There is a growing pattern of hyperbole in daily discourse that, I feel, makes discussing nuanced topics very difficult. The headstrong minority who take it upon themselves to draw lines in the sand are purposefully scoring fewer and fewer lines. Now there is only one line that separates the playing field; Right or Wrong. Black or Blue. Left or Right. Anti-x or Pro-x.
And it’s the same with any discussion of NFT or crypto where the real discussion should be somewhere between, “This is a scam,” and, “This is the future.”
Does blockchain technology hold potential for future application? I don’t know.
Are there scams currently infiltrating every nook of the crypto and NFT space? Yes.
I’m doing NFTs, so does that mean I’m a scam artist? Dude, No (seriously, no).
Look, it’s complicated, and there are a multitude of moving variables which make any single conclusion about NFT automatically wrong.
There are morally bankrupt practices for any form of technology and if we don’t keep up and understand these technologies, we’re going to be exploited by it. The only way we’re going to do that is through discussion. Look at Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Netflix, Amazon. In the future, we are going to realize the extreme level of toxicity these services will have injected into our collective psyche and by then it will be too late. However, have these services been revolutionary to our time? I certainly believe so.
I’m not writing this to argue any specific stance on the matter, I am simply relaying my experience so you can make up your own mind.
In my opinion, NFTs are very effective in creating a cult following or a fan base. I think it is more like developing a brand than it is creating artwork. So to anyone starting their journey, I would recommend looking at it that way. It provides mutual benefit to two types of buyers; people who like to collect and people who like to invest. Both groups will assign monetary value to your work, but this doesn’t mean there is no emotional pull in their decision. They generally like the art they are buying.
What is an NFT, really?
In my previous post I likened NFTs to membership cards. By and large my opinion of this hasn’t changed. I would go so far as to say that owning an NFT from a collection is also a show of acumen be it artistically or being savvy in seeing a worthwhile investment, sometimes both.
Buying an NFT is less about the art than it is about engaging with it. The only time I got to speak with artists or patrons of my artwork were at galleries (once a year). Ever since I posted my collection, many investors, artists and enthusiasts have actively reached out to me; they are interested about me, about the art, and about the future as well. I never really got that anywhere else, even at art school...
The Buyers
The nature of NFTs make it so that if a person had the money to spend on NFTs, that person would naturally try to ascertain its authenticity; because they are either a collector, a fan, or an investor, and buying the genuine article is important. Additionally, if you are a person who likes the art, but doesn't want to pay for the high authentic price, there is no reason to buy a counterfeit, just right click and save image!!
That doesn’t mean there aren’t morons who will fall for scams. There wouldn’t be fish hooks if fish didn’t bite on them.
Speaking of which, there is a third type of buyer: the mighty moron.
It’s harsh to say so, but idiots are why we can’t have nice things. Idiots are easily manipulated, exploited, and there are enough of them that whole markets can bloom and prosper, creating bubbles and pyramid schemes all over the place and when they pop, we spend time and effort making, "May contain nuts," labels on bags of nuts.
OK, so now who's being hyperbolic? True, I admit that it's not really fair to label those who fall for scams as 'idiots', because they aren't, they're vulnerable. My point is that it becomes problematic when the majority of people are ignorant of what they're buying into, or are willing to risk a portion of wealth for 'potentially' high returns. I can't fault them for that because the industry is confusing by design. However, if there is blood in the water, the sharks will come; and if you're a sexy, fat tuna twerking in a storm of hungry Great Whites, it's hard to see what's predatory and what's not.
So what is a scam?
The "Rug Pull" is the one I hear about the most; create an enticing project with limited NFT collectibles, promise high functionality and utility within the project to early holders, promise large returns and dividends, promise high profile owners and prestige from holding these NFTs. And then once enough people buy into it, peace out!
It is important for me to talk about scams because these projects and its ilk are really the main talking points for crypto haters. That the technology promises one thing, but ultimately props up a group of FOMO exploiters, instead.
Which is aggravating for me. The quick buck is not generally the top priority in most of the NFT creators I know, they're interested in a space to showcase artwork to enthusiasts, build a following and creating a mutual artistic forum. Yeah, that’s romanticizing it a little, but it's a far cry from the hundreds of ‘Ape’ copycats and thieves stealing art online and selling them as their own.
It has gotten so bad that when I offered to speak about my experiences on NFT to a group-chat full of artists, I was met with hostility and sarcasm. Granted some artists can suffer from “Main Character” syndrome, my intention to help was immediately misinterpreted as an intention to recruit.
The problem with Opensea and my experience with a copycat
The last thing I want to discuss is the main platform for selling NFTs. There are many out there, but Opensea is by far the largest and the most well known. They also deal in Ethereum (ETH) which is also one of the most traded cryptocurrencies behind Bitcoin.
Opensea displays your NFTs in high quality on your page. Which means anyone who wants to click and save, or screenshot an image will be rewarded with a relatively good quality counterfeit.
Now I find this ridiculous, because watermarks and anti screenshot technology already exist. Try and screenshot your bank statement on your phone; you get a black image. Try and save an image from istockphoto.com or gettyimages.com; you get scrawling watermarks. There are obviously ways around stealing images with these safeguards in place, but for the love of God, Opensea, something is still better than nothing.
Having safeguards in place is two fold, it protects the creators and users of Opensea, and it also discourages stealing. The absolute cherry on top of having my stuff stolen was that the thief literally started selling the counterfeits ON OPENSEA under the exact same name as my own collection.
I emailed Opensea immediately after I found out about the copycat and plastered his profile on all my social media accounts so my friends could report him too. He had actually been on Opensea since the 10th of December, selling my work at a fraction for what I was selling them for. It took about a week for them to get back to me and when they did, this was the response:
"The specified content has been taken down from OpenSea.
Please note that we may forward your takedown request to the seller of the item(s) that were taken down."
They didn't ban the copycat, his profile is still up with other artworks that are also copied (I checked). They only took down my NFTs and then told him about my request.
Request??
That's like going to a carnival, standing next to a "Ring Toss" game, and just selling extra rings to people. And then the staff in the carnival is nowhere to be found because next door someone is selling cheaper and smaller basketballs at the "Hoop Toss" game. And then after a few hours they arrive and go, "Oh hey, don't," and take his rings away. But they can just go off and buy more rings...
So this is the state of Opensea; too big too fast. They don't have the manpower to regulate these things and in my opinion, they aren't interested in any sort of policing anyway. The sentiment in crypto is that the free market will work itself out, but we know from real world experience that a free capital market does not work, not unless you're already where you want to be.
So where am I heading now?
Now that I’ve gotten all that off my chest, I am going to follow through with my thesis – create a brand and a tight knit following for those who have invested in me. My plans are at the early stages of development and promise EXTRAME high functionality and utility, HEAPS OF REWARDS and early access- (just kidding).
I plan to create a total of 52 fictional mugshot. I have 26 left to paint. Once complete, I want all current holders and previous holders of my NFT to be gifted a fixed-price, tradable NFT. These NFTs will allow users to earn points and once they have cultivated enough, they will be able to trade them in for limited, physical memorabilia that I plan to produce. These include figurines, T-shirts, zippo lighters, coins etc. I plan to look for a DeFI I.T. specialist in the next few months to join me, a mathematician and a social media presence.
As I said, the plans are at the early stages in my mind, but the real intention is to bridge all the gaps that I see as weaknesses in the crypto/NFT world:
Digital assets vs. real assets
Removing speculative growth in favor of creating physical products
Creating a feeling of true membership and not one based on market value
Allowing people to choose their level of participation
Limited time project which means there is no risk of a bubble
Reduce the role of the middle man (Opensea).
If all goes to plan I’m hoping to encourage other artists to create their own brands and following. The crypto space is really interesting because it’s so complicated and so many people have such different perspectives on what it could be. I’m happy I get to experience this phenomenon in its infancy, but also prepared for things not to work out. Update you again soon.
Collection can be found on Opensea.io: https://opensea.io/collection/fcpd
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