[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #786: The NFT backlash is now in full swing

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OPLIN 4Cast #786: The NFT backlash is now in full swing
January 19th, 2022

[image: NFT] When we first talked about NFTs
<https://4cast.oplin.org/?p=8526> (non-fungible tokens), I was intrigued by
the idea of enforceable, encoded provenance, but the hype around monetizing
it never took hold for me. (Seems a bit like buying "magic beans.") Last
week a friend got a free NFT for seeing a movie, but found that creating an
account just to see it—a simple animation clip, like a GIF—was not worth
the effort: "really dumb" was his assessment. While many sectors are
treating the advent of NFT like a gold rush, a backlash seems to be
growing, with a lot of resistance originating in the gamer community.

   -
   - Crypto Enthusiasts Meet Their Match: Angry Gamers
   <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/15/technology/cryptocurrency-nft-gamers.html>
   [*New York Times*] "Gamers’ antagonism toward the companies has built up
   over the last decade partly because of the growing number of micro
   transactions. So when game makers introduced NFTs as an additional element
   to buy and sell, players were 'primed to call this stuff out.'"
   - Sega cites fan backlash in surprisingly cautious take on gaming NFTs
   <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/01/sega-considering-what-will-be-accepted-by-the-users-in-gaming-nfts/>
   [*Ars Technica*] "Rather than simply enduring fan backlash after the
   fact, Sega seems to be carefully considering whether it's worth pushing the
   concept on a largely reluctant public in the first place. And even if Sega
   finds some profit potential from an NFT rollout, the company says it thinks
   those earnings might not be worth the accompanying public image hit."
   - Gamers aren't warming up to NFTs
   <https://milled.com/techcrunch/week-in-review-gamers-arent-warming-up-to-nfts-5Cmb40eZbn3fGnj4>
   [*TechCrunch]* "NFT pilots from tech companies like Discord and Mozilla
   have been shelved because of user backlash from people who see digital
   scarcity as a wholly unnecessary invention that brings the worst of
   capitalism to the free web."
   - Signal’s Moxie Marlinspike blasts Web 3—and Ethereum founder Vitalik
   Buterin comes to its defense
   <https://fortune.com/2022/01/10/signal-moxie-marlinspike-nft-web3-ethereum-blockchain-vitalik-buterin/>
   [*Fortune*] "Marlinspike made his withering assessment of NFTs after
   creating his own NFT platform, where new users buy in to make edits to an
   art NFT, and then receive royalties when other users join. That’s a
   business model Marlinspike wryly refers to as 'something similar to a
   pyramid shape.'"

*From the Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Kugler, Logan. “Non-Fungible Tokens and the Future of Art: A New
   Blockchain-Based Technology Is Changing How the Art World Works, and
   Changing How We Think about Asset Ownership in the Process
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=152071849&site=ehost-live>
   .” *Communications of the ACM*, vol. 64, no. 9, Sept. 2021, pp. 19–20.
   - Chow, AndrewR., and Zorthian, Julia. “NFTsAre Thriving—Can the Artists
   Thrive Too?
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=153000064&site=ehost-live>
   ” *TIME Magazine*, vol. 198, no. 15/16, Oct. 2021, pp. 42–46.
   - Reichental, Jonathan. "Introduction to NFTs: Non-fungible Tokens
   <https://www.linkedin.com/learning/introduction-to-nfts-non-fungible-tokens/nfts-are-minting-a-new-marketplace>."
   *LinkedIn Learning*, May 18, 2021.

------------------------------
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