Have you not heard about "THE Metaverse" / NFT's?

Have you not heard about "THE Metaverse" / NFT's?

The short of it is, if this were 150 years ago, towns folks would be asking their neighbors "have you heard about Snake Oil, laced with Mormonism".

Where to even begin with this mess, this is one serious onion to peel apart. Where the worst onions to unravel have rotted cores.

So I have this self-described "degenerate gambler" friend, brother. Casinos to conveniently located, whatever. You blow money you didnt have to work for, you get high off it it turns out for some people. Like oh, most everyone else would have had to work all week to maybe get what I spent in 2 hours just now. But hey there's a drug addiction parallel component to the thing, you consider at least.

That's the backstory, and of course easy money reality people would have been eying how easy money its been for some using Bitcoin, you know that "blockchain thing".

So all the sudden, brother be lighting me up about WOAH "The Metaverse", er NFT's.

Okay, well what is that?

"It's this new like um Internet thing or something", and its blockchain so its 'just money'".

NFT's, ok, what are those, oh, some fancy way to buy art (specifically: digital images etc on your computer of choise) or something, that's based on Bitcoin and just look how much money people made with Bitcoin!!!

Okay, well here's the thing, for effectively eternity now everyone can go on Google Images alone and download wallpapers, porn, artsy fartsy images, memes, and so on. DOWNLOAD them for free. No one cares. Its ubiquitous!

So then why the hell on that front would I bother to go setup some fancy wallet to then spends like more towards THOUSANDS of dollars for images on my computer? How many images on my PC have I ever paid for at all (ZERO), and all of them, I mean fine if paying for images was how it always was, how many would I have bought, on the simple premise I spend 2 weeks or even one hours pay, now I have it in my computer, OH of course I just got off work I had better go open that thing up and stare at it. Check me out! The more I spend the better it gets, RIGHT???

Already this thing is sunk, right?

NOPE! But wait, there's more...

It's not just obscenely over-prices photos and crap, no this is the ticket to the like New Internet. Of course, THE Metaverse. It's VR and stuff, the Future. And its MONEY. Ok, how do I get started?

Right here, it's called The Sandbox, and dig Snoop Dogg Is charging like thousands of dollars access to go check out his little map therein.

Ok, lets check it out. What does this new cutting edge world look like???

Well here's a map from the place, er world:



Here's what this (um video game?) looks like:



Mind you, according to them, this The Sandbox thing is THE Metaverse...

And here's what it costs to play, or is it live, here:



Oh apologies, it's like literally $10,000 for a typical parcel.

Fine, I haven't dug deep on this one since back in winter, but woah stuff to build your house like lamps and stuff, think the old 90's game The Sims here, was like $200-300 for lamps and chairs and crap.

So this, THIS VIDEO GAME, has declared itself as THE Metaverse, singular, like well wait a minute, what about say Facebook this year rebranded itself to "Meta" (as in Metaverse).

Lets back up. Now we're squarely on "Metaverse". All these companies, like office big business sorts, in this new teleworking world, oh ya, everyone might come to work in a VR headset I guess. VR still isnt mainstream gaming even, but maybe that is the future of etc, so lets give them the benefit of the doubt here even that you might come to work via the Internet and 3D world gamish experience. Or at least thats a big vision for many.

But the reality here is, to speak in 90's network engineering terms, back then each office was its own intranet, that it connected to the Internet. The idea for any such property to declare itself THE Internet, come on not even Google has ever done that to this day I really doubt.

So The Internet is already THE Metaverse, if we're going to speak in something along these lines will ever expectedly be some all encompassing, singular, thing.

We've already had all along metaverses. Each online game has been one. Each office intranet has been one. Each social media platform. All various micro or even mega social cosmos, within the online universe known as The Internet.

I mean, right? Maybe I'm missing something here?

So, back in January, I dug. Who's behind this "Sandbox" thing. Some company. And I dug into them. It's a video game company, so lets see their elite game developer staff. What bigshots in the industry, with their like billions of dollars of working capital from this scheme, have they been hiring? Results were literally nobody.

en.wikipedia.org...

They were already at like a billion in investments and revenue by then, this is all about the future and they're it! Right? So why the hell wouldnt the whole gaming industry guru sorts be flocking there? They had the money. Your money!

Because the house wins!

Casinos dont need the best card hustlers on the planet, they just need to make sure the house always wins. Your money.

Is this maxim of the world wrong? Certainly is if you judge by the previous game they had been operating on...

This one is even more crazy huckster scheme material, the premise is you get paid to play. But of course you have to pay money to be in it. And just like The Sandbox has its own really exotic looking like stock marketish interface, so does this one. (They've buried the damned puzzle game, am looking for now sorry guys.) Each of which I looked at pretty good when I did, I'd bet that to truly understand how either work, The Sandbox real estate scheme style would make more sense. My impression of them both is, its just so brilliant what they did here, its so hard to understand. Of course this is The Future. It's brilliant, and its based on Bitcoin right?

Nope.

Here's the reality of computers, the Internet, games, all of it. Within 3 months everything is already obsolete. So this idea, fine in the future eventually everyone will be doing this VR headset metaverses infused lifestyle, but by whenever that is this The Sandbox game that charges 10's of thousands of dollar to have anything in... It looks like Minecraft. More people play Minecraft. Hell it's probably free by now like so many other boss ultimate gaming experience titles. By the time metaverse lifestyle is actually big money, everyones going to go back in time to play some knock off Minecraft looking game? And go ahead and skip all the endless way better than Minecraft games out there in so many ways to boot?

Note Animoca Brands didnt even develop The Sandbox. Or even ________________. They just bought into certain games that were scam, or then made them scam. I actually went on Steam about The Sandbox. Mixed reviews. Never a game to buy on there.

Perhaps the real minjob of this Sandbox thing is, all the videos I've played, I havent even seen what it looks like in a VR headset. It's all third person views. If you know a video of that we should all see please do post it!

Just another ponzi scheme, that snake oil line, was golden.

SF

billions in NFTs below at this link

for free

get your right click on

thenftbay.org...

a reply to: Lysergic

This piece was draft when finally I posted. Wasnt supposed to be but it got desperate trying to upload images for it the site is messed up.

Its late. Was trying to work my way down.

For real, they're challenging to research on Google now. In January, it came right up Animoca Brands, their Wikipedia basically said The Sandbox, and this other basically puzzle game. Both game sthey had just bought. And that puzzle game is what I started talking about in the end there.

I had to get clever just now to even find the parent company name via the Google, Wikipedia is scrubbed. I did figure out the category of said puzzle game, still havent found it as of yet despite deliberate witting intent, because they have all these new ones to muck thru first...

But their huckster game scheme is Play To Earn P2E, instead of Pay to Win P2W. But at least with that puzzle game, oh you still paid.

...

Oh yeah, for sure, sit around playing video games about nothing, you get paid yo!!! Its like Facebook's "Custom Gender" iteration of gamer lifestyle innuendo.

Ok, games, er excuse me "metaverse" trailers. I showed you said third person perspective game trailer. Of the era of the last decade. Well here's some other metaverses, of the video game varieties, from the previous decade that might just give that game a run for its ponzi scheme (at least as far as epic scale and like replay value is concerned):



Oh wait that wasnt a trailer exactly, sorry. I'm falling asleep here.

a reply to: godsovein

NFT is a non-fungible token.

When you buy a BTC, aside from the blockchain history of that particular token, it is interchangeable with any other BTC and is functionally the same.

To imply NFTs are merely digital art is like saying the Internet is merely cat videos. While it's an amusing joke due to the proliferation of both crappy digital art NFTs and cat videos on the Internet, it's not a really accurate picture of the whole system. It's important people understand what NFTs are and what they'll be used for. It's not a question of if, but a question of how soon this happens.

NFTs can be customized, and it's already happening, to hold all the records of real property. An NFT can be attached to physical art, cars, or anything you wish that is real property. Real estate titles will likely end up as tokenized assets, even being compatible with institutional digital accounts at banks. Tokenized property is merely a digital record of ownership. It can also be used in games or the metaverse (TBA) for unique items allowing for the owner to sell or trade within that ecosystem. The more exclusive the ecosystem the more likely it will have pricetags attached. It will be pay to win taken from gaming to the real world.

As a token it means you can digitally "sign" transfer of this property to others. It will also allow for fractional ownership of those assets. Essentially working as a digital contract. I'm not sure how advanced that aspect is right now, but if it isn't already worked out it will be. Integrated with smart contracts it will allow seamless integration with financial products like loans and transactions, executing transfers when contractual obligations are met.

It's a scam right now for those that aren't educated on the topic. As Lysergic pointed out in theory I could mint a hundred NFTs that are virtually identical and sell them as unique art. There is really nothing protecting the image from a simple copy and paste. The prices are mostly based on hype and they have no real value beyond what somebody is willing to pay. This won't be the case for long. Trademarks and copyrights have already entered the scene. The Mickey Mouse NFT for sale today will eventually be noticed by Disney and either the owner will pay for a license or the property will be forfeited. It's going to be a legal mess eventually. As the market cap increases it will eventually become large enough for megacorps to make their move.

The metaverse will end up being whatever platform or platforms are the most widely adopted. What you see now is just a shadow of the future. As augmented reality devices become more common and widespread digital property will become attached to more and more of the world we view around us. Just as Google maps shows points of interest and advertising, so too will the augmented reality interfaces people use. NFTs tied to your digital identity will be used for things as mundane as your gym membership and concert tickets, but also for things like your home and car. Your identity itself will probably end up being a defacto NFT, it's contents also a catalog of your records and property.

The metaverse will bring much of the invisible digital world, which already exists as data, to the forefront. The digital overlay will be accessible via things like Google glass or your phone navigation. Some realtime augmented reality already exists with apps adding digital elements to camera displays combining the visual display with geolocation to show points of interest. Eventually your trip to the museum will have a digital docent accompanying you through heads up displays, taking the place of purely audio tours. Some people may even make custom mods for these kinds of things. It'll be interesting to see how many applications it has. Advertising space will probably be a big one with digital billboards attached to physical space in these metaverses. People will pay premiums for digital items like they do for designer handbags, visible only to others using the platform.

99% of the NFT market that exists now, like all of crypto, will be dead in the coming years. As commercial adoption picks up the wheat will be separated from the chaff. Government regulations will increase the barriers to entry. Those that remain will be used institutionally and there will likely be industry wide standards in place to ensure compatibility.

I don't have much hope that it will be equitable, open, and free of being commercialized beyond belief. It will get very hard to completely opt out as more and more is tied to this digital world. Even opting out of the flashy augmented reality aspects will probably not be enough. Digital ID is almost certain to be foisted upon us soon. Hopefully people fight like hell to retain some assurances that it doesn't turn into the same kind of data harvesting grift the Internet has become. I don't think the younger generations care though, so it may be moot. Given the trajectory of invasive surveillance and government control it has the potential to be quite dystopian.

a reply to: godsovein

I can't help but feeling that a lot of the NFT trading is based on artist popularity. Not talking about ingame assets, but the actual NFT art. It's the new Insta for artists. After spending some time in the community, and having made some NFT myself I realized that people don't buy them because of the esthetics but because the creator is a popular social media personality. (but I guess that is also true for actual art).
A lot of it is basic crap!

I did earn some pocket money when NFT started to become trending, by buying up old Crypto Kitties on Opensea, and selling them with profit. It was fun for as long as it lasted, but now prices are insane

A fool and his money are soon parted.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

Can you please try to explain how in what universe in any way shape or form it improves anything, makes anything easier, is needed at all?

And in abstract terms I'm even handing it to you.

But then explain how in 2022 to have some etc picture of something on my phone or desktop, to look at, in a ocean of art and images and etc, why I'd ever pay $800 for some whatever image that at some moment during my day might just hit the spot????

Especially in a reality where, every moment of the day, every possible thing I could want or need to look at, I can do a free Google search results and scroll until I find the piece I needed or yearned for. In that scope, to me, the idea of paying $800 for a picture on my computer, it had better be the most best thing I've ever seen on it, like comparing being able to watch Bob Ross for free on television, compared to having my own original Da Vinci painting in front of me forever on my wall.

So please show me how the best of what such is all about, that I cant one up all week long with free desktop wallpapers, alone. Porn is even technically free at this point.

a reply to: godsovein
I'm explaining facts to you, not giving you value-laden qualitative analysis on the merits. If you don't like the facts then you can spin them however you want. For the people that bothered to read my post it was a warning about how this technology can be used for control and the way it will be incorporated into daily life.

NFTs are not digital art. They are a way of tokenizing real property, the rights that ownership conveys, and a way to seamlessly integrate with finance. It's a digital title with cryptographic protection. It's not that complicated. An NFT can be attached to a junk car, a Rolex, or a multimillion dollar penthouse suite. It's merely a way of maintaining digital titles. Obviously the real value of pixel art is zero. The real value of a house is whatever the market will bear. Either can be digitized through an NFT.

The advantages will be irrelevant to you unless you're somebody in one of the industries that will be moving to this kind of platform. Fine art, luxury goods, and real estate are all moving in this direction. I am not going to further explain it. Like billions of others you'll be one more ignorant user of complicated financial infrastructure you don't understand. That's exactly how they'd prefer it.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

The only fact I can see mattering is the one where for what reason does anyone need to learn some new like stock market'esque economic currency thingie, to well pay exorbitant amounts of cash for like pictures. I can look at one the phone. Whatever. Such a future, where for effectively if not for eternity in "Internet" chronological terms, what ever sort of image you could ever want or need to look at at any moment during any day, you can find it for free.

There is a logic to paying like $800 for a work of art, and it like comes, is delivered even, they come hang it on the wall. There it is every time you pass by it. Emotions, memories are evoked each time.

So please help me understand where, that notion of art, all the sudden paying for images on our phones to that tunes of dollars makes sense to like ANYONE???

Mind you, digital media ALWAYS gets better. And old data ALWAYS gets lost. Hard drives fail like crazy in my experience.

Argh. Here it is: $800 for some cool picture on my computer phone in my pocke, it could make a a lot of sense, if like pretty much everyones most favorite interactions with the Internet was not rooted in the nature of its being: freely look up and share images. That others would like. Cameras int eh phones bro, half the stuff people might be most fon of they look at not even 'paintings' or whatever. They just wanna see photos of their little brothers, their nieces. Etc.

h please charge me, oh phone app i elected to get fleeced by, $60 per photo my brother sends me of his kids. Non-fungible! He only sent it to me, I'm the only one that had them medias, poof makes perfect sense amiwrong????

a reply to: godsovein

Cool rant, bro.

The answer hasn't changed since the last two times I answered.

Please enjoy some non-NFT digital art.