I will be you NFT girlfriend, you can’t ever touch me or interact with me in real life but if you pay me enough money you can go around telling people I’m yours.
— maura quint (@behindyourback) December 22, 2021
Sure, we may be spending the first Saturday night of the new year online, but at least we’re not as dementedly ONLINE as some people…
Two NFT copycats are fighting over which is the real fake Bored Ape Yacht Club https://t.co/NPd8Ks6PPP pic.twitter.com/6Cc17hPncJ
— The Verge (@verge) December 30, 2021
… PAYC announced its launch in early December with a loose mission statement promoting decentralization and denigrating “rich douchebags” who had (allegedly) taken over the original ape market. It called back to CryptoPhunks, a similar project that flipped and resold expensive CryptoPunks images earlier this year. Early arrivals could mint left-facing apes for free starting December 28th, while others paid a fee of .042 ETH (currently around $157).
PHAYC launched shortly after with a tongue-in-cheek website describing the project as “a limited NFT collection where the token itself offers no membership and no allegiance,” an inversion of the promise made by BAYC creator Yuga Labs. One PHAYC community member described the project to CoinDesk as “a satirical take on the current state of NFTs and members of the NFT community who might be taking the NFT market a little too seriously.”
Somewhat ironically, PAYC and PHAYC have since fought on Twitter over which one is the authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club ripoff, with PAYC’s founder referring to PHAYC as a “cash grab fraud project.” PHAYC charged people to mint its apes, and CoinDesk reports that it took in around 500 ETH (or around $1.8 million) in sales. By contrast, it says PAYC earned around 60 ETH (or roughly $225,000) from its paid sales…
Everybody loves unregulated markets until their imaginary wallet full of monkey jpegs gets stolen. pic.twitter.com/I4RVVX9oZE
— Shitpost Munitions and the Teachings of Buddha (@_Rewhan) January 1, 2022
Pivot! Ugly pics are soooo 2021 — unreadable words are the new 2022 hotness…
I mean this genuinely, truly, with only a desire for knowledge: how https://t.co/XsY1z5Mk5j
— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston) January 1, 2022
rikyrah
A sucker is born every minute
zhena gogolia
Betty left this world just in time
Jerzy Russian
Christ almighty.
Chetan Murthy
Every time I look away [b/c who can look more than a brief period, without straining their superior rectus
muscle ?] and then I look back again, it’s gotten even more ridiculous. Just amazing.
Also though, I thought “execution of the smart contract is all of the law” ? what happened to that ? Surely all the crypto influencers are up-in-arms about this ….
application of laws on stolen propertycensorship ?Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I was thinking earlier that Gavin MacLeod was the last MTM regular left, only to find that Captain Stubing set sail for the great beyond a few months ago. Didn’t get teh attention that Ed Asner or Betty White, or even Cloris Leachman, got.
SpaceUnit
This is gonna be the year we start watering our crops with Gatorade, isn’t it?
Urza
Literature NFTs would be like that album the douchebag pharmabro bought? That no one can ever appreciate until someone pirates it.
So far as I can tell, most markets with high values just have people flipping things to raise the prices until it collapses. Crypto, NFTs, houses, art. Some have actual value like a house, but if companies and rich people are just flipping them to force the price up like Zillow and Blackrock do that doesn’t mean its real value increase even though real people end up paying extra for something they need.
dmsilev
The future is weirder than we could possibly have imagined.
dmsilev
@SpaceUnit: Look, it has electrolytes, right?
SpaceUnit
@dmsilev:
It’s what plants crave . . . I guess.
Jerzy Russian
@dmsilev:
I will choose “Things That Are Even Stupider Than They Sound” for $500, Alex.
Another Scott
This stuff is fun and silly, but it’s burning up the planet.
Some/many/most NFT blockchains use Ethereum – 230.62 kWh per transaction (= 7.79 days of power for a “typical” US home).
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
Can there be too many grifts?
Baud
@debbie:
Next up: NFT derivatives.
debbie
@Another Scott:
We need to find a way to link them to Texas’s grid, if only to fuck with Abbott.
debbie
@Baud:
Tranches! Lots of tranches!
Jerzy Russian
@SpaceUnit: Assuming it has not been done yet (or even if it has), this would make a good high school science fair project. Take two sets of houseplants (one is the control group of course), water one set with water and the other set with Gatorade and see if there is any difference towards the end of the semester.
Chetan Murthy
@debbie: IIUC, miners are moving to TX already. Truly abominable.
Urza
@Baud: Are there regular cryptocurrency derivatives yet? Probably are but I haven’t heard of it. If only I had the realization about the power usage now and not back in the very beginning.
Jerzy Russian
@Baud:
Do these things have simple analytic forms or can we use finite difference approximations? No really my field, but I hear there are some pretty sophisticated “automatic differentiation” codes out there, so those potentially be used if the need arises.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
Exactly.
Mike E
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey Scam
Baud
I’m going to invest in fiat currency now so I can make a killing when it comes back in style.
Chetan Murthy
@Urza: I have a friend who trades these suckers avidly. All the variations. And he’s told me that, indeed, there are all sorts of derivatives out there. Every kind you might imagine. The traders from Wall Street arrived a while back and, seeing a crowd of sheep waiting to be fleeced, have commenced with the shearing.
Just to be clear, my friend is just a *trader*: he doesn’t for a second buy into any of this cryptocurrency bullshit.
Ken
$249$1,326$18,254$3,387$126$48.25$0.17
Jeez, these markets are volatile…
Mai Naem mobile
Spice Girl Mel B got a MBE for charity work in the New Years honors list from the Queen. And Bernie Taupin got a CBE for his musical talent. I’ve never followed the Spice Girls but I frankly thought they were all the female equivalent of a Lou Perlman plastic image band. Anyhoo, I guess she gets called Dame Mel now.
Another Scott
@debbie: The supergeniuses are one step ahead of you… Bloomberg (from November):
(Emphasis added)
I think I see a pathological incentive there. Did the old Enron geniuses find new employment?? :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Spanky
I look at this and wonder what the money laundering angle is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mai Naem mobile: MBE just gets you post-nominal letters. No title.
Jerzy Russian
@Baud:
We have a Fiat 500. Cute little car but I never thought of it as money.
mrmoshpotato
@Spanky:
Totally.
SpaceUnit
@Jerzy Russian:
Sort of like a Remedial Science Fair.
Ken
“Except instead of saving the extra energy for later, we waste it!” Shades of the Golgafrinchan “B” Ark survivors, burning the forests to drive up the value of the leaf.
Chetan Murthy
@Ken: can you say “burying government cheese, literally burying it, to take it off the market” ? I knew you could. That actually happened.
Mike in NC
Reading about this cryptocurrency crap makes a person wonder why Trump didn’t get into it himself years ago. Or maybe he did. Most of the people that went to his rallies are certifiable. I’m expecting something bad to happen this coming January 6.
burnspbesq
@Another Scott:
not a fun read on a night when temps in Central Texas are expected to drop into the 20s (F) by morning. The ICE car is full of gas and the EV is charged to 100 percent in case we need emergency warm places.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Okay, this made me laugh.
Mai Naem mobile
@Omnes Omnibus: you’re right ofcourse. Tony Blair is also on the honors list and he does get to be Sir Tony for I believe a GBE. Bernie Taupin probably deserves the GBE more than Tony Blair.
Spanky
@burnspbesq:
Florida?
Mai Naem mobile
@burnspbesq: has Ted left to go to Cancun yet? Seriously, stay safe.
Urza
@Spanky: Cancun is obviously the default warm place for Texans
Steeplejack
Apparently Saturday Night Live is going to run the 2010 episode with Betty White tonight.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Good move.
burnspbesq
@Mai Naem mobile:
High likelihood. 6 p.m. temps 10 in Amarillo, 22 in Lubbock. Lubbock had snow flurries a couple hours ago.
Here it comes.
burnspbesq
@Spanky:
Lake Charles, LA and Ardmore, OK are the nearest places on a regional power grid and with pet-friendly hotels. Not sure we could get to either without refueling.
Roger Moore
@Urza:
That’s totally unfair. Lots of them are also flipping things as a way of laundering money.
Anotherlurker
Is it just me or do those monkey token look racist as hell?
Yutsano
@Anotherlurker: It’s not just you. Those images definitely seem racist to me. PIcked that out as soon as I saw them, but look who they’re being marketed to.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Any idea whether Abbott would survive a second power grid failure? I hate rooting for injuries, but…
zhena gogolia
@Anotherlurker: not just you
Roger Moore
@Mai Naem mobile:
Nope. There are 5 levels in the Order of the British Empire (MBE, OBE, CBE, K/DBE, GBE) and only the last two are actual knights/dames. People who get the lower three levels can use the post-nominal letters to show their award, but they don’t get to call themselves knight or dame. This is true of the lower levels of most of the British orders of chivalry; they have lots of members, officers, and companions, but relatively few knights and dames.
Roger Moore
@Mai Naem mobile:
If I heard correctly, it’s for a KG, which is much more prestigious. I guess if any Labour politician were going to get one, it would be “I’m Tory Plan B” (an anagram of Tony Blair, MP).
Another Scott
@burnspbesq: :-(
Maybe keep an eye on the ERCOT Dashboards and be ready to take action if necessary. (It looks like there’s plenty of power for their expected demand tonight.)
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: I remember in one of Le Carré’s books someone makes a sneering reference to Smiley having only the OBE
Another Scott
@debbie: No idea.
The next governor’s election in Texas is in November, so he would undoubtedly try to stick it out even if there’s some disaster (that he would try to blame on Biden or the “illegals” or the weird hippies in Austin).
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The standard award for senior members of the defense establishment, including the intelligence services, would be in the Order of St. Michael and St. George. For example, James Bond has a CMG, and Daniel Craig was just given one to match. It’s quite unusual for an actor to get something like that, but I guess it helps to have friends in high places. ETA: Craig was also made an honorary Commander in the Royal Navy, the same rank as Bond.
Tehanu
@Roger Moore: I’m so old I remember when the Beatles got an MBE (I think, maybe it was an OBE).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, but it will be virtual crops.
Kalakal
@Roger Moore: There was a wonderful scene in Yes Minister where Humphrey is explaning the ranks of the Order of St Michael & St George to Bernard
CMG. – Call Me God
KCMG – Kindly Call Me God
GCMG – God Calls Me God
pluky
@Mai Naem mobile:
https://www.nme.com/news/music/mel-b-to-receive-mbe-for-her-services-to-domestic-violence-victims-3122945
Seems she earned it. However, this is the 5th Class of Order of the British Empire; only the top two get to be Sir/Dame.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Judi Dench has twice portrayed Queen Victoria on film, so by the same token I expect she will be crowned as Her Majesty any day now. //s
Fake Irishman
@Another Scott:
Good idea about ERCOT monitoring. The other thing to remember is that the Houston area will be dropping into the 30s tonight and not into a meat locker like it did last February. Central and northern Texas do get cold from time to time, but putting an additional 3 million households or so onto extreme power needs will keep the strain way down.
JAFD
Thought of taking some photos I’d made, converting them to NFTs, sending them as Xmas gifts to friends. Didn’t actually do anything about it.
Weather today forecast is 50 F overnight low and 55 with clouds daytime Sunday, ‘Alberta Clipper’ coming thru Sunday night, 35 high Monday but sunshine. Very tired of gloom am I getting.
Fired up bread machine, had warm loaf and cheese for dinner, at least 2022 smells good round here.
Happy New Year, and to all a good night !