Crypto Currency and NFT's

Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Location
London
I just read a story about a 12 year old who sold some NFTs for over £100k. I now definitely feel like an old man out of touch with the younger generation. First it was with social media and now blockchain and crypto currencies. I just can't get my head around it.

Back when Bitcoin was becoming a thing, I had no clue what it was. I have a better understanding now but still don't get the whole mining thing and how people are making so much money from doing it. And now you have NFTs. How does a 12 year old sell some crappy bits of "art" for £100k? How does he create them? What website is he using? Who the hell is buying them and why?
 
year i saw that kid on the news. his dad is Computer programmer and the kid learnt programming quite young.. it's highly likely his dad helped him a lot.

but why do you think he's made £290k.. it's not because his artwork is amazing it's because he went viral and no one wants to miss out on the next big thing, like they did with bitcoin. his dad could of probably done it on his own but no one would have taken any notice.

it happens with child painters quite often. they get hyped up in the news, their artwork sells for crazy prices then they just disappear. imo i think people are partly investing in these kids because they "could " become some sort of mega successful artist in the future(?).

..the only NTF i thought was gonna be worth buying.. not that I could afford it, was one of the ten thousand pieces of art by Damien Hirst. you either got the choice of a digital NTF or the original painting. prices were $2k each. say what you like about Damien Hirst but his work is a good investment.
 
I love crypto and really want to see become a mainstream way to pay for things, but I haven't quite figured out my stance on NFTs just yet. I think once you start thinking of an NFT as a certificate of ownership for a piece of art, and not the actual piece of art itself, it begins to make more sense.

The thing is though, I don't see what problems NFTs are trying to solve. The whole point of cryptocurrency was to provide a decentralised financial system to people who have been disenfranchised by banks or aren't otherwise able to openly access money (for instance, homeless people who can't open a bank account because they don't have a permanent address, or people who live in countries where the infrastructure just isn't there).

Perhaps I'm wrong (and if anyone here is more knowledgable on the subject than me, please let me know!), but NFTs on the other hand just seem like vanity for the sake of vanity. As far as I can tell, there's no real goal or initiative with them outside of being a slightly confusing way of buying imaginary items.
 
To say the least... I despise Shiba Inu coin...

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I invested when it was around 0.00007100 and damn did it drop hard...
That's why you have to be extra careful with shitcoin. Never believe the hype of them 'blowing up' - they're almost always just pump and dumps.
 
I just started investing a small bit into crypto myself. I figured if I have some skin in the game then it would incentivize me to spend more time learning about this, then I'll invest a bit more as I learn more.

I get how the tech works and the purpose of crypto on a basic level, but I suppose what I'm unclear about is why are there all these different coins and what causes their price to go up and down? It seems there are a lot of coins and networks whose purpose is to either make direct peer-to-peer payments without an intermediary, or to be an intermediary to quickly send money anywhere in the world at a low cost.

If that's the case, I imagine there would eventually be some sort of standardization and the coins that survive will be the ones that are the most functional and widely adopted? I get that there are a bunch of variables, like which countries and financial institutions partner with which networks, so I can see the use for up to 100 coins or so, but can't imagine that thousands upon thousands would be viable. Also, for the coins that work as a direct intermediary (Fiat Currency -> Crypto Coin -> Different Fiat Currency), why would the crypto coin have fluctuating values if it instantaneously converts back to a fiat currency?

Regarding NFTs, it's just way too out of my wheelhouse and I don't have enough money to take a chance at trying to invest in these, but here's a video I came across that tries to explain why people try to put value on these things. I suppose I get what he's saying but I feel like it's super risky to treat like an investment.
 
I just started investing a small bit into crypto myself. I figured if I have some skin in the game then it would incentivize me to spend more time learning about this, then I'll invest a bit more as I learn more.
You picked a relatively decent time to invest as most tokens are down pretty low just now. I suspect a few months from now, they will have bounced back and you'll have a decent return!

I get how the tech works and the purpose of crypto on a basic level, but I suppose what I'm unclear about is why are there all these different coins and what causes their price to go up and down?
There's a few reasons. For one, different coins exist to serve different ideologies about how crypto should work on a technical level. For instance, Bitcoin Cash exists because people were concerned that the original Bitcoin wasn't scalable enough. There's also low-energy coins like Tezos, or coins which prioritise anonymity like Monero. Anyone who has a certain philosophy or special use-case for crypto usually has a coin that can cater to them.

But it's also important to remember that literally anyone can pretty easily make a cryptocurrency. Lots of the technology is open-source so it's easy just to make an re-branded offshoot of an existing one with minimal effort. Some people see this as a 'get rich quick' scheme where they create a worthless coin, pre-mine a bunch of it, articially inflate it's value by hyping it up online, and then sell it all just before it collapses again. (See the SHIBA INU example in the post above)

Prices go up and down because crypto is just a volitile thing. Unlike the stock market, trading doesn't close, so transactions are taking place every moment of every day. This combined with the fact that just now you have some of the richest people in the world as well as multiple global news outlets either hyping up, or downplaying it, prices swing quite dramatically at a rapid rate. There are lots of eyes on crypto at the moment and everyone ones a piece of the action.

If that's the case, I imagine there would eventually be some sort of standardization and the coins that survive will be the ones that are the most functional and widely adopted? I get that there are a bunch of variables, like which countries and financial institutions partner with which networks, so I can see the use for up to 100 coins or so, but can't imagine that thousands upon thousands would be viable.
Yes and no. It depends what you mean by standardization really. I agree that in a future where crypto becomes a legit mainstream alternative to Fiat, only one or two coins will really be relevant. But outside of the mainstream, the number of coins will always continue to rise.

Also, for the coins that work as a direct intermediary (Fiat Currency -> Crypto Coin -> Different Fiat Currency), why would the crypto coin have fluctuating values if it instantaneously converts back to a fiat currency?
Can you give an example of this? I can't think of any coins that exist solely as an intermediary between different fiats. Are you thinking of stablecoins (which are crypto tokens who's value is tied to fiat currency - for instance USD Tether)? They exist so that you can hold your finances on the blockchain without having to worry about the volatile price swings that come with traditional coins.

Regarding NFTs, it's just way too out of my wheelhouse and I don't have enough money to take a chance at trying to invest in these, but here's a video I came across that tries to explain why people try to put value on these things. I suppose I get what he's saying but I feel like it's super risky to treat like an investment.
Some enthusiasts would call this a hot take, but I'd stay away from NFTs. I don't particularly see a future in them, at least now how they're being used just now.


Hope that's answered some of your questions! Feel free to let me know if you have any follow-ups. I work in crypto, so I'm always happy to be talking about this kind of stuff!
 
That's awesome, thank you for the info!

For the crypto that's a direct intermediary, my understanding is that XLM (Stellar) functions that way. At least, according to the demo video I saw on Coinbase. But it's also possible I misunderstood what they were talking about, haha.
 
NFTs are just the next pyramid scheme. People who are all already wealthy buying each others’ hyperlinks to inflate arbitrary value before pawning it off to desperate people who they know won’t be able to make a buck off it. I’d steer clear of any and all stuff that sounds too good to be true, especially when actual artists already have plenty of tried and true systems in place to earn money for their work.
 
The problem with NFTs right now is that they're being touted as an 'investment' ln the same way that cryptocurrency is. But in reality, this isn't really the ideal or intended use case for them at all.

In a super simplified form, an NFT is just a big number that irrefutably links back to a digital asset. The real practical uses for this are pretty mundane - for instance, digital record keeping. Sensitive digital documents like house deeds or even passports can be stored as NFTs. This makes it super easy to verify that they haven't been tampered with or straight up counterfeit.
 
I went on www.player.one to create an NFT and then downloaded the MetaMask app. I was close to buying ETH on MetaMask which I would then use to purchase NFTs but as I was filling in my details I had a change of heart. I wasn't sure if it was legitimate and also wasn't sure if the money I would spend on ETH would be the only money I would lose if the NFT didn't sell. I don't want to fall into debt. Is anyone familiar with the MetaMask app and can give advice on how to create and purchase NFTs that's legitimate. Thanks.
 
For anyone who's still investing in crypto, what's your general strategy? Do you wait on the sidelines to buy the dip? Do you buy at any sort of regular frequency? (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc). Do you try to focus on picking up as many coins as possible to diversify, or try to keep a smaller portfolio of coins that you really believe in?

When I started I probably put in a bit more than I was originally planning as lump sums, but then moved on to buying a few coins weekly or bi-weekly at a set-price. Since the crypto prices are volatile I thought that was the best choice. I also probably tried to buy too many coins but am starting to reel it in and focus on about 10 different coins (and my crypto investments are a pretty low percentage of what I invest in general, due to risk)

I suppose another question to ask - has anyone second guessed their decision to invest in crypto and stopped, due to the downturn of the market this year? Anyone doubling down?
 
When I started I probably put in a bit more than I was originally planning as lump sums, but then moved on to buying a few coins weekly or bi-weekly at a set-price. Since the crypto prices are volatile I thought that was the best choice. I also probably tried to buy too many coins but am starting to reel it in and focus on about 10 different coins (and my crypto investments are a pretty low percentage of what I invest in general, due to risk)

This isn't financial or investment advice, but it sounds like you might find the concept of Dollar Cost Averaging interesting. It seems very similar to what you're doing just now.
 
For anyone who's still investing in crypto, what's your general strategy? Do you wait on the sidelines to buy the dip? Do you buy at any sort of regular frequency? (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc). Do you try to focus on picking up as many coins as possible to diversify, or try to keep a smaller portfolio of coins that you really believe in?

When I started I probably put in a bit more than I was originally planning as lump sums, but then moved on to buying a few coins weekly or bi-weekly at a set-price. Since the crypto prices are volatile I thought that was the best choice. I also probably tried to buy too many coins but am starting to reel it in and focus on about 10 different coins (and my crypto investments are a pretty low percentage of what I invest in general, due to risk)

I suppose another question to ask - has anyone second guessed their decision to invest in crypto and stopped, due to the downturn of the market this year? Anyone doubling down?
This will never be too much of warning: Beware the $5 Wrench Hack method
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Details always in PM, with caution.
its not joke, one can be hurt or worse.
 
This isn't financial or investment advice, but it sounds like you might find the concept of Dollar Cost Averaging interesting. It seems very similar to what you're doing just now.

Yeah I think it's pretty much the same as what I do. When people refer to Dollar Cost Averaging that usually means they have a lump sum ready to go but decide to invest it at set intervals. It might be a minor bit of nitpicky semantics, but I think it's slightly different than putting aside a set amount per paycheck (which is what I do when I invest in index funds and is also what I'm doing with crypto).

The main question I would propose is if this is a good strategy for crypto. Since prices can fluctuate so much is it better to invest regularly per paycheck (Dollar Cost Average for arguments sake) or try to go against a bit of investing conventional wisdom and try to wait for prices to go down?
 
i recently read that people are now selling AI art as NFT's... that's pretty much a licence to print money lol.
 
Bleh, AI art. Never mind the tired debates on whether a computer can make “art”, what is known about many of these right now is that they generally do searches and basically Frankenstein together actual artist’s pieces without their knowledge or consent. Basically theft, especially in cases where these are being sold without any credit given or royalties paid. So far as I’m concerned they belong in the garbage heap with NFTs and I find myself blocking these folks just the same.
 
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