From this tweet by doronstudio on twitter
NFTs are real lame and I hate them. Here's why: Ok, half joking, but since I spew so much hate at the blockchain I figured I'll give a proper analysis. Many assume the hate NFTs receive is due to them quickly ravaging popular culture and being relentlessly promoted by celebrities and alike. Well that sure is a good reason, but there's more to it. NFTs and cryptocurrencies betoken the deepest hells of capitalism. Shocker, right? NFTs resemble, in a theoretical capacity, the magnum opus of the future of human innovation and technology under a system who's only goal is profit creation. And within that system (capitalism), the creation of profit will soon stray from real productive ventures, but instead move towards the only logical next step: manufacture an entirely imaginative and pretend world of finance where you can make money just by believing you'll make money. What the fuck, right? As if capitalism couldn't get any capitalism-er. But this in relation to NFTs isn't anything new. It's just the stock market all over again, but somehow worse and more annoying. NFTs are not revolutionary, and they are not the future of humanity. They are a figment of sweaty men's imagination that do not provide any real tangible value to society in ways other than making the rich richer. The issue is that, like any other scheme that makes the rich richer, NFTs are being pumped up as some sort of get rich quick scheme by encouraging those at the bottom of the pyramid to speculate on the value of this non-tangible digital coin vacuum. Indeed this sounds a lot like the stock market. But there's more to it this time, and I'll get into that later.
Lucky for us, Karl Marx did in fact predict the blockchain. Marx recognizes something called "fictitious capital", where capitalists and their army of lower class capitalist wanna-be's buy and sell "shares" (or in this case, crypto coins) of companies or cryptocurrencies. This "exchange" does not create real world value nor does it reflect anything going on in the real world. It is simply speculation on future values of things, or in layman's terms: its all made up. No real value is being created or exchanged. This is a natural tendency of capitalism - as Nelson Wan puts it: "Rather than investing in the productive economy, due to a lack of profitable investments, capitalists increasingly seek to avoid the hassle of production itself, and pump money into the stock markets and other speculative areas." NFT and crypto collectors are capitalizing on the ownership of "capital" (fictitious capital, that is), which is fictitious because there is no material and productive basis for this capital. It is simply someone trying to make money from money- a capitalists best day ever. They have complete free will and sufficient authority within this new "decentralized" and mostly unregulated market to enforce artificial scarcity to the highest degree - a force used to manipulate markets and increase demand for a supply that is not naturally scarce (and could otherwise be distributed more efficiently). It is what marks the fall down and submission to the malign faces of hypercapitalism- a meticulously crafted apparatus that exists solely for the creation of profit, and in it's process of creating that profit, creates little or no real material value to society. After our land is ravaged, our oceans fully spoiled, and our air poisoned, our undying lust and greed for profit resorts to that which cannot be tainted- a digital world where the rules are up to us and the playing grounds are endless. NFTs and cryptocurrencies are the embodiment and presage of a world dictated not by the needs and dreams of the people, but by late capitalism's starving desires to maximize profit beyond the material world, and, for that matter, with intent to leave it behind. As the real world deteriorates and the people in it struggle to get by, capitalists behind the curtains take ahold of this opportunity by promoting and pumping up the speculative value of their little imagination coins, promising those who are subject to the harsh reality of capitalism that if they would just buy into it, they too can be saved.
NFTs and cryptocurrencies are not the solution and they are most definitely not a savior of the people. They are just another beastly head of the game of capitalism. While they may have produced some rags-to-riches stories, these narratives still center around the fact that capitalism is failing the majority of the population. And those who beat the game of capitalism, in this case through the use profit derived from NFTs, are not just outliers, but a glaring characterization of the false promise NFTs pitch to those at the bottom of the pyramid. While it is great that NFTs have lifted many from poverty and so on, it is still completely based on the wealthy's game of making profit from profit without adding any productive forces to society - and in doing so, leaves many in the dust. In other words, it is NOT the solution. Just because a handful of people can make money off of it does not mean we all can, as NFTs and cryptocurrencies still necessitates an artificial scarcity that will continue to perpetuate the feudal pyramid of capitalism. A little bit of a mouthful but stick with me, there's more. I won't mention the environmental argument in this piece of writing just because it's already widely known (and mostly ignored). But either way, what I mean to speak more on is NFT's ruthless co-opting of artists original artistic pieces as it's prey for cloaking the game of speculation that it thrives on. Whatever these rich motherfuckers are up to, whether money-laundering or a coordinated pump & dump scheme, it's no help to artists, and in fact, it's at their expense. Let's be real here, while there are NFT artists that produce some great stuff, a great majority of minted artwork is undeniably dogshit. It is low-effort, low-cognition, and undeserving of appreciation. I would personally pay a lot of money to never see one of those NFT apes ever again. But why is that? Because it's not about art, artists, creators, or the "creator economy". It's about having a fool to use as a doormat for the wealthy while they pump up the idea of crypto and line their pockets.
Within this process, genuine artists must dilute their reputation and tether their artistic creations to an imaginary commodity that exists for the sole purpose of speculation by the wealthy. It's a little demoralizing to have your art not be art, but a pawn in the game of intangible coin gambling. And this point proves itself: The very existence of all of this garbage ape art (et al) being so highly valued is pretty telling -it's not about the art, and it never was. It's about making more money for the rich. So while I'm still inclined to voice some sense of support for the few NFT artists that are using the bubble to make a living and improve their material conditions, which, in a utilitarian sense, is generally good, I cannot voice my support for the waste-laying NFT and cryptocurrency scene. Continuing to fuel the machine that promotes the use of NFTs and cryptocurrencies as means of getting by and ahead is, simply put, impetuous and obstructive to real progress. Want to give monetary power to the people? Ditch DeFi. We need to nationalize the banks, give working people authority and democratic sovereignty in the work place. Take down wall-street. Take down capitalism.