NFTs are getting popular especially in the gaming world. Would you consider buying one? Why and why not?
Hi,
I have done a lot of work with crypto investing, and I think I get it. I think I also get the “layer 1 of Bitcoin” versus the “layer 2 or payload capability” of ETH, ADA, etc". But I cannot get my head around the reason for existence of NFTs, or at least not how and why an image of a very small icon used in 1980s computer games can be worth a million dollars of anyone’s money. I totally get selling the rights to, say, a hotel building, so the owner can subsequently split it up into a number of pieces and allow many smaller investors to own a piece of it but the meaning of “none fungible” to me means you can’t split it up.
So in answer to your question, my own position is no - I would not consider buying one. And why not? Because I do not understand the fundamental value case for many of the NFTs that have gone to auction and been priced at moon and Mars prices.
I am sure one day I will understand on a level necessary for me to make value estimates of the NFT at auction. But until that day, I am staying well clear. Far more alternative opportunities to participate in stuff I think I do understand than to go for something I know nothing about.
Edit - I forgot to say. I do like the idea of unstoppable domains and may decide to buy one. But today I do not see a use case for me or my offspring, so have so far resisted. I bought a private car plate in the UK about 15 years ago. Useful because you don’t have to remember your registration number every time you change cars. But despite it spelling my name pretty well, and there are a lot of Gerrys in the UK, it’s only worth what I paid for it 15 years ago, and when I change cars (thankfully not that often) I have to pay a two way fee to DVLA for the pleasure of choosing my own plate. Great move DVLA. Tax on tax on tax.
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It’s a speculative asset. If the price is right, and you are in the right place at the right time with the right “it”, perhaps there’s opportunity to sell for a profit.
It’s art. You like art. You have money. You buy art. You buy art again. Now you have a collection. Something you can share with yourself or others. Something that no one else can have… unless they take a screenshot of it or download a copied of it from the Internet. 
Each time your NFT is sold (as an artist), you are paid a percentage. What a great deal for the artist!
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Great read.
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Was just writing about Star Atlas and their in-game currency, ATLAS. There’s also a governance token built in called POLIS, along with an NFT marketplace coming down the road. NFTs are here to stay!
Man. Everything costs money in the NFT world. I simply do not have the gas money to do anything there. 
Maybe join the Solana wagon and grab a NFT or two over there. Fees are less than $0.01 if my memory serves me right.
What’s their platform for NFTs called?
We had a visit tonight from one of my younger son’s classmates from school. We started to talk about crypto and he launched into a tirade of opportunities that he is taking advantage of right now. Despite what I thought was my relatively deep and broad knowledge of the cryptoverse, I had not heard of a single business name he was talking about. I forgot 90% of what he said, and I should have got a pen and paper, or a voice recorder. He had to shoot off to a meeting. But I will be asking him to talk to me again, a bit more slowly next time.
Summary:
He is a 3 year experience web developer.
He initiated a forum for a game I had not heard of (he said, for my sake, “similar to Runescape”) on a DeFi platform I hadn’t heard of - he mentioned a token called Harmony or One (Won?). He got a message from some guy who created the tokens who said “hey, nice forum. I am going to gift you $600 worth of “said coin” for taking an interest in our game and platform. You can’t withdraw it all immediately, but please continue the value content for our players”. He said in 2 months his $600 gift has now grown to the equivalent value of $4,000, and he’s fully rammed at work so he’s just going to leave it there and see how fast it grows.
Now this is not the first story I heard like this, but I am afraid my brain moves in the far left lane whilst his seems to be in the 8th lane of a Los Angeles highway. If I can ever drag myself away from the really old hat stuff like BTC and ETH, I will have to take a look at layer 2, DeFi and the growth of games as apps hosted on these platforms.
Just checked on Coingecko. Harmony (ONE) is #71 rank and trades at $0.15 per token.
He also burbled something to do with locking tokens into loans? Said the APYs are insanely high. Again, something I haven’t got my brain around just yet.
I need some serious reading time for whitepapers and this space, or to find some forum or forums where those people hang out to talk. Anyone got any ideas? Discord, redditt?
Okay taking notes too.
I’ve bookmarked a bunch of Discord groups but haven’t had time to shortlist. If you find any, please let me know. DeFi might just truly be our future.
Also, can you believe ETH and BTC are now “old hat stuff.” Crazy how fast these things move!
Hi @ponponwei
For me it is a case of analysis paralysis. There is so much going on now in the DeFi and NFT space that I just can’t keep up with it. So I have decided not to. I spend enough time in any event on BabyPips, watching Bitboy crypto and others on Youtube, and I have to remind myself that I actually have made plans already that do not include DeFi and NFTs, and have not got anywhere near finishing those plans either.
So for me, there is a general interest in keeping up with those developments, but without trying to drill down the rathole so far it impacts my productivity. Whilst many seem to be fixated on Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Uniswap and countless other “new boys to hit the top ranks”, let’s not forget that the old boys like BTC, ETH, XRP all have their own development plans for layer 2, for crypto internetworking, and have been at it for a lot longer than the new upstarts.
I also maintain that it is not a matter of having to be right all the time. You only have to hit one 100X prospect to have a life-changing experience. For the rest, it’s business as usual.
So in the short term, I refocus my attention on:
A Building the Chia farm as fast as I can. I have 318 plots on line as of today, and capacity to add a further 1,500 plots before Christmas. That is a written plan, and with a bit of luck achieves its original pilot objective times two.
B Continue to evaluate my sh__coin strategy. The first token has just about disappeared, but is still quoted. It is worth less than a satoshi, but my exposure on the plus side is that every satoshi it increases I gain $100. And it cost me nothing to acquire the tokens - an ill gotten gain from a dodgy Doge trade that went against my written plans anyway. Like buying a lottery ticket on a whim.
C Start planning the next mining pilot. I will not start this until I have over 1,000 chia plots farming. If I do, I will lose focus and that is a stupid thing to do no matter how interesting the next project may sound. To date nothing has changed since 3 months so this is likely to be a Helium mining pilot.
D We are now into Q4, 2021, and that means I need to start thinking about my calendar 2022 plans at a higher timescale. And before that, I need to submit the accounts for last year.
Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh! Snap back to reality, Whoop there goes gravity.
My sh__coin strategy is my Eminem moment. Everybody needs a dream. 
Ha and look at where it is now! And here’s me making fun of it and Shiba. 
It’s honestly amazing how many things you have on your list. I know a few people your age who are just SO BORED. When there’s so much to do, how can one ever be bored!
Bookmarked that Harmony btw. Just for kicks. Not doing anything… which I may or may not come to regret.
Funny how things change. I was introduced to NFTs with utility about six weeks ago, and decided to do a pilot on DeFi Kingdoms. The first NFT I bought was on 27Nov21. By 4Dec21 I had bought 4 more. Now I own 11.
So what changed my mind?
First, it helped that my son’s room mate from University was a coder for the game, and for the ecosystem on which it runs. He introduced me to Heroes in the game and explained how they can be sent on quests to earn money.
I used to play Runescape extensively with my two sons going back nearly 15 years now. I really enjoyed playing the game. After an absence of two years I rejoined with one objective only. Could I build a billion gold pieces (GP) within a year. I did not achieve that, and in fact it is now over 3 years and I have about 900 million. Close enough. You may be forgiven for thinking I had taken leave of my senses. I do think I was the oldest player on Runescape by a country mile. But this is old school stuff. I remember walking out of my last exam (the only exam I ever failed in my life) and walking to the pub to play Breakout, only to find my room mate had beaten me to it. He had walked out of his last exam 15 minutes earlier than me.
So armed with my aged knowledge of Breakout, SIM city, Doom and other pre-21st century games, and a great deal of Runescape knowledge, I decided to participate in DeFi Kingdoms.
I will not bore you with the details but having finally found out how to add a Harmony network to a metamask wallet, I was away with the best of 'em. I have just finished the first month, and have earned 23% return on capital invested.
I am now contemplating doubling my investment in the NFT space of that game whilst maintaining the same level of investment in the Gardens earning 700% APY interest.
The numbers sound ridiculous, but overall this initial investment is up nearly 70%. That could be a lot to do with recent events - like three milestones in two days with DFK now having $600M in locked-in liquidity pairs rapidly building their exchange, and their announcement that they will be releasing a similar opportunity on the Avalanche network in the new year with promises of (as yet unspecified) air drops to DFK aficionados.
So my answer in December to this question is: HELL YEAH!
