"The best way to put 'historical' legacy in the hands of the global public"
... and the best way to put as much of the foolish investors' money into their coffers as possible.
Just when you think NFTs can't get any worse, this comes along.
What does the Titanic have in common with NFTs? Not much. One lives on in the collective psyche as a monument to hubris while the other refuses to just sink already. Still, apropos of nothing except the smell of filthy blockchain-adjacent lucre, RMS Titanic Inc (RMST), which has been collecting artifacts associated with the …
Slightly o/t, but years ago I was at the Storehouse brewery/museum in Dublin, learning all about the Guinness brewing process. Fascinating, and there was an extended opportunity afterwards to investigate the product in greater detail. I don’t remember much about it after that, other than a very “tired and emotional” colleague staggering up to me to tell me that the bar had run out of product.
Yes, Les, that’s why they won’t serve you any more. Run out. Yep.
I seem* to recall my father & his building site buddies doing that once (Or at least severely depleting the stock available for Christmas Eve\Day\Boxing Day).
*I was designated driver to collect him that Christmas Eve & by chance ended up in the same pub later that night to hear the Landlord grumbling loudly about his lost Christmas profits.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is anyone can access and copy digital material wrapped within a NFT. If so, titular ownership of the digital material (but not of any physical structure it represents) is of no practical or financial use other than to occupants of the NFT bubble.
Perhaps parasitical IP lawyers and 'bought' legislators in the USA will seek to protect 'rights' conferred by NFT ownership, and there will be a slew of useless activity in courts. These actions will count within US GDP, so many components of which do not reflect productivity in the 'real' world, but instead portray empty financialisation. There is no rule stating lunacy in the USA must be adopted within the civilised world.
I doubt even US courts would respect the NFTs, though copyright law itself might impact any original works of art, for instance, made out of ghoulish pictures. Well, Florida courts might, but copyright is a federal matter. So the value of the NFT is indeed local to the NFT true believers; anyone else who makes a copy can do what they wish, subject only to copyright.
The whole NFT thing reminds me of that Star Registry scam, where you could buy a gift that certified that they had named a star for you, but only on their registry, as the IAU ignored them.
For only 2.6ETH I’ll sell you a small, cube-shaped piece of the VERY SAME MATERIAL that sank the Titanic.
Or if you prefer, a non-fungible electronic record showing that you, and you alone, paid me for that same non-fungible electronic record. Act now! You’d be a fool!
(Normal sales pitches would append “…to miss out” but I think in this case…)
Well said, although the gold standard for this sentiment has to be GrumpenKraut's timeless comment from a few days ago:
I get the impression it might have reached a terminal phase. Until very recently there was what amounted to a caravan of camp followers travelling from tech conference to tech conference (and from one "digital nomad" outpost to another) in the desperate hope someone would bung them a lot of money because they knew the word "blockchain". At least anecdotally that seems to be diminishing - as are the number of conferences as the organisers realise there's little for them to cash in on either.
I just hope someone manages to monetise its death throes - it would be poetic justice.
Don't forget that the fools who will buy these things are doing so purely because they think it will enable them to make money. I think I've passed through the phases of amazement at the stupidity of it all, outrage at the cynicism of it, and have finally arrived at simply thinking that they are all going to lose everything and will fully deserve to.
... I can prove that nobody was harmed when the Titanic sank.
There are immutable pieces of paper that were distributed thousands of times that claim "TITANIC SIKNING ; NO LIVES LOST"
https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/titanic-headlines-in-vancouver-got-it-very-wrong-photos_n_4178419
Then there is this Italian movie, distributed in immutable DVDs to thousands of people, The Legend of the Titanic (1999). This movie claims that nobody died, as the octopus that was responsible for the ice berg being in the way, saved them all.
It's not like any "Blockchain" is more authoritative than a random newspaper or a movie, except in the eyes of some idiots.
========== Shiver me timbers! =========>
How do I know if that BS on display at the Luxor be the real artifact? I mean: anybody could have made those model Titanics, hooks can be found by the truckload at any boatyard, and that ceiling lamp looks like something that was bought from my local Chamberlains Hardware store. These modern day pirates don't even have to set sail on a rickety boat to go and rob someone; the someones comes to them now.