arent nfts, like, supposed to be morally wrong idk i saw a twitter tweet about it or something
You'll see me dead before I join the most obnoxious circlejerk of a community that is the crypto-nerds.
Beyond environmental issues. There is a lot of issues with stolen art being sold on NFT markets. There has also been issues with accounts being hacked and people stealing others NFTs. NFTs are also ripe for illegal money trading. From money laundry to tax evasion.
The very concept of NFTs affecting already existing media (charlie bit me video, etc), how it could lead to more strict restrictions on how we access/save/use files from the internet if successful, how easy it is to "steal" NFTs people share with little to no change on the quality and compression of the original product, and the kind of people and soulless art behind it, makes me hope it doesn't last long.
I don't think the idea by itself is bad, perhaps some of it could even help artists from having their art uncredited and used for purposes unknown to the creator of the art, but it feels like a dirty move from coorporations and the like to get more people into crypto.
One just can hope the future gives a far more efficient technology, and less dumb ways to use it.
Also, no. Why would I NFT my comic?
I'll always welcome money because S T U D E N T D E B T but what's the point of making money from a comic few people can access to spread and share with friends?
I made a hard pass on the crypto currency years ago, NFT is no different and I will actively restrict/block anyone related to it. I simply don't wish to engage or humor anyone affiliated to it either 
Not to mention that it won't hurt my life experience to filter that stuff out. Got plenty of entertainment ready at hand that don't involve toxic practice or marketing.
It's a GOOD question!
With all the voices on Tapas, let me shed you some light.
First, I need you to remove and forget about all the NFT knowledge you had learned from whoever and whatever person you learn it from.
Secondly, I need you to understand what is Decentralised Storage System and IPFS.
Third, I need you to re-learn how a Non-Fungible Token works and help artists in the future.
If you are unable to do that, sorry, better keep the idea to yourself at this time.
If you can do it. Let's continue...
Key point 1: NFS as Proof of Membership
Where it is a tool to ensure your supporter is able to directly reward you and access your content after they pay you. It is like a service, it helps you to manage your supporters without the need for a centralised platform.
Example Tapas, you need to go through Tapas to connect with your subscriber. With NFT, the interaction between you and your subscribers are two-way, direct. You may code your system to manage the NFT owner, like a membership system.
- Is that an advantage? Yes and no! NFT will only help famous and larger artists who already have some followers and fans that they are able to be independent on their own. But small artists like those in Tapas still need a CENTRALISED community here to support each other. So NFT generally does not benefit the smaller artists in a whole.
- Personal take: at the moment, too many hypes and scams in the realm. A lot of people are on NFT just for the money and not for the art. So we need time to wait for it to cool down. Again, it will still go to the question above. Will it benefit small artists like us? Nope.
Key point 2: NFS as Intellectual Property Rights
The more valuable feature of NFT is that you may permanently date your works on IPFS and secure it and no one shall be able to tamper the data that is already on the chain. That is some strong form of protection over your work. However, is that something you can bring to the court for any potential violation of IP rights?
- Let's look at the case of Beeple. He explicitly uses the trademark of Disney and sells his work as an NFT. Disney was unable to bring him to court for many reasons. One is the method of exchange for the NFT is not in an enforceable currency, another issue is, the location where it took place.
- Thus, it comes to a question, if we are the original author, how can NFT protect our IP other than protecting our claim of the published date? At the moment, it does nothing other than that. Due to no country having established any policy or rules regarding that. That's why we haven't heard Disney took any legal action on Beeple yet. And he is lucky, that he gets away with it. But all came back to the fact that others may still steal your work and sell it. Therefore, NFT is not a good IP protection tool.
Key Point 3: NFT as Tool of Royalty
One advantage of NFT is its ability to reward the author with the pre-programmed royalty system. Example, author issue NFT, sell it to owner A, and then owner A sell it to owner B, the part of the selling profit will be rewarded to author automatically. This system is designed to fix the problem of existing auction system that does not benefit the original author.
- The royalty system does help the author, but it will only work when the author themselves can become famous and highly desirable.
- This system can also be useful if you use NFT as membership. It means your membership can be transferable yet you still earn profit from part of the transfer activity.
- This might be something promising for artists. However, one must read the smart contract to learn whether this system was programmed properly into or not. At the moment, a lot of NFT services smart contracts are still not publicly accessed, means, they are not fully open source! You'll be surprised, the site might tell you they are open source, in fact, how many of you seriously go and check their git and try to run their git? I would like to let you know this truth, very very little! Artists, most of us are not engineers and not educated in computer science (I am professional, and also a "person in the art" <- legal term) thus, a lot of them fall in a trap of fraudulent NFT platforms.
Summary...
To issue an NFT, it is expensive! The cheapest that I know of, well still cost around USD1 for a single file. If you are not using the IPFS, there is no point to do an NFT. Unless you are focus on key point one, which is the membership management, yes, may be you will have better success. But if all you want is to get rich quick like Beeple, you better don't involve in the realm! As for the environmental concern... well, I guess those who wrote about those long long argument never really know where the major environmental impact really from. I can always post more long long long articles that counter that. but then, will they read it? nope! As in Tapas, there aren't many novel readers, most are comic readers. So I doubt people will read my reply too. LOL.
okay, so let me just do the same thing... yes, by sharing some long long article for the pro-blockchain argument on the environmental issues. So this is not trying to start a war in this forum okay, if you really into it, you may read it. if not into it... it is still okay to be ignorant. Here's one SHORT article, please take note about the source of the article is from OECD:
https://www.oecd.org/finance/Blockchain-technologies-as-a-digital-enabler-for-sustainable-infrastructure-key-findings.pdf1
And another additional note about the environment. If you are still drinking with a plastic straw, if you are still ordering take-away with disposable containers, you're contributing to the harm of the environment way worst than using decentralised technology!
Who am I? I'm a professional technologist. My comments above were not paid and It should not serve as any financial advice.
But I hope one day the decentralised technology shall redeem itself and may the next generation of interconnectivity and trust be developed into something that can benefit the world. Peace!
I’m an artist and I have been educated in computer science.
I don’t even think cryptobros understand computer science. Most of them just want to make money.
What? I feel like you only covered the tip of the iceberg. I hate NFTs because I went deeper into the well, and I just ended up hating them more. I first were aware of them in 2017. So a lot of what I read predates 2020. I read a lot about Cyptokitties, which was sort of a mess.
Beeple (who I was also familiar with before he sold NFTs) was extremely popular digital artist known for posting daily. He only expected his work to get a few thousand dollars and also does not seem confident in the future of NFTs. He also sent all his buys physical copies. Beyond just issues with Disney, some of his art is made of assets and images he found on Google.
That is a photo of juice with a filter over it and all the people are 3D models with filters.
I don’t think he is a good example of how NFTs can benefit artist. I think he got lucky. And I really do not want to see Beeple clones.
I really don't know jack about NFTs to have an informed opinion on either side, but I appreciate you taking the time to write up a counterpoint and a different point of view.
Not many people are willing to do that these days, and they let the echo chamber drone out their voice.
bruuuuh, that... pretty iffy my dude.
The main diffrence is... YOU DONT NEED Nft's in your life.
plastic straws or really Soooo many plastic shirt and appliances however , unless your country is actively not using them are regulating them and making the alternatives inexpensive. You will be forced to use it. And even then they're places that are actually getting rid of that. So this is just guilt trippy as hell.
NFT's you bought and wasted cash. harmed the environment for really nothing.
Im sorry but this devil's advocates thing is pretty iff with how I've seen the crypto bros spaces.
Just a bunch of guilt tripping, scammers, shady people and get rich quick misters.
with most defendants actually involved.
Do I believe crypto is the future?
Yeah probably, but not as it is now, with everyone thinking they know shit. When they literally know jack. And how unregulated it is. So NFT's as of now for art, no not supporting it or anyone who does.
Forgetting our knowledge is stupid as hell, when that knowlage actually have only shown this shit stinks
I find this joke pretty funny, NFTs are nothing but a scam by morons who get mad at people for using the save picture feature on every device
not only is this guilt-trippy, but it's also ableist and classist.
A lot of disabled people are dependent on plastic straws for hydration and food consumption. You wanna point your finger at them for being a harm for the environment for literally surviving?
Also: A lot of people cant afford to live waste-free/plastic-free. You realize how privileged you are if you actually can????? Living waste free is fucking expensive.
And you wanna tell me that producing trash for LITERALLY LIVING AND SURVIVING is makes you JUST AS BAD as a cryptobro who tosses thousands of dollars on a few pixels that created UNNECCESSARY ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE????
You cant compare a luxury good like an NFT to actual human neccesseties. Get your priorities straight.
some people literally cant survive without single use plastic. but every human being on planet earth can survive without NFTs.
No cryptobro / NFT-artist has ever given a solid counter argument against the environmental damage. All they give is guilt tripping and "What about"-isms that counter nothing.
Either that or they completely ignore it because they literally dont give a fuck.
and idk what's worse tbh
I'm pretty frustrated reading this thread, tbh. There are a lot of folks in here yelling pretty loud that don't know what they're talking about. There are a lot of people passing judgements about crypto in this thread that don't own or know the first thing about crypto or the crypto space. This is how misinformation gets started and gets spread.
Take the environmental concerns for example. Do you even know why the carbon footprint for some crypto is so large? There are many MANY different blockchains, and are secured in a variety of different ways. Some are proof of work, some are proof of stake, some are proof of authority, etc. On top of that, there are significant variations on each of these proof methods that make each blockchain unique. Proof of work often gets blamed for being the environmental offender, though there are networks like Helium that use a wholly different version of proof of work that requires almost no energy at all by comparison. There are also many blockchains that are making moves to eliminate the vast majority of their carbon footprint by moving to different proof methods. Ethereum for example will be going proof of stake towards the end of the year. I haven't even touched on multilayer blockchains here, or the incentivization for carbon neutral renewables by the crypto miners themselves, dumping money into the renewable energy markets.
NFTs are stored on a vast number of different blockchains, each with their own unique ecosystems and pros and cons. Crypto is an extremely complex and rapidly changing environment. Claiming that "all NFTs are bad for the environment" is not only naive, but straight up wrong. Claiming that crypto in general is a scam or a pyramid scheme shows a complete lack of experience with the space. These are gross oversimplifications. These are things you say when your opinion is second hand, and regurgitated from opinions you read on the internet. Do your own research. Nothing is black and white, especially something as vast and complex as cryptocurrency, and you need to have real active experience in something in order to understand it properly.
Please stop yelling opinions about things you don't understand. You're doing far more damage than good.
I don't like how people hyper focus on the environmental side when there are a lot of issues with NFTs that people do not talk about.
A great example of how deep and complex this topic is, which is exactly my point. This is not a black and white issue, and is vastly different depending many factors like on who's minting the NFT, what blockchain it's on, what the NFT contains, current and future regulations, copyright laws, financial laws, etc. etc. etc. I could go on.
I'm an active professional in the technology and art fields, but I'm not an expert in international law, global financial markets, or bleeding edge encryption tech, and afaik neither is anybody else in this thread.
Yup, in fact, I've long getting tired of replying anything related to it.
But this is first time on Tapas, and since I didn't saw any pro-voices here, so might as well write something different to spark some conversation.
I think there could be some value to NFTs for artists but I have not had much interest in learning more about it. I am, however, familiar with some use of NFTs for tax write offs and money laundering.
Areas with anonymity and unclear regulatory implications are the wild west; that's why we see these scams popping up with DeFi in general. @NickRowler and @TedGravesArt have a good point on that. I don't have a heavy opinion since I'm still pretty ignorant though
It can definitely have value but it's not in a great state right now