WEBVTT - Part Two: Let's Talk About Cryptocurrency 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:20.800 Uh that was the introduction. It's like, did we break him? Yeah, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.200 it cut out. It cut out in the middle of 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:33.600 your like intro, like, oh man, you know what speaking 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.480 of caning, very funny story. We have a vet shortage 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.600 in Oregon, so I had to book my kittens getting 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.360 you know, their genital sliced off, like six weeks in advance. Um. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.960 And unfortunately, because it took so long, Uh, my lady 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.880 cat went into heat and was desperately trying to get 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:54.880 her brother to fuck her for days and it was 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:56.880 a real problem. We had to keep him apart, and 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.520 she was just like presenting to every living creature, including 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.200 dogs that came near here. Just I have never seen 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.640 an animal want to fox so bad, and I it 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:11.160 was just incredible before you met me. I mean you 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.399 just literally gave Sophia lay up like I knew that 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:21.600 was coming, yea tossing a softball Sophie that I'm I'm 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.840 I'm the Nolan Ryan of this. That was way too easy. 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:30.280 Come on, I'm sorry. A good times, really good times. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.880 Now back to not good times. A k this fucking 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.880 n f T talk Just like we quickly can we 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.840 quickly acknowledge that Robert blushed. I believe that during that joke. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.759 Love to see this boy blush. All right, keep going, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:50.279 keep going, uh, speaking of such your imaginary money go on. Well. 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.840 But also there's a very fun story today that Charlie 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.120 Kirk just warned that Democrats want people to live in 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.840 sexual anarchy. Oh yeah, my god, it's true. It is. 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.240 I mean, it depends because that's really just like one 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.839 subset of polyamory. It's not even a particularly common one. 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.440 Very very few people I know practice relationship anarchy. But 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.480 I don't think that's what Charlie Kirk is talking about. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.720 And you know what else is terrible to be around, Sophia. 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:23.480 I was just gonna say crypto enthusiastic, but yes, n 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:28.240 f T s they're deeply unpleasant. Um So, as we 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.520 kind of ended the episode on the fucking world of 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.639 bitcoin in an ether, like all of cryptochy, it's just 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.040 like it's just a galaxy of scams, and the latest 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.200 and silliest of these scams are in f T s. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.960 So the term n f T stands for non fungible token. 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.280 Think about it. If you grab a piece of a 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.640 fungus and you toss it somewhere, it'll grow into a 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.880 full version of that fungus. That's how funguses work. Most 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.440 currency kind of making me hungry for a mushroom pizza. 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.280 I could go for some mushrooms. Most money kind of 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.880 works that way too, Like obviously you can't like throw 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.480 it and it grows into more money, but you can 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.520 split up money, like you can split a dollar up 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.359 into coin into fractions of a dollar and that's all 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.639 still currency, right, Um, n f t s don't work 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.080 that way. It cannot be funged, it can't be split up. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.600 You're buying like a token that cannot be uh divided, right, 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.600 like you can spend fractions of a bitcoin you like, 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.440 an n f T is is not It's not fungible, right, 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:29.960 That's that's that's all that means. So if you're a 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.720 casual observer of n FT culture, you probably think that 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:34.880 owning an n f T is dumb because you're just 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.800 buying ownership of a jpeg online which anyone can write, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.600 click and save as unless it's pretty fucking silly. But Sophia, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:44.720 what if I were to tell you it's dumber than that? 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:51.280 Oh m, dumber than that, because here's the thing, there 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.520 would be some value in having legal ownership of an 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.000 online drawing right because potentially you could merchandise that drawing right. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.120 You could sell t shirts that include that drawing, Like 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.000 there would actually be significant value of Like somebody makes 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.920 a meme and it's like, well, I'm selling the rights 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.320 to this meme. You could you could monetize that. There 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.360 would be real value in being able to actually own 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:16.360 a meme potentially. Okay, so you're talking to somebody that 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.840 used to be an art consultant and my job was 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.880 working as kind of the middle person between um the 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:31.640 hospitality industry, meaning hotels and artists. So I would be 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.160 the person that they would hire to decide on what 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.039 hotel art would go in a hotel. A news flash, 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:40.640 I do not want it to be fucking shells, but 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.360 they are cheap as fuck. So but yeah, the thing 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.880 that's really interesting about how much money you can make 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.920 as an artist that kind of shows you how capitalism 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.000 works and is kind of just fascinating and does I 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.880 think kind of relate to n f T s UM 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.760 is so the most amount of money that people would 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.880 make is through doing something simple like black and white architecture, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.560 and it would be because every hotel ever wants that 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.920 as their thing. So it'd be like a Chicago hotel 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.600 being like, oh, we'd love some really cool shots of 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.560 black and white architecture, and so we would have folders 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.000 and folders of this stuff. And so when somebody like 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.440 that hotel would be like, Okay, we want this photo 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.000 printed and in every single guest room. Right, So that's 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.120 an order for two hundred and twenty, say just an example, 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:36.200 and that's like kind of a low number, twenty rooms, right, 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.839 And you would the artists would negotiate how much money 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.680 they would want per print. So say you would negotiate 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.680 six dollars, so multiply that by two hundred and twenty. 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:53.200 That's money you just made from taking one photo, whereas 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.200 selling the equivalent amount of money of just one original 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.279 piece would be a lot harder in certain way. But 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.240 this is also kind of like winning the lottery, so 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.720 in that way that's even more hard. So it just 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:13.200 the the value we ascribe to art is so arbitrary, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.800 and to see a whole system built on this, that's 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:20.760 just like yeah, and it's not even here's the funny thing, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.039 and I'm really glad that you brought that up, because 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.000 we're gonna talk about the actual art industry in a 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.760 little bit as well. You're not even buying like a 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.680 licensed drawing. You are no where with an issue. Well 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.000 it's but it's dumber than that because you're not even 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.159 buying You're not buying the image. Like when you buy 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.560 in n f T, you are in no way purchasing 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:47.240 even access to just that image. You are buying basically 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.120 space on the blockchain. You are buying a token, and 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.360 that token is just blank space. Um, and there's something 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.480 on the space when you buy it, but doesn't necessarily 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.719 stay there because those images are hosted somewhere right in 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:01.760 the oken just has a link to them. If that 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.120 image hosting thing goes on, all you have is a 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.360 blank spot on the blockchain exactly. Yeah, And that's why 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.480 when people have been trying to pitch to me, like 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.160 this is really good for artists and whatever, and I'm 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.400 like maybe in the short term, but overall for artists 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.000 and collectors, if your goal is to make things that 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.520 last and to have people that are genuine fans and 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.680 for that to be something that's part of the art process, 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.960 like by people's art, by people's actual fucking art, We'll 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.280 talk to about the extent to which artists are actually 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:34.640 benefiting here. But I just really want to make people 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.240 sure that people know, like it's not actually like you're 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.160 owning a jpeg. You don't own the jpeg. You own 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.680 like a space on the blockchain where the jpeg currently is, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.200 but anything could be there pretty much. Um. This has 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.520 made very clear in the terms of sale for Christie's, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.920 which is a massive auction website. Right, it was a 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.040 big deal when christie started auctioning n f t s 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.560 because like Christie's is like a real auction thing, Like 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.320 they they auction off serious shit. They have a thirty 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.080 three page conditions document for their n f T auctions 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.800 which states, you acknowledge that ownership of an n f 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.840 T carries no rights express or implied other than property 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.440 rights for the lot, specifically digital artwork tokenized by the 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:16.760 n f T. You acknowledge and represent that there is 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.600 substantial uncertainty as to the characterization of n f t 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.320 s and other digital assets under applicable law, So like, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:25.880 we don't even entirely know what you own when you 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.480 win this auction. It's like when you're trying to sign 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.960 that fucking travel insurance or some ship and then once 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:36.280 you read the fine print, you're like, I'm buying nothing now. Obviously, 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:37.840 I think there are some n f T s that 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.120 like specifically, the contract of the sale means you do 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.480 own that image and you could license it or whatnot. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.320 Like you the artist, obviously you have the ability as 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.839 the artist to sell not just the n f T, 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.679 but to actually sell someone rights to an image you 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.840 draw like that. That is a thing that can happen. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.000 I'm sure it does happen, but that's not generally what 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.800 is happening when people buy an n f T. The 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.439 real genius behind n f T s is a grift, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.200 is that they take a legitimate problem, which is that 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.439 artists have a real hard time making a good living 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.000 off of work, especially like work that is shared by 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:14.360 new a minute, you're telling me being an artist, is 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:20.480 it profitable? What a minute? Robberts about these jokes about 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.000 about being Russian and dig jokes and pussy jokes. They 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.320 don't sell, Robert, Well, actually they sell very well. What 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:29.880 do you mean. I've been doing this for over ten years, Robert, 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:34.040 what are you saying right now? It's kind of like 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:40.520 this isn't where I should have spend my time. I 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.560 mean it's worked out since podcasts became a thing. The 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.680 n f T s of comedy for some moment, Yeah, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.520 I have the n f t s of comedy. Nice 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:57.200 fucking titties. That's how we started this episode now, so 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.560 fucking like again, there's a real problem here, which is that, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.840 like so, artists regularly will create drawings that are shared 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.640 like sometimes even hundreds of millions of times, and they 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.720 won't make any money off of that and will be 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.920 like starving to death while also having created one of 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.360 the most like widely shared pieces of art and human history. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.559 I agree that's an issue, right. I'm a big fan 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.760 of artists getting paid. I'm not someone who believes there's 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:25.560 any artistic value in starving um. But so the promise 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:26.840 of n f T S is like, this is a 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.280 way those artists who create viral art can sell a 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.200 digital original UM, and that will allow them to finally 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.079 get paid for their work, uh and to make it better. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.120 The way ether, which is the basis of n f 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.360 t S works, means that smart contracts guarantee that the 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.160 artists can get a cut of any future sales the 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.200 owner of their n f T makes after buying it, 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:48.760 And this is one of the kind of neat things 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:50.760 about it. If the whole thing wasn't a griff, this 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.640 would be a neat idea that, like, okay, you sell 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.600 the rights to this drawing and anyone else who sells. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.120 If the person who buys it sells it again, you 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.880 get a cut of that sale too, which is neat um. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.400 The problems are everything that comes next. So the first 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.480 big success among a n f T s, which is 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.600 before the term itself was really known by anybody, were 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.920 cryptocats in two thousand seventeen, As a tech Crunch report 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.920 from the time noted, crypto Kitties is essentially like an 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.199 online version of Pokemon cards, but based on the Ethereum blockchain. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.560 And like, I guess it's like aristocats. Yeah, okay, okaind 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.400 of And like most viral sensations that catch on in 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.080 the tech world, it's blowing up fast. Built by Vancouver 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.120 and San Francisco based design studio axioms In, the game 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.959 is the latest fat in the world of cryptocurrency. People 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.120 are spending a crazy amount of real money on the game. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.640 So far, about one point three million dollars has been 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.520 transacted with multiple kittens selling for fifty ether around twenty 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.560 three thousand dollars and the Genesis kitten being sold for 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.160 a record two hundred forty six ether around a hundred 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.199 and thirteen thousand dollars. This third party site tracks the 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.280 largest purchases made to date on the game, and like 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.720 any good viral sensation, prices are rising in flu stuating fast. 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:02.839 Right now, it will cost you about point zero three 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.440 either or twelve dollars to buy the least expensive kitten 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.400 in the game, And calling these game is kind of 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.160 stretching it, but crypto kitties would prove to be an 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:15.480 intensely depressing proof of concept. People refined and reworked the 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.120 idea until in the concept of n f T S 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.160 hit big. This was after depending on who you ask, 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.959 two or three bubble and burst cycles from Bitcoin two 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.880 thousand seventeen was when most people really became aware of 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.000 cryptocurrency and the fact that you could make a lot 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.120 of money off of it. And if you remember, during 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.560 that big Bitcoin boom, basically for a while, every Silicon 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.559 Valley company had to tell the world they had a 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.360 blockchain related project in the pipeline, and this was all bullshit. 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.079 The blockchain actually has and has had so far remarkably 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.280 very little promise for the tech industry. It is virtually 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.520 useless for most large companies and for a variety of 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.840 the problems that it claims to be able to solve, 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.120 and in fact, like one of the things about it 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.800 that's funny is that, like for all the people using 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.000 blockchain is like a buzzword term to excite people, there's 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.040 actually a widely used technology that's basically a blockchain that 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.320 that nobody called that that is has been huge for forever. Um. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.920 It's called get um. Like get hub is the place 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:17.920 online where you find it, like it's it's it's basically 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.439 a repository of code. It's for people making code to 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.040 like keep a record of changes to code that they're 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.200 making and whatnot, so everyone who's doing code and can 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.200 see what other people are doing. Um. The way it 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.240 works is very much like a blockchain. UM. So it again, 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.280 it's one of those things like there's all these like 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.880 crypto evangelists talking about how revolutionary the blockchain is. It's like, no, 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.080 the things that are actually potentially valuable about blockchain technology, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.679 we've already been doing for a long time like get 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.760 hub go or get goes back like almost twenty years. 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.240 I think, um, there's there's really nothing cool or new here. 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.440 But for a while, every big Silicon Valley company had 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.719 to announce that they were looking into doing a blockchain. 0:13:57.880 --> 0:13:59.960 You know, we're we were we're looking into the blockchain 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.400 for whatever. I remember when people are talking about like 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.120 this is going to change voting, it's going to make 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.360 it impossible to do a fraudulent vote, um, which is 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.680 I don't know, it's all, it's all. It's just people 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.720 like you know, it's what happens whenever something goes viral, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.240 like suddenly it's the same thing. Was like a meme, 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.680 where like suddenly you've got like the McDonald's Twitter account 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.160 sharing a meme that's popular. That's what happened with a 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:26.280 blockchain in two thousand seventeen. Minus the chicken nuggies. Yeah, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.720 I mean, chicken nuggets are certainly more valuable than uh, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.160 I don't know, any given in f t UM. So 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.080 after something like one point five billion dollars in investments 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.560 into blockchain technology um started by this big bit point 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.720 coin boom in two thousand seventeen, almost no profit has 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.520 actually been realized it's just pretty much been piste away, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:47.800 um because for the most part they were just like 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.760 announcing anyway. It's all very frustrating. So in one after 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.560 this crypto optimism kind of fades. There's still a lot 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.760 of money in cryptocurrency. People are still like Bitcoin had 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.440 a boo pretty recently after the one in two seventeen, 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.200 so it's still a way you can make money. But 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.480 like all of these these people talking about like, oh, 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.120 you know, the blockchain's got a revolutionize this industry of that, like, 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.720 none of it really happens. Um And so in two 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.960 thousand twenty one, people who want to make a shipload 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.520 off of money off of cryptocurrency needs something new. And 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.000 that's when n f t s finally blow up on 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:27.360 like a national scale. Um so uh. Just as a 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.600 theory of advocates had claimed that smart contracts would magically 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.640 fix the inequities of the recording industry, in FT advocates 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.360 began to claim that their magical crypto nonsense was the 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.840 solution to the problems artists faced and getting paid. The 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:42.600 irony was that as soon as n f t s 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.080 went viral as a concept and money started pouring in 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.920 scammers began stealing the work of artists to sell unauthorized 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.360 and f T s. There's a good article about this 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.520 in The Verge from March of this year. It tells 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.440 the story of Derek Laufman, who work woke up earlier 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.600 that month to emails from fans of his art being like, hey, 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.200 when did you start selling an f T s. He 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.840 was confused because he had not, in fact started selling 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.320 an f T and he said as much. Eventually he 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.640 realized that someone impersonating him had created a profile and 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.800 gotten it verified on Rearable, a site where people buy 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.920 n f T s. Today, Wearable requires people in order 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.400 to like verify your identity to listen an f T 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.240 you have to provide links to two active social media 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.040 profiles and a behind the scenes picture of your art. 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.000 I don't think that second requirement existed in March, but 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.920 even now you don't actually have to give up any 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.520 documents to verify your identity. So it's very easy to 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.880 fake being an artist in order to sell an n 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.640 f T of their art. As Laufman told The Verge, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.280 I dealt with having my art stolen for years, and 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.440 I'm sort of numb to that. But when somebody is 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.800 claiming to be you that kind of you know, that 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.920 pisces me off, and it's really frustrating because you have 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.640 again this real problem of like for years artists are 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.200 sealing people like Elon Musk stealing a meme they make 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.360 and like not crediting them or even like cutting the 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.560 credit out, and like that's frustrating. But n f t 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:04.439 s have just in a lot of ways made it worse. 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:06.960 Like not that there aren't artists who make money. There 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:08.720 are a decent number of artists who have made some 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.680 money off of this, but there's an equal number of 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.000 people who are having their ships stolen by other people 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.880 who are making money, which is really frustrating. I mean, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.320 this reminds me of um all of the art that 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:28.320 got stolen for Lula ro Leggings and just crudely being 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.800 like it's different and then not being different, pop like 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:37.840 that's my ship. Yeah, And they're being no no recourse whatsoever, 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.520 either in yours in this situation or in the Lulu 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.680 ro one. And that's what's fucking happening here. And again 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.040 it is they're like they can get the art the 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.480 n f t s delisted, but if they've already sold. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.320 One of the things about crypto is you can't reverse 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.760 a transaction. It's indelible, it's done. There's no getting the 0:17:55.800 --> 0:18:00.600 money back like which is great. Um from the Urge quote. 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:02.879 Artists like Laufmann have had their work minted as n 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.120 f T s and listed for sale without their permission, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.800 and as in that case, platforms that host stolen art 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.199 only seem to moderate if the artist finds out and 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.240 posts about it on social media. Tales from the Loop 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.040 author Simon Stalinhag found his art on Marble Cards, another 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.520 n f T site, and Giffey has warned that people 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.000 are turning user created gifts from its site into n 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.280 f T s because the n f T system doesn't 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.879 require people to actually own the copyright to something to 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.440 mint it. It's a market ripe for fraud, you might say, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.440 that's the whole point. The Verges investigation found that fraud 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.160 was common in n f T markets, verging on constant 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:39.840 due to the fact that none of the major n 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.760 f T exchanges required people proved that they owned the 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.000 works they were profiting from. Once again, the promise of 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.439 cryptocurrency to write a longstanding injustice has proved to be 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:51.800 just another way of screwing over the same group of 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.479 people in pretty much the same way. It's almost like 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.040 trying to make being a pirate your identity will make 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:05.199 it so that everybody else is also. Yeah, and there's 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.840 no honor among thieves, that's all yeah, And it's it's 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.480 even worse than like hanging out with actual criminals, because 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.439 there is a degree of honors the wrong word, but 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.679 like honesty among people who are actually involved in in 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.359 high level crimes, because like you, you can get murdered 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.480 for fucking with somebody. So a lot of people are 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.600 actually very honest about their dealings in illegal trades because like, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.800 I don't want that fucking trouble, you know, Like I'm 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.040 dealing with somebody who's scary, I'm not going to suck 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.639 them over. It's always refreshing when anyone is honest, whether 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.280 it's because they're afraid that they'll die or just because 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.760 they're like, look, it pains me to lie. Yeah, But 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.840 within f t s it's all online. You're anonymous. There's 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.840 no reason to like not scam people out of their 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.720 bullshit money and then turn it into real money and 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.560 then laugh all the way to the bank. So when 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.760 you talk about n f T success stories, the number 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:01.399 one thing that people are going to bring up is 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.879 what happened with People this year? Um. People is a 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.560 semi famous artist who does like a lot of like 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.960 electronic kind of art. Like a lot of artists I 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.719 know think is stuff is great. Um. He famously had 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.639 a collection of his art which was several thousand pieces. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.400 It was called every Day and it was like five 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.800 thousand pieces that had been daily art releases of his 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.000 for years. Sells an n f T for sixty nine 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.240 million dollars via Christie's auction. Most people probably heard something 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.560 about this. It was a pretty big news story. You 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.080 probably didn't hear the revelations about who actually bought the 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.400 damn thing. And first off, I should note that well 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.680 people have. Yeah, I'm about to tell you one of 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.280 the things that frustrated about this is that, like People 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.320 has made a lot of cool art, the thing that 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.520 makes sells for sixty nine million is not cool. It's 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:49.240 like a bunch of daily like he was just trying 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.040 to make sure he always made a piece of art 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:53.560 every day and most of them are like not good. 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.920 Like that's nothing against him as an artist. It's just like, yeah, 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:58.119 it was that he was just like it was like 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.720 a daily project, Like he wasn't like throwing his heart 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.840 and soul in him. Was like scribbles basically electronic equivalent 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.240 of scribbles. Yeah. And also it's like morning pages or 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.399 some ship. It's not supposed to be good. You're just 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.600 doing it every day to keep warm. You know, it's 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.760 ridiculous that it would sell for sixty nine million dollars. Also, 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:20.399 some of them were pretty racist. Wait, yeah, there's some 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:22.440 racist stuff in there. I think. I mean it was 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:24.280 years and years ago. I'm not going to like condemn 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.880 as a human being because like ten or fifteen years ago, 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.639 he like drew was something that's kind of racist. Um, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.480 but maybe you shouldn't have lumped all of this art 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:35.159 together and sold it. I don't know, I don't know 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.600