Line Goes Up—The Problem With NFTs—is a two-hour YouTube documentary that takes a hard look at the new investment vehicle that everyone from Waka Flacka Flame to Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton is embracing.
Tokens created on NFTs have fundamental challenges that Dan Olson, a YouTuber and documentary filmmaker, addresses in this video. A “greater fool scam” is what Olson refers to as crypto and NFTs. In order to make money, you have to buy worthless assets with the hope that you may later sell them to a larger fool.
YouTube Takedown of NFTs
In fact, as Olson explains, there are fundamental flaws with the blockchain technologies that underpin both cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Olson argues that the significant volatility of crypto’s value makes it unsuitable as a medium of exchange for the average consumer. If you spend $5 in bitcoin at Starbucks, it may be worth $45 in an hour. It could be worth $1 an hour later, or it could be for nothing at all. According to him, the problems with various cryptocurrencies are specific to each of them.
Transactions in Bitcoin might take minutes or even hours to complete because of the network’s extremely poor processing speed. Additionally, the variable “gas” fees associated with Ethereum transactions render the digital currency useless as a medium of exchange for the aforementioned cup of coffee.
a video essay by a Canadian Video “Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs” by Dan Olson. You may find more Folding Ideas/YouTube videos here. If you’re shelling out the equivalent of $69 million in ethereum on a Beeple NFT, then perhaps a $50 gas fee isn’t so bad.
Notably, Beeple switched his $53 million ethereum payout for that art sale into US dollars as soon as he got paid – he told The New Yorker he got scared by its volatility. In an interview with Fox News Sunday last year, he said, “I totally believe it is a bubble,” referring to the NFT market.
Speculators are driving up the value of some NFTs, according to Olson.
It’s “not about the art at all, but about the speculative value—not what it’s worth to you, but what it could be worth in the future to someone else,” he argues. “Since an image or video can be digitally replicated infinity of times, this isn’t even an actual market. It’s more like a casino. Things aren’t important if they make a line go up, regardless of what they are.”
NFTs function as a way to raise the value of the cryptocurrencies used to acquire because they can only be purchased and traded using bitcoin. A more succinct way of saying it: “NFTs exist solely so that you can acquire cryptocurrency,” he says. An in-depth film demonstrates how the financial machinations that led to the 2008 housing crisis directly influenced the rise of the crypto gold rush.