95% of NFTs May Now Be Worthless (businessinsider.com) 178
An anonymous reader shares a news story: A report by dappGambl based on data provided by NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap showed that out of 73,257 NFT collections the researchers looked at, 69,795 of them, or slightly over 95%, had a market cap of zero ether. By their estimates, almost 23 million people hold these worthless assets. "This daunting reality should serve as a sobering check on the euphoria that has often surrounded the NFT space," the researchers said. "Amid stories of digital art pieces selling for millions and overnight success stories, it is easy to overlook the fact that the market is fraught with pitfalls and potential losses."
NFTs are digital representations of art or collectibles tied to a blockchain, typically ethereum, and each one has a unique signature that cannot be duplicated. In 2021 and 2022, the NFT market saw a huge bull run, at one point leading to $2.8 billion in monthly trading volume. During that time, popular collections such as Bored Apes and CryptoPunks were selling for millions of dollars, and celebrities such as Stephen Curry and Snoop Dogg participated in the hype. The boom coincided with cryptocurrency's peak when bitcoin was trading close to $70,000. On Wednesday, the price of the crypto hovered just above $27,000. dappGambl's study shows 79% of all NFT collections currently remain unsold, and the surplus of supply over demand has created a buyer's market that isn't doing anything to revive enthusiasm.
NFTs are digital representations of art or collectibles tied to a blockchain, typically ethereum, and each one has a unique signature that cannot be duplicated. In 2021 and 2022, the NFT market saw a huge bull run, at one point leading to $2.8 billion in monthly trading volume. During that time, popular collections such as Bored Apes and CryptoPunks were selling for millions of dollars, and celebrities such as Stephen Curry and Snoop Dogg participated in the hype. The boom coincided with cryptocurrency's peak when bitcoin was trading close to $70,000. On Wednesday, the price of the crypto hovered just above $27,000. dappGambl's study shows 79% of all NFT collections currently remain unsold, and the surplus of supply over demand has created a buyer's market that isn't doing anything to revive enthusiasm.
Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
The headline is misleading because it used the wrong word. NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless.
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Funny)
NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE! You just have to respect my ownership of this graphic and not take a screenshot and/or copy it! /humor
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Don't worry, who'd want to have a copy of some badly drawn apes?
It's like when the makers of a really shitty movie lament the existence of TPB. If your work ain't worth the time, bandwidth and storage space, you're safe from it getting "stolen".
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)
Which would be funny rather than sad if owning the NFT meant you owned the copyright to the graphic, which you don't. What you own is a link.
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Funny)
"NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless."
And lots of people are now penniless.
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And lots of people are now penniless.
99% of non-Brits are penniless. I for one actually have a penny coin somewhere, but that's pretty worthless -- worth 0.01 lb to be exact -- and that value hasn't budged out of 0.01 despite all the Brexit debacle.
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There are at least two correct ways of referring to pounds sterling which are compatible with /.'s backend code: ISO 4217 (GBP) and HTML escape codes (£).
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"99% of non-Brits are penniless."
'Broke' would have ruined the pun you missed.
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" worth 0.01 lb to be exact"
lb is the symbol for pound weight. I think you want the symbol for pound Sterling.
(Which I wont try to post here because Slashdot probably doesn't support it.)
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" worth 0.01 lb to be exact"
lb is the symbol for pound weight. I think you want the symbol for pound Sterling.
(Which I wont try to post here because Slashdot probably doesn't support it.)
Since when does /. not support the £ symbol?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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All currency, fiat or not, runs on faith and magical thinking. It's the basic nature of the invented concept of money.
Gold has value because people have collectively decided it has value just as the US dollar has value because people have collectively decided it does. If you don't think gold-backed currency isn't susceptible to a loss of "confidence" exposing the magical thinking that it has inherent value, I refer you to California in 1848-55, Alaska and the Yukon in 1896-1899, the state of Georgia in 1828
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Gold also has value in industrial applications, which is totally relevant to the Libertarian that thinks he should be able to use it to buy a hamburger. He’s got a semiconductor fabrication operation right next to the reloading bench in the rec room with all the guns. ;)
It does, but demand for that usage is a very tiny factor in the value of gold per ounce. There are other elements, for example some rare earths, that are much more costly per ounce, because they are, well, rare in the earth's crust.
Historically, gold has been considered more valuable because it is one of the few elements that doesn't easily oxidize, and can be found in pure form in the crust. It is also very malleable and easy to work with. Because of this, it was regarded by some ancient cultures as a "pu
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Not really. What makes a currency worthwhile are guns. Lots and lots of gun, particularly in the hands of armed forces with reach.
Bitcoin is worthless, despite its high valuation, because it doesn't have a huge army backing it. The US dollar is worthwhile because it does.
Notice the US army also indirectly backs the Euro and the Pound. Without that they'd be way less worthwhile, at least until they, too, got similarly huge militaries backing them.
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True, but it takes at least military power, otherwise a currency's value becomes entirely dependent on externalities the entity emitting it has absolutely no control over.
Case in point, even though Russia's economy is in shambles, the fact it can (mostly) protect its oil fields from enemy action and overtaking is the one thing keeping it afloat, with its enemies giving it money for that oil, and thus capable of retaining active business with China. Weren't for that, and the ruble would be worth not little,
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"NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless."
And lots of people are now penniless.
Gee, who could have seen that coming?
Digital grifters, after the (temporary) success of digital coin, tried to see if people would fall for something even more stupid.
And the people did.
Re: Misleading headline (Score:2)
Because of NFT "investments"? If that's the case, if they put "all" their money in NFTs, it is ultimately their fault, isn't it? I mean sure, we could try and blame journalists that promoted NFTs as a reasonable investment, or we could try and blame their teachers/educators that failed to teach them to critically think about NFTs, but they decided to buy the NFT - it's ultimately on them.
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The headline is misleading because it used the wrong word. NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless.
Not sure it's all that misleading. As my father told me, anything is worth what someone else will pay. For all we know, 23 million people know full well they hold assets that may be technically valueless right now, but still are worth something to them personally as being part of internet history.
And if you want confirmation as to my fathers theory, 10 years from now we'll see some kind of resurgence selling NFTs for far more than they've ever sold for, because they're "rare first gen vintage" or some shi
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Funny)
I grow tulips in my garden for the same reason.
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If you want a part of internet history download an old copy of the Mosaic browser for free. You don't need to pay 6 figures for poorly done cartoon figures of apes that look like a reject from a Hanna Barbara whiteboarding session.
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If you want a part of internet history download an old copy of the Mosaic browser for free. You don't need to pay 6 figures for poorly done cartoon figures of apes that look like a reject from a Hanna Barbara whiteboarding session.
Thanks to 'social' media, we now live in a world full of narcissists. You tell me which one of those actions actually holds value to them. You'll quickly see why being a member of Mosaic downloads, wasn't for sale.
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Re: Misleading headline (Score:2)
People will never have nostalgia for anything created after about the mid 00s.
Re: Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Mostly because there will never be a scarcity of it.
Old NES cartridges can command outrageous prices at auctions because they are scarce. Multiplying them is nontrivial. Sure, you can put them on an emulator and play them, but that's not the point.
But that is all you have for media created in the past 15 years. There is hardly anything that could be considered scarce in a world of digital downloads.
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Oh there will probably be some issues that become valuable. Mostly those that had to be yanked from circulation prematurely because they touched a subject that must not be touched, and thus only a few copies were ever sold.
These will be the copies that are missing in your collection because you couldn't get your hands on them and the lack of which stand out like a sore thumb in your otherwise flawless collection, which also explains why they are so terribly expensive. Because, guess what, you're not the onl
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
The headline is misleading because it used the wrong word. NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless.
Not sure it's all that misleading. As my father told me, anything is worth what someone else will pay. For all we know, 23 million people know full well they hold assets that may be technically valueless right now, but still are worth something to them personally as being part of internet history.
And if you want confirmation as to my fathers theory, 10 years from now we'll see some kind of resurgence selling NFTs for far more than they've ever sold for, because they're "rare first gen vintage" or some shit. Watch.
You are missing one fact, they don't physically own anything, they only own something like a digital signature to a https link. Once the domain name is gone because nobody is interested in the whole thing, then they'll simply own a signature to a dead link. Maybe a signature to a dead link will be worth something, who knows? I doubt it although but we will see I guess...
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People were selling "replica" NFTs a while back. Value approximately the same as a JPEG of the Mona Lisa.
The Metaverse is next. A few are already dead. I saw a video where some guy was talking about how valuable all the virtual real-estate was, and because it was linked to the Blockchain (TM) you could make real money in it! Then he causally mentioned that he had been at his virtual job for 2 days and already made a whole $2.37. Think of the potential!
Re:Misleading headline (Score:4, Insightful)
True - if you were dumb enough to buy one of these things at this point you should probably remain committed to your strategy of "HODL".
Once you have held an investment through the decline of almost all its value you might has well stick it a drawer somewhere in case it turns into some weird nostalgia thing. Example I had a box of about 10 ITT Starplus phones from the late 80s. Totally worthless through most of the 90s and 2000s but it would have been more effort to lug them down from the attic and bin them so I did not. Not so long ago I see on in the antique store with $20 price tag on it. WTF - but whatever.
I went home got my box of 10 sold them to the dealer for $10 each! $100 for some trash I'd been to lazy to get rid of... My understanding is the beanie babies are working the same way. People are willing to pay for them again, not much but if you have one someone remembers having once had they might give the price of a fast food meal for it. The nice thing about NFTs I suppose is they don't take up space...Might as well hang on, it costs you nothing.
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The headline is misleading because it used the wrong word. NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless.
Either/or... one can assume the headline has a 5% margin of error.
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The headline is misleading because it used the wrong word. NFTs were always worthless. 95% might now be valueless.
Yeah, I came in specifically to say they should replace 95 with 100, and replace "may now be" with "are" in order to make the headline a true, factual statement. As it is, it's softballing the truth to comfort the dumbasses that bought in. Sometimes it's OK to let someone know they're stupid and/or ignorant. While you can't help stupid, you can educate ignorance away. Being careful not to hurt feelings is a great way to avoid correcting past mistakes. Let's just be honest.
OMG! (Score:3)
Samuel Johnson called lotteries a tax on the daft. I wonder what he'd say about NFTs?
Re:OMG! (Score:4, Funny)
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The server holding the links didnt have a ups backup and crashed. No more nfts can be used as the links are all broken.
NFT are paid links. You dont control the bits just the link to a picture if a server fails the link dies and your NFT is worthless
Go see gowany geocities picture are around
Re:OMG! (Score:4, Funny)
Your link now points to a picture putting the original goatse.cx to shame. Advertising that you are the 'one and only true owner' of the link may now actually be detrimental to you...
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Tax on the people that show up in the intersect of the Venn diagram between "greedy", "thinking they know better than everyone who has a clue of investment" and "not knowing fuck all about investing and how value of things work".
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Tax on the people that show up in the intersect of the Venn diagram between "greedy", "thinking they know better than everyone who has a clue of investment" and "not knowing fuck all about investing and how value of things work".
Yes, because investing is crystal clear as to why 'fine' art is worth tens of millions quite often displayed on the walls of those abusing them as tax shelters, right? Wonder how many 'morons' will end up in that intersect when a stock market crashes.
Not defending NFT 'investing', but let's stop pretending the rest of the house of cards, isn't.
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The art market was (and probably still is, despite attempts to curtail it) mostly a money laundering gambit. My guess is that they tried the same with NFTs but it just didn't work out.
Which is a shame, the main problem with art money laundering is transporting those damn paintings.
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The Geneva freeport ain't what it used to be. Switzerland is trying to crack down on the whole shenanigans, so bunkering your art pieces there ain't a good idea in the long run anymore.
Barbados and Antigua are way more "safe" in this regard... but you should bring your own security personnel, just saying.
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I actually think "at this point" buying an original Hunter Biden probably an awful investment right now, but in some years when Hunter is no longer part of the weekly Sunday show conversation, those things will probably hit a floor in value.
When that happens it might be worth snapping one up cheaply, old political buttons, lawn signs etc, if there were from someone of national prominence often end up being pretty sought after.
They might not be great art but probably will be valued for the absurd conversatio
Re: OMG! (Score:3)
The "anonymous" buyers of Hunter's artwork are likely not interested in publicizing their "investment". Any real value his painting actually hold is tied more to the physical size and how well the colors match your sofa.
Bold prediction - no art museum will EVER exhibit Hunter's artwork. you may, in the future, see examples of his artwork in history books as a brazen method to publicly solicit money from people hoping to influence the artist's father, and how a Presidential administration equated ignorance o
Fewer than 1% have a price tag above $6,000 (Score:3, Insightful)
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Same reason this egg here has a value of 1000 bucks. I traded it for two magical beans each valued at 500 bucks by mw.
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OP says that valuation is based on market cap.
So when each NFT were last sold, what is the price they were sold for. It's zero if put on sale and not sold.
All of them could be of zero value today if put back on sale. Which is likely closer to truth than 95% figure offered.
Surprised? (Score:2)
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The gullible are forever surprised when their grand fantasies of how the world works do not work out.
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Rest assured, we'll have a big conspiracy theory around it in a few, where Da Man and big money (and Soros somehow) intervened and destroyed it ...somehow because it threatened their world domination plans.
It just cannot be that the main reason is that they don't know fuck all about investing and how the value of a product is determined. It just CANNOT be that they were stupid and thus easy prey for con-artists.
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What is it with a certain type of human where things that _cannot_ be are hot candidates for the actual truth. The Dunning-Kruger Effect is really the most important piece of psychological research of the last century. Pity so few people actually seem to know it. Well, that is somehow a self-confirming effect of it.
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Only 95%? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or does this mean the other 5% have _negative_ worth? Because that would be plausible.
Re:Only 95%? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, you have to read the headline properly. 95% MAY be worthless.
For the 5% we examined so far, we already know they are.
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Hmm. Makes sense to me.
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Yeah, I'm kinda amazed that there are still enough suckers out there who think that the remaining 5% actually have some value.
These people have heard of screenshot tools, right? If you want a copy of this weird looking artwork, it's pretty easy to get one for free.
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Well, I always thought "there is a sucker born every minute" was hyperbole. With NFTs, I have now changed my mind on that.
NFT pyramid collapses, crypto is not far behind (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NFT pyramid collapses, crypto is not far behind (Score:4, Interesting)
Despite govts trying to ban in, crypto is not going away. Cryptocurrencies on the other hand may lose their value, but those that get to earn from inflation (ie, government and financials) fight hard to degrade the value of fiat, which helps even speculative bastards keep cryptocurrencies afloat. But indeed, legitimate use of those (ie, enabling transactions that the government considers illegitimate) is not going well.
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Despite govts trying to ban in, crypto is not going away. Cryptocurrencies on the other hand may lose their value, but those that get to earn from inflation (ie, government and financials) fight hard to degrade the value of fiat, which helps even speculative bastards keep cryptocurrencies afloat. But indeed, legitimate use of those (ie, enabling transactions that the government considers illegitimate) is not going well.
Which govts, specifically western govts, are banning crypto?
It's just that banks, national and private, aren't treating it as a currency and rightly so. I can imagine Visa/MC having a go at trying to get it illegalised because it bypasses their monopolies on transactions.
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Was the pyramid scheme the death of the dollar? CDOs the death of real estate investing? The Great Depression the death of capitalism?
Dial down the fucking drama already.
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You can always create a wallet anonymously from a public WiFi or an anonymous prepaid SIM or something, and then fill it up with cash using one of those "Bitcoin ATMs". Then you can send that money abroad without trying to going through airport security or border checkpoints with a suitcase full of cash (which will raise some questions). That
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At the mercy of government allowing exchanges access to the digital financial system. If they cut exchanges off it's all over, it can't survive on in person trading.
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The record of which Bitcoin ATM you used is there forever. Your cell phone location record of you being near it will be there for a long time. Traffic camera pictures will also be there. Bitcoin ATM security footage will be there. The withdrawal record in a foreign country will be on the chain. Corelating who was near both the deposit and withdrawal events across continents narrows down suspect pool significantly. Way too much information, each seeming innocent, but together ties you to the transaction(s). Check out crypto currency forensics topics, see how authorities have tracked down suspects using bitcoin and other currencies. Not all information is available, but even what is, tells you how bitcoin is far from anonymous.
Excellant points. Once you have identified one entity in the chain, you can use that info to identify further ones.
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The fungibility helps, the NFT market can go to zero far faster than bitcoin because you need a specific moron to buy it, for bitcoin the morons are fungible just as the token.
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Remaining 5% are money laundering tool (Score:3)
The remaining 5% that are not worthless are useful as a money laundering tool, until the authorities catch up, and that would them 100% worthless.
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No, at that point their worth goes negative - you really don't want to be caught in possession of NFTs used in a money laundromat.
As for me, as soon as I heard about them (in a Slashdot poll) I decided they were an idiot tax.
Just out of interest, can those who lost money on these - or other similar scams - set their losses off against tax? I'm assuming the answer varies from country to country, and maybe even between US states.
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generally you can offset the losses against your gains. if you have no gains, you have a few years to try and get some to offset.
with nfts if there is no liquidity left you can either give them away or send them to the burn address. this is the same as writing them down to zero.
Surplus supply you say? (Score:5, Insightful)
Turns out voodoo economics is still voodoo economics.
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Supply side economics assumes the supply is something that has real world value such as food.
NFT never had real world value. It was always a scam. Food is not a scam.
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Some food is a scam. Meringue is just a clever marketing plot to sell you air.
+1 Funny - if I had Mod points
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They literally admit to selling you less yoghurt for the same price because it had more air in it.
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and they tried to say that it was healthier because all the air it contains means you eat less.
If that is true than it is healthier. Our world has a great need for many people to eat less, ideally without feeling hungry.
I believe Nelson Muntz said it best: (Score:2)
HA HA!
Tulips (Score:2)
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And those tulips at least grew nice looking flowers while NFTs are actually completely without any value.
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But but I own an NFT of a tulip in bloom!
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Really? Which one [google.com] is yours?
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Omg you bastard you're cutting into my tulip NFT revenue stream!
You have no right to post a link to my content!
Expect to hear from my lawyers by end of day!
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OMG, please don't tell me you're sending the tulip lawyers [tulip-law.com] after me!
I hereby forfeit all claims to tulips, their bulbs or their mosaic virus, I never wanted to be a bloomer or even stalker, I swear!
95% may be worthless (Score:3)
For the other 5%, we are pretty certain.
$2.8 billion pissed away/month (Score:2)
Article does not say what the total of the highest price paid for all those now zero price NFTs was but we know billions were transferred from stupid people to scammers.
Really (Score:2)
Buying something not in the phisical world. something you can't touch , feel , use , is a bad deal to start with. .. a peter idiot nft is nothing of the sort.
A Picasso is a good investment
Got to be realistic.
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A Picasso is just a dumb drawing. what you want to put it on your wall. Ugh.
Got to be realistic.
"May" (Score:2)
That's a strange way to spell "Are". Error margin: +/- 5%.
The final NFT (Score:2)
bet I know who wasn't left holding the parcel (Score:2)
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when the music stopped.
SBF and Caroline ?
Asking for a friend
NFTs as copyright for AI generated Art (Score:2)
Just wait a couple decades (Score:2)
It'll come back in style for nostalgia's sake. Don't open the bo!
Great scam to sell people bookmarks. (Score:2)
Really? (Score:2)
I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked
only 95% (Score:2)
I'm more surprised that 5% still have some value. Wow! How did that happen?
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They can be used to show ownership of physical goods. For example, an auto manufacturer can mint an NFT for each vehicle they make, with the VIN embedded in the NFT. When the car is sold, the NFT is transferred to the new owner. This transfer happens at the speed of the blockchain which, even on a bad day, is certain to be faster than the government is doing it now.