* the original. NFTs (claim to) attempt to solve that. When an original is created, the artist creates an NFT that says "X person owns this artwork" and sells it. This person now has a cryptographically secure little badge saying "I own this artwork", that they can prove no matter how many people copy and paste it. The idea being that everyone can see the Mona Lisa, or copy and paste a print of it, but only one person gets to OWN the Mona Lisa, right? Even owning the artwork doesn't necessarily give you copyright over it - that's normal, so NFTs just work the same. You get to own it and be the only person in the world who can prove they do. Seductive marketing. Cool, right?

Wrong.

Firstly - you do not "own" this artwork. Like, not even slightly. Hell, the artwork itself isn't actually contained within the NFT. It's usually just a link to another website that is contained within the NFT. Something like "the person who can correctly prove possession of this token owns the artwork at www dot artwork dot com". Well, can you imagine if the Mona Lisa did the same?? You'd never stand for that, would you? Can you imagine if you spent $1bn on buying the Mona Lisa and then looked at the fine print and it actually said that you own the painting that stands at the middle of the Denon Alley in the Louvre? Sure, that's the Mona Lisa NOW, but there's no guarantee it'll be the Mona Lisa next week.

Secondly. You do not actually own the art in any meaningful sense. The terms and conditions confirm this. You do not gain the copyright. You do not get the right to have it taken down. You do not get the right to exclusive use of the photo. You don't get the right to destroy it. You literally only own this digital token that says you own it. To take it back to the Mona Lisa example, it would be like getting a piece of paper saying you own the painting at the middle of the Denon Alley in the Louvre, but we're gonna keep hold of it: you're not allowed to move it, touch it, tamper with it, copy it, take photos of it, sell merchandise of it, stop anyone else from looking at it, or do any of the things that one usually associates with "owning" a painting. In fact, all you get is a piece of paper saying it's yours, and you can ring us up anytime to check we really did give you that paper. That's it.

What's the point? You don't actually own the painting in any meaningful way. It's like those "name a star" gifts. It may well be "official", but in practical terms it's worth diddly fuck all. You'd be pretty annoyed if someone told you you'd bought the Mona Lisa and that's all you got.

Thirdly (and finally)

There is literally NO benefit to 'owning' it for you. To go back again to the Mona Lisa, the example the sellers use to justify the "but anyone can copy it" is that anyone can own a print of the Mona Lisa, but only one person can own the original. You're the original owner of this digital artwork.

Except... The Mona Lisa is unique. Digital artwork isn't. The original and copies of digital artwork are - ironically - completely fungible. If I copy-paste the original file, they're both "originals". Neither has any more claim to be original than the other. And remember, there's no "original" actually stored in the token, just a link to something that shows another copy. The Mona Lisa is unique, different, there's only one copy. He only put his paints on one piece of canvas. Prints aren't the same. But a digital artwork? By the time it's finished being drawn and copied over to the website, it's a completely different set of electrons on a completely different server. It's already not an "original". It's a completely, utterly, identical copy. Which I can then download. And copy a thousand times. And they're all still perfect copies and indistinguishable from the original. If I swapped one of them out for another on the website my link points to, there's literally no technical or practical way to tell.

After all that. NFTs DO have some uses. They are ways to support the artist. They are ways to give money back. They are ways to make people feel special (like autographs). You may ask why would you buy a digital print from the K&P Etsy store if you think all digital art is the same. Why would you pay to download an ebook when you could pirate an identical copy for free. This is what they will come back to me with. And there's many - good - reasons to do so! There's many good reasons to buy digital art. And you should! Support your local artists! But this can be, and is already, all achieved without paying over the odds to falsely claim I actually own some sort of permanent original. It can certainly be done without all the crypto-hyped middle men taking their cuts. And it can be done in a way that doesn't prop up the horrible eco-disaster bubble that is a proof of work Blockchain.

The technology isn't a scam. The technology has real world uses and benefits. But the entire marketing ecosystem around it is a scam.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Now this is the kind of “better know a scam” content for which I come to the internet. Thank you so much for this primer on NFTs!

[mcnuggyy]

Tldr: neopets has had a bad realationship with lgbtqia people and their struggles, until this year, pumped out pride merch as soon as they stopped refusing to acknowledge lgbtqia identities, didn't give a donation to any Charities until their fan base called them on it, and now theyre working with lgbtqia phobic weird nft people, who are being homophobic and transphobic-ly abusive to neopets users.

On the neopets nfts, these same people have abused multiple neopets users on their neonft discord, including refusing to censor the f slur and mocking the person telling them to do so, multiple members of this discord including a mod misgendered someone intentionally, because they also didn't like the bullying. Then this, its honestly embarrassing. The company who owns neopets, Jumpstart/jumpstart3D, is just pretending nothings going on, while every neopets social media posts response is demanding action on all this. This after until this year it wasn't okay to talk about anything LGBTQIA+, including your own identity. Then they claimed it was fine again, but that they couldn't turn off the filter flagging some of the lgbtqia terms... Then they made pride merch, only giving a portion of profits to lgbtqia+ charities after users were asking why they hadn't done so, when they agreed to di so, ...and now...They're working with homophobes and transphobes, who have been abusive to the fan base filled with memebers who have used this site over decades, the few users still clinging on after almost everything on site was lost once flash ended .... Even tho there was a huge warning time for them to sort this out.

Then we have the, fact that the nft company their working with retweeted another company on their "neopets metaverse" twitter, that was called like horny hedgehogs or smthn, and had to remove it later since neopets and their owner Jumpstart say neopets is 'family friendly'.

I don't even understand what the hell is causing them to stick with this neopets metaverse weirdness, we're on the 4th stike of them being inappropriate or straight up abusive, yet the project marches on regaurdless.

[superiorjello]

Jello Watches Not Me The Show

Part 1:

So I went in knowing "BL, main character joins an anarchist gang, it's based off of GOT7 fic" which was surprisingly little considering what I just got wholloped in the face with.

Reaction time. There will be spoilers.

Twins. Okay. Cool. Black and White is a little on the nose when you're coming at it from an English perspective (reminds me of Fuhrer King Bradley) but I'm sure it makes more sense as a Thai naming thing (cause honestly their whole nickname system is awesome and I love it).

What do you mean THEIR HEARTS ARE LINKED is it MAGIC or something?

Splitting the twins up with no contact whatsoever just seems cruel.

Their dad is kind of a dick. Also smarmy party is smarmy.

OF COURSE HE HAS AN ATTACK

How does his dad not instantly recognize it was a twin-heart attack or whatever?

WHO IS THIS GUY AND HOW THE HELL DID HE GET WHITE'S NUMBER?

I wonder if they let Black be so beaten up in that scene so they could just use a body double and didn't have to shoot all the Black shots with the same actor and then edit it. Cause usually they let characters just be "prettily bruised" in this kinda show.

Wow, White just goes all-in on the body modification and I am here for it. I hope he keeps it for pranking opportunities once Black is back too.

How does he expect to live a double life though, being both Black and White does not seem sustainable.

HE IS SO BAD AT PRETENDING TO BE BLACK HOLY SHIT like I will give him an initial pass for not knowing his brother for years but if he's gonna go all in on this plan he kinda needs to sell it after a day or two of studying how people react around him...

2 second long motorcycle lesson

THEY JUST STRAIGHT UP BURN A HOUSE

PAINT VANDAL CINDERELLA AND ANARCHIST PRINCE CHARMING

"I want to quit." "Haha, funny joke dude. Just chill for a day and you'll feel better."

I love the middle-class student rubbing White's nose in his own privilege. He deserves it. YES SEE THE IMBALANCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM HAVE A WHOLE "Oh, THIS is why my brother is doing this" MOMENT!

Garage-owner guy: why don't you stay here for a while, I'll train you up some more.

Me: ah, so at least one person here has figured it out

YEAH, YOU TELL YOUR DAD, WHITE!

and they were roommates OH MY GOD THEY WERE ROOMMATES

Stupidest room search ever. What are you even looking for?

THEYRE HOLDING HANDS

Sean and White can have some cuddles. As a treat.

Okay I honestly just got so engrossed I forgot to react for a while.

His plan for meeting Black's ex was weird tho. Not a great plan. And seriously WHO IS THIS RANDOM FRIEND OF BLACKS? HE OWNS A TOWER? His dad did import/export so that's sketchy as fuck.

Sean keeps reminding White that Black is an asshole and he's like "oh right, gotta be a dick" like, Sean, just suck it up and deal with having an angel around now.

Sean: gotta end capitalism, starting with this guy

White: yeah, but you gotta LIVE THROUGH IT TOO

Manufacturer Heist aka can no one plan anything well in this group?

The complex system of dealing with bad employers but causing loss of income to the most vulnerable of their workers IS A REAL ISSUE AND I LOVE THEM FOR ADDRESSING IT

THE PROTEST SCENES THOUGH

THE GIANT GAY FLAG THOUGH

White: dancing around and so clearly not Black

Sean: heart eyes, motherfucker

THE HAND HOLDING THOUGH

So Cinderella-cop should quit the cop job, honestly, but NFT's? Really?

FOR THE LOVE OF RAMEN WOULD SEAN AND WHITE JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY

Side note is that the same ramen sponsor as KinnPorsche? I feel like it is.

[ghostbrawl]

cosmo wanda i wish all nft currency owners die and go to hell

[mafaldaknows]

Here's another thing people missed. The female who wanted Armie's DM conversations to become NFT digital art had to obtain copyright permission because he's the author of that DM text as stated in copyright laws. IG have 'agreements' but copyright is a *law* and they are there to protect. For her to go public with this idea she would have to seek his permission first.

Hello, Anon:

You are making a bold assumption that she followed the law.

The fact that laws exist is not enough to deter people from violating them. There are laws requiring seatbelt use and obeying posted speed limits, but how many people do we see on an average day violating those laws with impunity on an average day?

Maybe she thought she could argue that the “art” she created from those DMs, as well as the DMs themselves, jointly, belong to her, so she didn’t need to ask for permission from her ostensible co-owner to publish the DMs or publicize the “art” she created from them.

“Uh, pirate.” - Captain Jack Sparrow

More likely than not, she has a grievance against Armie Hammer and seized an opportunity to publicly humiliate him, without regard to the law.

It seems that Armie Hammer is no longer entitled to a right to privacy, in some people’s minds. There was nothing stopping others from violating his privacy, so why would we hold higher expectations for this person?

Here are the sources I found that might be helpful in figuring out who and what was violated in that ghoulish attempt at profiting from Armie’s misery:

https://repository.law.uic.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1449&context=ripl

https://facebook.com/126382350847838

On a side note, I found this interesting information in the Facebook Copyright FAQs (IG is owned by Facebook, ICYMI), given what’s been happening on Instagram with regard to Armie Hammer since January 10, exactly five full months of this inexplicable hell:

All of these rules, and yet ... 🙄🤬🙄🤬🙄

Thanks for your comment. 😊

[scrawnydutchman]

Why I F**king Hate NFTs (And You Should Too)

I’m back again with another opinion essay and HOO BOY do I have some opinions to share. Today I wanted to talk about NFTs . . and how ungodly shitty they are for a number of reasons which I’ll go into. If you use a number of social media apps fairly regularly, particularly twitter, you may occasionally stumble upon an account that has one of the many . . . . ahem . . .  “”“unique””” monkey profile pictures as depicted above. You would not be unreasonable to assume that these were produced from some popular avatar maker app like Picrew or something, as they have about as much depth as those. But no, sadly, the answer to where all these monkeys come from is a lot dumber and more depressing than that. These are what’s known as NFTs, those things that a bunch of strangers get into heated online debates about (myself very much included, especially recently). But just as often as I see this discourse I see the occasional account ask the inevitable question:

What the hell IS an NFT, anyway?

So allow me to break it down as comprehensibly as I can for those out of the loop.

NFT stands for “non fungible token”. It is a digital art file transformed into a piece of cryptocurrency that has “one of a kind data”. It’s data cannot be replicated, technically making any given NFT the only one of itself in “existence” (I use the term existence very loosely as we are exclusively talking about files in cyber space, remember this). So the idea is that if you own the NFT of an image rather than just any old PNG or JPEG, you technically are the owner of that image, and because it’s the only one of itself in “existence” you can sell it for a high price that’s partially influenced by it’s artificially made scarcity. It’s like the art house auction brought to the web. Many major companies including Adobe, Warner Bros., Mcdonalds and even the Oscar Academy Awards have hopped on this bandwagon of creating art made into “one of a kind” data.

So why is this a bad thing? Plenty of reasons. But let’s start with the most troubling issue.

It’s awful for the environment

Just like all other forms of cryptocurrency, NFTs are tremendously awful for the environment. The shear amount of power required to create just one NFT is outrageous. How much power does it use? According to the following source, with the energy used to create the average NFT you could power your refrigerator for an entire month.

https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/nfts-hot-new-fad-massive-environmental-cost#:~:text=NFTs%20are%20minted%20on%20the,a%20refrigerator%20for%20a%20month.

directly from the source:

One researcher calculated that a certain artist selling two pieces of artwork used over 175 MWh, creating the greenhouse gas emissions of 21 years of a U.S. household’s electricity use.

Every time I’ve brought up this little nugget of information NFTers either dodge the question with a deflect or outright pretending I never brought it up, or they use the classic “whataboutism” argument where they talk about some equally environment damaging issue as if that makes the salient point about NFTs go away. Sorry, but I’m not entertaining bad faith debate so that you can keep getting in on this scam guilt free. I’m CERTAINLY not entertaining a debate about whether or not climate change is real in the first place. At a time in our history when combating climate change is more important than ever, THIS of the thing that had to start trending. I’m infuriated.

But wait . . did I say NFTs are a scam? What makes this a scam?

It encourages art theft

Some of you may have already caught on to a loop hole back when I was describing what an NFT is. What’s stopping anyone from downloading somebody else’s art off the internet and making it into an NFT before they can? The answer is

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Art thieves have made thousands of dollars from struggling artists hard work doing this.

https://twitter.com/colorblindmess/status/1450598198842593283?s=20

Now, the common argument I hear from NFTers about this is that “theft is inevitable” and “it’s the artists’ fault for not making an NFT first”.

No, you victim blaming sack of shit. I’m not giving you that. Theft is theft and you should be held accountable for it. But of course they never are. How about instead of buying an NFT from someone whom you can’t even verify is the source of the artwork you just commission the artist themselves? It’s both more ethical and more cost effective on your part.

It encourages mass duplication

Let’s go back to the monkey banner I put up at the start of this essay. You may recall me saying that every NFT is “one of a kind” data. If that’s true, why do all these monkeys look so similar: the exact same template even? This is due to another loophole.

See, all somebody has to do to create another NFT from the same image they used before is slightly alter it. This allows you to profit from what is essentially the same image over and over. So despite the idea being “artificial scarcity” the truth is these monkey profile pictures are a dime a dozen. Ironic, isn’t it? I think what’s even weirder than that is these NFT bros want so badly to come off like they’re ahead of the curve but since they all have the same ape profile pic they look more like a cult than pioneers and they’re completely oblivious to it. Considering how they talk and their matching profile pics it honestly feels like I’m always arguing against the same exact person.

These people are selling nothing

At the end of the day, what IS an NFT? It’s just a digital file in a different format. It has no more capacity to be a tangible object than any png or jpeg. a png or jpeg can just as easily show you what’s on the canvas. a png or jpeg can just as easily be made into a print. If you really wanted to, you could even prove that you own that piece of digital art just as easily by requesting a receipt file designated to you from the artist you are commissioning, and probably for a lower price. an NFT isn’t a piece of digital art. It’s the deed of a piece of digital art. It’s a scam to make suckers think they have more than they have and the only way they stop being suckers is if they sell it to somebody else for more. NFTs are a game for scammers and suckers only. You’re either horribly naive or a terrible terrible person for getting into NFTs. There is no inbetween.

NFTs are Anti Art

So admittedly this section is more an opinion piece than stating the cons with sources to back it up. But I stand by this point as if it were equally as factual. NFTs are anti art. Because NFTs aren’t about what’s on the canvas. They aren’t about the skill it took to create the art. They aren’t about having something that speaks so fully to you and you alone.

They are exclusively for making money.

It’s the only reason you would care about being the sole owner of a digital file. Because if you actually cared about the art itself, why would it matter to you how many other people have it? Why would it’s price tag matter to you? Art is about what makes it valuable to you, not whether or not it’s valuable to everyone else. That’s the antithesis to art. If the only consideration you have for whether or not a piece of art is worthwhile is whether it can be resold at a higher value, then I’m sorry, but you live a horrendously shallow existence.

When I said that NFTs are the art house auction taken to the web, I meant that in the worst possible sense. Because art house auctions are equally pretentious and equally a scam. It’s rich people convincing other rich people of it’s value regardless of its labor, its technique or its message. Its a tax write off. The wealthy donate art to charities as a tax evasion tactic and they take full advantage of art’s subjective nature. It’s value is imaginary and so is the value of NFTs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw5kme5Q_Yo

Now, don’t take me to say that NFT creators are never talented. Of course not. I’ve seen plenty of beautiful art made into NFTs and I know very talented people who got in on the craze. I even understand the appeal to an extent: It’s a new way for artists to get well compensated for the work that they do. I’m an artist myself: of COURSE I want artists to be paid.

But not like this. Not at the expense of the planet to this degree. Not at the expense of other artists who become victims of theft. Not at the expense of the heart of what art is meant to be all about.

Art isn’t about  stock value. It’s not about gaming the system. It’s not about the sale or the deal. It’s not about how many people agree to it’s value.

Art is about creating for creating’s sake and buying for the sake of the creation. It’s about creating and purchasing something you love for it’s skill, technique, composition and message. The value of those things cannot be diminished no matter how many other people have the same thing. It’s not lesser in value whether it’s a PNG or a JPEG. It doesn’t tie your room together any less even if somebody else DOES have that print. We can have all of that without the cost of the planet or of artists’ welfare.

So with that spirit, I’d like to encourage the following ETHICAL ways to support artists

-buy prints

-support patreons

-support crowdfunding campaigns

-order commissions

-buy from etsy stores

-spread the word

In light of Adobe’s support of NFTs, I would also like to promote the following alternatives to photoshop, Particularly for their vocal anti NFT stance:

Krita (I especially recommend as a user of the program myself)

Procreate

[bitcofun]

This is a viewpoint editorial by Aleks Svetski, author of " The UnCommunist Manifesto," creator of The Bitcoin Times and Host of the "Wake Up Podcast with Svetski."" The Bitcoin Maximalists were ideal, once again. Damn them. Damn them to hell. This whole thing is their fault!" Many a time, particularly considering that 2020, I've heard variations of the following from individuals all throughout the "crypto" area: " Look: a billion-dollar business isn't going to collapse over night. That's difficult. They're sponsoring a whole arena for God's sake-- and you believe their company design is to run off with your $2,000 worth of crypto? Do not be so silly. It's safe enough to leave your bitcoin on there. Self custody is too complex anyhow. If we desire mass adoption, custodians are essential." These individuals's faith in VC-backed organizations is blinder than the most fundamentalist of spiritual zealots, just far-worse positioned. And these individuals behind these organizations are glorified and revered in the media as business owners, while their viewpoints lead individuals straight to the slaughterhouse. Case in point with Mr. Wonderful listed below: This shows much of what I talked about in my satirical short article from October You understand we're in late-stage fiat when the "most intelligent in the space" nowadays have to do with as dumb as the remainder of the lemmings marching into the lava. They're so utilized to simple cash through their obfuscated distance to the cash printer, that they have no concept why something like Bitcoin exists, why it's crucial, or why it is various They can not see beyond the paradigm which has actually brought them success to date, and as such they are absolutely unqualified to talk about something as paradigmatically various as Bitcoin. Toxic!!! When Bitcoin Maximalists turn cautions into memes, e.g., "not your secrets, not your coins," or announce the significance of "sound cash," e.g., "Bitcoin repairs this," they are disregarded as if they're a group of a) zealots, or b) boring and dated." Toxic" is the blanket reaction offered by the Mr. Wonderfuls, BitBoys and Vitaliks of the world. Well ... here we are once again. The truth of all Ponzi plans is that they fall much quicker than they increase-- and when their increase has actually been excellent, their fall is that far more meteoric. From Mt. Gox to BitConnect to Luna to BlockFi to Celsius to Voyager and now, to FTX They are all the exact same, and they are no various to every other cryptocurrency business on the marketplace. Yes, I utilize the word "business" particularly since all of these so-called "tasks" are simply that; business no various to FTX, simply playing pretend with numbers created out of code. And yes, that consists of Ethereum, Cardano, Hex, Solana, Chainlink and every other cryptocurrency, NFT or DeFi stupidity out there. Only Bitcoin is various. Just Bitcoin does not have (and I state this as a favorable quality) "management" and a head of the snake to slice off or pressure. Just Bitcoin has a spotless conception. Just Bitcoin had a natural, market-driven introduction. Just Bitcoin is repaired. Just Bitcoin is limited. Just Bitcoin matters. Bitcoin Maximalists who cautioned you of all of the above have actually likewise been alerting you about all of the shitcoins. The time will come for each of those to either take off, implode or die of presence. The only concern is: What will it consider you to follow those cautions? The Signs Were There, Not Only The Warnings FTX was constantly fishy. I fulfilled its creator, Sam Bankman-Friend, or SBF, on a private yacht throughout Bitcoin 2021 in Miami. It was a personal, little cruising journey we happened with about 50 or 60 other individuals. I had no concept who he was, besides some actually unhealthy looking guy with a swollen gut and a bad coiffure. We exchanged a couple of uncomfortable words and I continued to go talk to the waitresses while he stayed in a corner consuming starters.

One of individuals on the boat informed me that he ran a business called "FTX," to which I reacted, "What the hell is that? Another shitcoin?" His action was, "No, it is among the fastest-growing exchanges on the planet." I was fascinated, so I asked SBF a little about it, to which he reacted that he had actually run a crypto hedge fund in advance, was really effective and put that cash into developing an exchange. At that point, I was running a Bitcoin-only app referred to as Amber, back in Australia, and I keep in mind believing to myself, "Goddammit, these shitcoiners are actually printing cash by feeding gaming dependencies-- and here I am attempting to assist individuals stack sats smartly. What a clown world ..." Anyway, I never ever heard or believed more about him after that, till I saw his "Home Cooking With Beyond Meat" tweets. The sickly body made immediate sense to me, therefore did the shitcoinery. Source " data-full-height="( Physiognomy matters, and while that might activate a few of you, the truth of the matter is that how you look is mostly identified by your habits, and your habits is a symptom of your worths. Sure, there are some things you can not alter, however by and big, you develop and mold yourself into a reflection of what you value most-- alas, I will conserve this talking point for a future short article on why Bitcoin is visual.For now, suffice it to state that bad physiognomy was an indication. Phony meat results in phony service( and a lot more fakeness in between, which I will not point out here as individuals might get set off). What's On The Horizon? What will the future" I informed you so" post have to do with?Probably the collapse of Ponzi-like craptocurrencies whose raisons d'etre are" pumpamentals," or Ethereum as it ends up being "panopticoin" and combines with federal governments who desire release reserve bank digital currencies (CBDCs).NFTs currently appear to be dead. DeFi remains in DeepShit, however possibly that has another round. Whatever it is, it's going to hurt for the myriad morons who are following individuals like this: I indicate, you could not comprise such poetic paradox if you attempted, stating things like: " CeFi stopped working"( while being sponsored by Nexo)" We construct cool shit and individuals utilize it for bad factors"" Is it an issue with the social layer?" Much like Marxists, hosts like this, in addition to those behind failures like FTX have a really, extremely bad understanding of humanity. They believe that if you simply "develop cool shit," the world will end up being a much better location, which you might one day "repair the social layer" by turning whatever into some transhuman clever agreement. They stop working to understand that restraints are not simply crucial, however required. Particularly with regard to the language of worth (i.e., cash). That's in fact the response to points 2 and 3 above. What they view as "defects" in Bitcoin are specifically its main set of properties. Bitcoin transcends due to the fact that morons like SBF, Vitalik Buterin, Roger Ver, Richard Heart and the rest of the charlatans can do absolutely nothing to affect it. Children like this, without any life experience and no understanding of psychology, typically had absolutely no impact. It's not a surprise that in a clown world, their voices bring weight. Imagine what they're going to do when Ethereum breaks down, and their hero, Vitalik, ends up being the next SBF. I do not believe they're all set for it. Source: author The Silver Lining So what does it all suggest? What do we finish with all this? Well ... there is a silver lining, constantly. Some have stated this FTX ordeal, hot on the heels of comparable fates for Luna and Three Arrows Capital has actually "set the market back by years." I concur just insofar as the rate of bitcoin might be impacted in the short-term. Otherwise, I need to totally disagree. If anything, I believe this whole occasion has actually

brought some truth to the so-called "market," and revealed everybody what it actually was on the within; one huge hot air balloon. The Bitcoin market, while maybe pumped up by the extreme interest in "crypto," is now closer to where it must've been at this point in its development. A great deal of the dumb concepts, like NFTs and "tokens on Lightning" will most likely liquify and vanish, while capital allowance towards Bitcoin will re-normalize. Much of the phantom wealth in all of the mind-numbingly silly shitcoinery so widespread these last couple of years need to vaporize, and genuine capital will search for genuine development and organization designs around Bitcoin. Bitcoin will have moved from organizations, crypto business, VCs, shitcoiners and weak hands, into the freezer wallets of Bitcoiners and long-lasting HODLers. A brand-new cost flooring will establish and the next stage of development will begin. This is a net good. All of it. In that sense, SBF, Do Kwon and Su Zhu are the rescuers we never ever requested for, however that mankind at big should have. We're in a clown world, so why not have heros with a clown complex mistakenly clean themselves and their dumbass fiat market away with them? I indicate, simply take a look at the FTX endeavors portfolio. To understand that all of this scrap is up shit creek without a paddle brings me levels of happiness I've not felt because Bitcoin broke the previous all-time high in 2021: While groups of 20,000 individuals invest the next couple of weeks on Twitter Spaces in shock, questioning "how this might've occurred," a little number of newly-minted Bitcoin Maximalists will have been born, a great deal of the current minimalists will have had their positions verified and the veterans ... well, we'll kick back and continue to inform you so. Some of us in more significant methods, others in more vibrant methods. And next time around, we'll most likely be disregarded once again, however it's okay. A minimum of we get complimentary home entertainment: This is a visitor post by Aleks Svetski, author "The UnCommunist Manifesto" and creator of The Bitcoin Times. Viewpoints revealed are totally their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine. Read More

[medallionxln]

In March 2020, I found myself in the most unusual situation… well, maybe not that unusual when you realize we were all in the same boat, facing the same uncertainty. During the early stages of the pandemic, I came across a headline that read, “Beeple Sells NFT for $69 Million”. My first thought was…. what the hell is a Beeple? After actually reading the article, I began to connect the dots. At the time, a few tech trends had been jiggling around my frontal cortex like loose change. I had read a few articles about block-chain technology and I had an appreciation for the colorful names coming out of the burgeoning cryptocurrencies world, and now, I needed to grapple with the strange concept called NFTs.

Fast February 2022. I still find myself in this most unusual situation… as we all still do. The difference is that I have educated myself a bit more with these tech trends. I am even the proud owner of a modest stake in crypto currencies through one of those popular exchange platforms. But I still have more questions like, “is Aaron Sorkin going to write a movie that explains to me the origin of Meta?” Please…. pretty please!

Understanding the crypto world is going to be an adventure. I plan to write more entries about my learning journey through this amazing, exciting, and complicated world. I hope you will join me… nay, be my co-pilot… or my navigator… or just ride shotgun. I am looking forward to your engagement, dialogue, friendly debate, and, most importantly… discovery.

Let the journey begin…

<i>We’re so excited to have Allan join Medallion XLN as Chief Operating Officer (COO). On our mission to secure intellectual & real property, Allan brings his experience of over 20 years in the Financial industry. He may be new to blockchain technology but he is an expert in finance. - Medallion XLN</i>

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#technology #learning # #tech #blockchain #cryptocurrencies #nft