Week 09 Response -- Criminals in Crypto

in #gradnium2 years ago

This post is a response to the question "Is it as simple as copying and pasting or is there more to NFTs? Is the buying and selling of NFTs a viable job option? Why or why not?" made by @karsonyounger.
It is difficult to provide a straightforward answer because just like any other system, there are people within the system that try to easily capitalize by deceiving others. Sometimes, the selling of NFTs can be as simple as an empty promise. For example, one of the most recent NFT scams that occurred in February of 2022 by a Twitter user named CoolKittensNFT. The account promised its buyers "... an electronic token with cat art, a purpose-built cryptocurrency called $PURR, and membership in DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization..." (Croce) When released, 2,216 of these tokens sold for $70, accumulating to about $160,000. After a while, the chatroom that contained the buyers and other interested parties was deleted and the trace of the founders was lost. This demonstrates the great ease with which people can scam others to make a quick buck. However, with these people who are looking to make easy cash are also people who desire to produce meaningful art and content in the hopes of selling it for a living. With the rise of technology, it is becoming increasingly clear that it holds immense power when it comes to everything. This includes its power with art and other visual content. I with this reliance of technology, not only can people make a living off of it, but it can be more successful than trying to sell outside of the technological world. An artist named Ryan Maloney desired to sell a pack of 10 collectible cards of monsters in sportswear for $4.99 but changed his mind and tried to sell them as an NFT instead. By selling these cards as digital art, he made more than $700 on 14 cards. (Remsburg) NFT's have the potential to be so valuable in a world where technology seems to be taking over, an immersion in this technological world requires the weapon of skepticism.

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