So, it’s worth looking at this marketplace for an understanding of the actual dynamics of web3. OpenSea is the dominant marketplace for selling NFTs. And now they’ve raised a ton of money & have a huge valuation.
https://twitter.com/TechCrunch/status/1478557496704970757
The folks who are “true believers” in crypto don’t like OpenSea, because it is a centralized gatekeeper for selling NFTs. But the only way such a valuation can be justified is if it remains *exactly* this kind of gatekeeper.
On the other hand, those who value the opportunism of the crypto boom more than some abstract ideology _like_ that there’s a centralized gatekeeper. That way, there’s distribution, and when your apes get stolen because you clicked a link in Discord, you can complain to someone.
Soon, this will evolve past mere fraud handling into the same kind of copyright maximalism that lets a few record labels determine what content you can post on YouTube. There is no fair use, only the RIAA. The blockchain interoperability is merely vestigial.
If crypto enthusiasts think decentralization matters, than having centralized marketplaces (and wallets) would be a dealbreaker. They don’t actually care about that, so it’s clear they just want new gatekeepers, in a space where they have an advantage. Honestly? Boring.
And if we think markets should be at least nominally rational, then the fact that DeviantArt or Etsy or Gumroad or Patreon each sell far more images from far more artists than OpenSea should be pertinent. What does it say that artists aren’t factored into this at all?
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