NFT "Genius"

"I got interested in NFTs earlier this year. My dad's friend, who's been in bitcoin for a very long time, bought a rare Pepe [...] for 27,000 dollars, and I instantly became fascinated that someone was willing to spend this much money on a jpeg."

Those are the words from a 12 year old boy from England who made 400,000 dollars in 9 hours selling NFTs. "A 12 Year Old Genius Is Making 6 Figures With NFTs!" and similar headlines soon spread. Linked below this paragraph is a video of mature men fawning over this kid's genius, but mainly over the fact that this kid is making more money than most of the video's viewers. And I don't want to take away from the boy's genius: he obviously understands programming, marketing and the social dimension of NFTs as a status symbol. But seriously, look again at the quote in the post's intro; this boy is no artist, he hasn't created anything special. No, like most people who become rich, he saw an opportunity and was smart about taking advantage of said opportunity.

His statement, "I instantly became fascinated that someone was willing to spend this much money on a jpeg," isn't accurate either, and the kid's smart enough to realize that; he's not selling jpegs, but a links to jpegs. That's my problem with the bulk of the NFT space; people believe they buy a jpeg, but they don't. They're sold on an idea of owning something rare, when they in fact just own a digital receipt to a URL pointing at some space on an online server where that jpeg is hosted. It's a scam, and the little boy knows it. Most buyers don't.

Anyone can now create their own NFT collection in a matter of a few hours. If you know a little bit about Photoshop or a similar program (I use GIMP, which is completely free and can do most things Photoshop can), if you understand how layers and transparency work, you can create your own collection of thousands of NFTs. Or just a few, if you want to play the rarity-card to the max. You see, that's all they are. Most NFT collections are just a couple of basic layers, containing a number of backgrounds, some basic faces, different eyes, mouths, noses, a variety of accessories like hats, masks and mustaches, maybe some glasses and monocles. All these separated individual transparent layers are then combined randomly to create thousands of "unique" NFTs.

And the process of combining the layers, as well as publishing the NFTs on the blockchain is now automated as well on a handy online app; that's what the below linked video teaches us in mere minutes how to use. So please, go make your own NFTs! Maybe you'll strike gold too! Maybe you'll be able to sucker a couple of thousand unfortunate individuals to pay for a jpeg they'll never truly own. You'll have played your part in the process of mainstream adaptation of cryptocurrencies for sure. But is it a positive contribution? I dare question that...

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