Walmart Appears to Be Planning Its Own Cryptocurrency and NFTs (cnbc.com) 36
"Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFTs," reports CNBC.
"The big-box retailer filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods. In a separate filing, the company said it would offer users a virtual currency, as well as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs." According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Walmart filed the applications on Dec. 30. In total, seven separate applications have been submitted.... "They're super intense," said Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney. "There's a lot of language in these, which shows that there's a lot of planning going on behind the scenes about how they're going to address cryptocurrency, how they're going to address the metaverse and the virtual world that appears to be coming or that's already here...."
[B]oth Under Armour's and Adidas' NFT debuts sold out last month. They're now fetching sky-high prices on the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Gerben said that apparel retailers Urban Outfitters, Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch have also filed trademarks in recent weeks detailing their intent to open some sort of virtual store.... According to Frank Chaparro, director at crypto information services firm The Block, many retailers are still reeling from being late to e-commerce, so they don't want to miss out on any opportunities in the metaverse. "I think it's a win-win for any company in retail," Chaparro said. "And even if it just turns out to be a fad there's not a lot of reputation damage in just trying something weird out like giving some customers an NFT in a sweepstake, for instance."
"The big-box retailer filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods. In a separate filing, the company said it would offer users a virtual currency, as well as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs." According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Walmart filed the applications on Dec. 30. In total, seven separate applications have been submitted.... "They're super intense," said Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney. "There's a lot of language in these, which shows that there's a lot of planning going on behind the scenes about how they're going to address cryptocurrency, how they're going to address the metaverse and the virtual world that appears to be coming or that's already here...."
[B]oth Under Armour's and Adidas' NFT debuts sold out last month. They're now fetching sky-high prices on the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Gerben said that apparel retailers Urban Outfitters, Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch have also filed trademarks in recent weeks detailing their intent to open some sort of virtual store.... According to Frank Chaparro, director at crypto information services firm The Block, many retailers are still reeling from being late to e-commerce, so they don't want to miss out on any opportunities in the metaverse. "I think it's a win-win for any company in retail," Chaparro said. "And even if it just turns out to be a fad there's not a lot of reputation damage in just trying something weird out like giving some customers an NFT in a sweepstake, for instance."
Damn supply chain ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Under Armour's and Adidas' NFT debuts sold out last month.
They're waiting for new shipments of 1s and 0s so they can create more NFTs ... (sigh)
[Walmart] filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods.
Meanwhile, many parts of the World raise their hands to ask about getting *actual* goods -- like food, etc...
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Private crypto currency == gift card (Score:3)
Amazon gift cards are a great crypto currency and don't use any energy. They are just as secure as any privately controlled crypto currency. And their value is tethered to the dollar. They are fungible and you can transfer them to anyone else so you don't have to use them for your own purchases on amazon. There isn't the slightest distinction between ANY privately validated transaction media and a gift card
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> There isn't the slightest distinction between ANY privately validated transaction media and a gift card
Oh, there most definitely is: FOMO.
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On the one hand, there doesn't seem to be anything overtly evil about selling people an in-demand product that you can produce, especially if the product isn't something harmfully addictive or dangerous....
On the other hand, what they are selling is nothing, which they are delighted to do because they can produce it at near-zero cost and just rake in the profits.
Even the artificial scarcity, that being the only thing that gives NFTs an illusion of value, is double-artificial in this case. Even though there
We really need to nip this in the bud (Score:4, Insightful)
Ask yourself if you like having electricity or not. Ask yourself if a large company like Walmart was making millions of dollars off of nfts would they care whether you have electricity or not? Ask yourself what multiple large companies using massive amounts of electricity would do to the price of electricity and your power bill? That would be a good time like I said to nip this in the bud. Before we have $700 a month power bills
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Ask yourself if you like having electricity or not.
Miners go to where electricity is cheap.
That means either where it is plentiful or where it is subsidized.
Where electricity is plentiful, such as Iceland, miners provide load leveling demand.
Where electricity is subsidized, such as Iran and Kosovo, the real problem is bad government.
Re:Yes, let’s blame *others* (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two options:
1. Governments can have sensible policies.
2. We can whine and complain that humans are selfish and greedy until they stop.
Do you really believe that #2 is the better solution?
Not exactly (Score:2)
Miners go where the electricity is heavily subsidized. Then eventually the government and the people notice and kick them out. The problem is in America our government is for sale cheap. So there's a high probability those minors won't buy off of politician
Re: We really need to nip this in the bud (Score:2)
"Where electricity is subsidized, such as Iran and Kosovo, the real problem is bad government"
Where did you study economic and social policy? Ayn Rand books? How is a government providing cheap power for the average citizen bad? The crypto bros taking advantage of pricing intended for citizens with excessive power consumption are the ones at fault here.
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What is your definition of "generates most of it's own power"? The power of stupidity? I'd grant you that one.
What power sources do they own? I've read things about their partnerships to source power from renewables, etc... But they don't actual run/own any power producing sources...
They are a consumer. Not a producer. Unless you have other evidence...
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Proof of stake is not a solution since that means any large player or group of players can manipulate the market with ease.
Proof-of-work is just proof-of-stake where your "stake" is the mining hardware and electricity you're wasting. Yes, with proof-of-work there are some real-world constraints on how much mining hardware someone can realistically accumulate in a certain amount of time, and how much electricity they can waste, but it's still essentially just real money = participation in mining on the blockchain network.
A decentralized, deregulated market is going to be manipulated by the largest players. You're not going to
Not sure if a Walmart NFT would be a success... (Score:2)
I'm not sure how well Walmart will do with NFT sales, it's hard to comprehend what they would even sell as an NFT.
However there is a Walmart-adjacent NFT that would do very well I think - the People Of Walmart [peopleofwalmart.com] NFT! They should get right on that.
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I'm not sure how well Walmart will do with NFT sales, it's hard to comprehend what they would even sell as an NFT.
And to make acceptable profits, Walmart will probably just sell cheap NFTs from China ... :-)
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I'm not sure how well Walmart will do with NFT sales, it's hard to comprehend what they would even sell as an NFT.
And to make acceptable profits, Walmart will probably just sell cheap NFTs from China ... :-)
Or just sell someone else's art [imgur.com] even though the person can't take possession [imgur.com] of what they purchased. Last person holding the bag [imgur.com] is the sucker.
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I'm not sure how well Walmart will do with NFT sales, it's hard to comprehend what they would even sell as an NFT.
Walmart shoppers will buy NFTs when there's a Renoir hanging in an NFL locker room.
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As mentioned in the summary, all the luxury brands have NFT. Athletic shoes like Nike, who train
Walmart's NFTs would be... (Score:2)
... what exactly? Crimeny, I'm becoming more and more convinced that the people running these companies have lost their minds:
Am I going to wear my Walmart T-shirt NFT, Gap hoodie NFT, or Adidas NFT to go for a run? Or do I just sit back and admire them? They are about as useful as some crap you buy in a video game.
Meanwhile, the planet burns to a crisp as these idiots buy up abandoned fossil fuel-powered generation facilities to grab cryptocurrency as
Less imported plastic crap for the landfill... (Score:2)
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... let them consume digital crap.
It'll probably come wrapped in plastic -- but it'll be the easy-open kind ... :-)
"We don't know what it is, but we want it!" (Score:2)
Two years ago "blockchain" was the solution to everything.
Now when in doubt, NFT it.
This is what happens when summer interns are allowed into upper management meetings.
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Because of course (Score:1)
NFT is... (Score:2)
the "blockchain". Get on the NFT train before it departs!
The stupid keeps coming (Score:2)
I went to the marketplace site mentioned in the summary. I sorted by price from high to low. It turns out they've just launched a new series of 'title' NFTs. So you can spend 5,000 eth (a bit north of $3,300 at the moment) to buy an NFT that represents the letters 'POTUS'.
For several thousand dollars, you can own one particular, otherwise unremarkable, instantiation of the word 'POTUS'. What can you do with it after you own it? You can prove that you own it, or you can transfer/sell it to someone else. Thos
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So you can spend 5,000 eth (a bit north of $3,300 at the moment) to buy an NFT
And that's the whole point. NFTs are nothing more than a glorified scheme to pump Etherium, since every other shitcoin is essentially just Bitcoin with a few tweaked parameters.
It doesn't really matter if people who buy NFTs are ever able to resell them, because that's not the point. The point is to create demand for Etherium, because stonks go moon.
What would they sell? (Score:2)
Cryptocurrency? Well, if they guarantee a certain minimum value (say, one Martcoin will always be exchangeable for $50 worth of groc
Climate change (Score:3)