Thread by @Pinboard

I really like this question and the challenge of answering it. I believe what makes NFTs different is a transformative vision of a future that true believers find inspiring and achievable. In their eyes, the current speculative bubble is a mechanism for growing something enduring

https://twitter.com/AriDrennen/status/1450652779198910465

A good analogy to NFT believers are the people who are really into colonizing Mars. You can argue with them on the technical demerits of their project (no air, far away, all our stuff is here, slow internet), but you're not really getting to the heart of their belief system.

People want to colonize Mars because they (pick one) want to live out a libertarian fantasy, have deep anxieties about human extinction, want humanity to take over the galaxy, want a fresh start in Year Zero without all the baggage that comes with life on Earth, you name it.

Like the singularity/superintelligence subculture that came before it, both the Martians and the NFT people have an apocalyptic vision of a future where things are fundamentally different. I mean apocalypse not as the end of the world, but that all is swept away and starts afresh

In the case of NFT world, that future is an internet decentralized by design so that it can never be co-opted by the rich and powerful or by the state, tying in to a kind of always-on video game layer over reality, and with strong guarantees for ownership provided by crypto woo

They see this future as the inevitable path for freedom and progress, and the current speculative mania as a way to both get in on the ground floor, and to fund the development of something grand and lasting, even if it has to go through many revisions and false starts.

Making arguments to these believers on technical grounds (like all the foundational issues with various blockchains) is as we say in Polish, like throwing dried peas against the wall. Technical problems will be solved, what matters is that they have seen the promised land.

You make as much headway trying to convince Mars nuts that we can't even keep people alive in the Earth desert yet unsupplied, or the strong AI people that we don't need to start making plans for immortality. Because you're not in a debate about technology but about the Millenium

What such beliefs have in common is that they offer a positive, transformative vision of a future made better by technology, with a story about why it is achievable and inevitable. Whereas the real world right now doesn't offer much hope or positive future at all. So you get NFTs

To all the fraud, speculation, and just basic insanity in this space, the NFT crowd can answer that they're replicating the same thing that happens in high finance, except now it's a different set of people who get to participate. The Fed creates money out of nothing, why not us?

I think recognizing the spiritual hunger that sits at the core of these movements (and remember how many in the space are young people!) is an important step to understanding them. Crypto culture is a mirror world that feeds off of the unexamined failures of the real world.

And it is also, like everyone points out, a massive scam that will hurt regular people the longer the bubble is allowed to inflate. But it's not just "name a star", it's "name a star" with the promise that you'll get to visit in a rocket very soon, if only enough people believe.

And I deserve a goddamned medal for 12 tweets on this without a single mention of Communism.

Here @nyquildotorg makes a good point, that NFT culture in particular is also Herbalife for young artists, promising them self-reliance and the ability to live off their work if they buy in, assuring them that every garage band can be U2 on the blockchain.

https://twitter.com/nyquildotorg/status/1450889518291173376