Gregory's Server@tinker I strongly believe that NFTs were a direct reaction to EU 5AMLD, which regulated the auction, sale, and transfer of physical artworks to a similar degree to other methods of wealth transfer. previously, art could be sold or transferred without record, allowing wealth to be hidden from scrutiny and money to be moved around without transparency. 5AMLD requires art transfers over a threshold value to be declared, just like with cash transfers, and NFTs were an attempt to sidestep this.
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 @chort @tinker the timeline matches up pretty much perfectly. I've tried poking some investigative reporters to dig into the early funding of NFT schemes to see if they can dig up ties to people known to be involved in the high-price art market (which has long profited from the loopholes) but never heard back. @gsuberland @tinker Sounds like a job for ProPublica... is there a European equivalent? @gsuberland @tinker yeah, go for it! Would love to see that long form (assuming they can get some inside dirt). @tinker I'm also convinced that the sudden explosion of interest in cryptocurrency was at least in part due to extremely wealthy individuals propping it up as a reaction to the tightening regulatory landscape on money laundering and undeclared wealth.  @gsuberland - Oh yeah. A lot of "Reddit Bros" were filthy rich wallstreet traders. "Diamond Hands, Apes! Apes together strong!" were just folks scamming retailer investors.  @tinker @gsuberland too much money sloshing around in too few hands with nowhere to go (ie no "investments" that get insane returns because fuck paying people a living wage, paying taxes, and investing in infrastructure) has caused all kinds of problems. AI mania is just the latest. NFTs, crytpo, but also stock buybacks, vulture capitalists, robber barron wealth inequality, social instability. #taxtherich isn't just right, it's the solution to a lot of problems  @gsuberland @tinker Plus all the energy that crypto uses. They pretty much need a nuclear power plant's worth of output to run -- and gee, it seems #BigEnergy is all to happy to help out! @gsuberland @tinker and it uses a lot of energy that offsets the gains in renewables. Fossil fuel fanatics love this @gsuberland @tinker and now we see artworks being commoditized like stocks to the retail market through speculative sites like masterworks (spelling?) @gsuberland @tinker that attempt came actually later. And it mostly failed, because you cannot have both legal and well documented art sales and anonymity (legal in the sense that you have a title that enables you to take possession of an artwork) |
@gsuberland @tinker Well that's fucking fascinating.