If I scribble out a lopsided drawing of my dog and...

If I scribble out a lopsided drawing of my dog and try to sell it on Etsy or at a booth in an art convention, I probably won't find any takers. Most people probably won't take that to mean that the fine art market is in freefall, but that's kind of what happened here.

Much like with sketches or paintings, pretty much anyone can create an NFT. If you’ve got a pencil or some paints, you can make art; if you have an Internet connection, you can make an NFT.

Much like with sketches or paintings, most NFTs aren’t very good.

Much like with sketches or paintings, most NFTs don’t sell.

If I scribble out a lopsided drawing of my dog and try to sell it on Etsy or at a booth in an art convention, I probably won’t find any takers. Most people probably won’t take that to mean that the fine art market is in freefall.

But that’s kind of what happened here.

A quickly sketched drawing of a pink dog with tall pointy ears, a blue collar with a heart shaped tag, and "MW 2023" signed in the corner.

Caption reads: "No one bought any of the 19 crayon drawings I made of my dog. 95% of art is worthless!"

Like 25 Sep 2023 at 23:20 | Open on hachyderm.io

14 comments

Molly White

Worst of all: in their quest to reprint a click-grabbing, doom-and-gloom number, these media outlets also ended up printing a bunch of crypto casino reviewers' optimistic predictions for the future of NFTs.

Now, I am already the kind of person who gets annoyed when media outlets reprint bunk studies, even when they are supporting conclusions that are themselves at least vaguely accurate. Others might tell me to chill out, and to spend my time worrying about all the bad data out there being used to support blatant falsehoods.

However, what annoys me in particular about this report being laundered into the mainstream news cycle is that Rolling Stone and The Guardian — in their evidently neverending quest to both-sides any issue placed in front of them — are also printing the authors’ optimistic predictions for the NFT industry. A bunch of crypto casino reviewers promoting the rosy future of NFTs probably wouldn’t have made it into multiple mainstream media outlets had it not been for the fact that it was included alongside the eye-catching, but misleading, 95% figure.

25 Sep 2023 at 23:20 | Open on hachyderm.io

Phil Rees

@molly0xfff Why draw attention to it instead of pointing to more legitimate sources that describe the negatives of NFTs?

E.g.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462962200007X

26 Sep 2023 at 1:15 | Open on mastodon.social

JJDavis :terminal:

@molly0xfff I've seen worse drawings 🐶

25 Sep 2023 at 23:24 | Open on infosec.exchange

Jon Renaut

@molly0xfff COUNTERPOINT: your dog is a very good dog

25 Sep 2023 at 23:26 | Open on thepit.social

Dark Table

@molly0xfff You there! Name your price for the crayon on paper depiction of your dog!

25 Sep 2023 at 23:27 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place

Karl Higley

@molly0xfff Agree with your points here, and also: I would genuinely buy a print of that drawing if such a thing were available on Etsy or wherever. It looks just like our dog!!