"NFTs rely on blockchain, a database technology based on decentralized, collective control of blocks of data that have been chained together in a way that makes the data immutable. Metapurse — the company founded and financed by Metakovan, the buyer of 'Everydays' — says it 'identifies early-stage projects across blockchain infrastructure, finance, art, unique collectibles, and virtual estate.' According to the Art Newspaper, Metapurse 'is also a production studio for NFTs and a major funder of the digital art form, reportedly owning the largest known collection of NFTs in the world.'... Making the whole spectacle look even more egregiously engineered, the underbidder was Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, another blockchain company.... The irony is that the driving force behind conceptual art... was a desire to resist commodification.... Conceptualists... thought that if you dematerialized art — if you took away the object and our urge to fetishize it — it would be an act of resistance against the art market and the whole capitalist system. How naive that turned out to be. Of course you can commodify artworks that exist only as ideas! It’s really easy.... You need only relationships, differentials, future projections and other ideas, all of which can be bought and sold.... As for the actual work that was purchased? Yawn. Beeple’s technique — collaging lots of colorful images in grid format — is a soporific cliche. Images like this, sometimes coalescing into other images, are ubiquitous. Metakovan’s claim — that 'it represents 13 years of everyday work' — is weak tea.... [But] I like it when the connection between functionality (or even aesthetic merit) and monetary worth is stretched. It can make us question conventional ideas of what has value and what doesn’t. That can be salutary...."
Writes Sebastian Smee in "Beeple’s digital ‘artwork’ sold for more than any painting by Titian or Raphael. But as art, it’s a great big zero" (WaPo).
This blog represents 17 years of everyday work. Where's my $90.6 million?
Anyway... what do I care if rich people shift their money around according to the rules of some wacky game and get nothing tangible? It's the same thing that occurs in gambling. Is anyone defrauded at any point? Are they paying their sales taxes and income tax properly? Other than that, how can it matter? Is there a philosophical question to contemplate?
I forget whether Metakovan is a person or a company. Let's see: "the buyer, the Singapore-based founder and financer of the cryptofund Metapurse who goes by the name Metakovan."
So it's a person, some cryptic figure in Singapore. The prefix "meta-" denotes "change, transformation, permutation, or substitution" (OED). So "Metapurse," I get. But what is Metakovan? Kovan is a geographical location in Singapore. Is there really a person here?
Considering the complexity of the concepts, I wonder: Is the real artist Metakovan or Beeple? Or is there really anything at all — other than the market, a concept to be admired and cavorted in or scorned by each of us, as we see fit.
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
Posts
85 comments:
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The Art market serves many as a giant money laundering and tax avoidance vehicle. It's a dirty business.
You have to share your $90.6 million with commenters.
WTF
"The Art market serves many as a giant money laundering and tax avoidance vehicle. It's a dirty business."
Well, this NTF business makes that look *more* obvious than when there's some painting involved, so the govt ought to look into it. I suspect clever people are getting way ahead of the govt... and that it might lead to the end of the world.
Many people really, really wanted the Beeple sale to succeed
I'll bet. It's interesting to see where the ultra wealthy dump their money in a sort of morbid way I guess. Lately it seems like high net worth people have been desperately trying to find novel areas to invest in. That's probably not a good sign for our economy as a whole. It feels like all this money is flying around and nobody feels safe.
It can make us question conventional ideas of what has value and what doesn’t.
Only someone completely ignorant of the centuries of heavy thinking that has gone into "value" could make such a statement.
Is anyone defrauded at any point? Are they paying their sales taxes and income tax properly? Other than that, how can it matter?
This!
Other than that, who cares? Rich folks doing rich folk things. It is all illusion anyway. It is a virtualization of currency, which is already a symbol of barter, about an abstract [art] that has been virtualized another level into the non-physical. Smoke about vapor...
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
Get in line behind Crack.
The concept of "intrinsic value," always shaky, is really taking a beating these days. I wince every time I see some old-school financial type invoke it. So boomer.
I have been the caretaker of Vincent Van Gogh’s amputated ear for several generations. It rests in my ice box, professionally wrapped and sealed to protect it. I’ll be bringing it to market soon... just a heads-up.
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
Go ahead and pull a Drudge!
I have been the caretaker of Vincent Van Gogh’s amputated ear for several generations. It rests in my ice box, professionally wrapped and sealed to protect it. I’ll be bringing it to market soon... just a heads-up.
You sure that's not just a desiccated chipwich?
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
If you buy bitcoin you will have 90.6 million fairly fast.
Fiat currency stays useful as long as the people that control it maintain their and the currency's integrity.
The Biden Regime had to bail out the Blue Cities that self immolated in 2020.
The dollar will go to zero when the people that maintain it's integrity are part of the DC swamp and it doesn't get anymore swampy than the Biden Regime.
Go ahead and pull a Drudge!
I mean, look what happened to Limbaugh's show. You need to cash out early like Drudge did. But expect the same disdain under new ownership.
It seems like a big scam that might succeed.
I see it as a kind of dick measuring contest in digital space...my NFT is bigger than yours.
But I don't give a damn either...not my money, virtual or not.
There is going to be a concerted effort to take out non-fiat currencies.
They made up "virtual" gold to control the gold price.
They can't make up virtual bitcoins.
Where’s your $90.6 million? You’ll have to go out and get it. Maybe you can turn your blog posts into an NFT. I think the rat doodles or the sunset pictures would sell better, and you won’t have to share with rhhardin.
rhhardin said...You have to share your $90.6 million with commenters.
That reminded me of an old conversation unearthed last night by Lem in the Cafe post. It concerned who owns blog comments?
“Metakovan” is Indonesian for “A sucker born every minute.”
"I have been the caretaker of Vincent Van Gogh’s amputated ear for several generations."
Yeah, whatever happened to Napoleon's penis as an item of commerce?
Oh! It has its own Wikipedia page!
"Napoleon's penis was allegedly cut off in an autopsy shortly after his death in 1821. Since then it has passed through several owners, including A. S. W. Rosenbach, who exhibited it in New York City in 1927. It was purchased by John K. Lattimer in 1977, and is still held in his family, who keep it as a private item. It was poorly preserved and has been compared to a "piece of leather or a shriveled eel" - Casual Knight... A urologist and artifact collector named John K. Lattimer purchased the item in 1977 for $3,000 (equivalent to $12,657 in 2019) and it is currently owned by his daughter. She has been offered at least $100,000 for it... A documentary that aired on Channel 4, Dead Famous DNA, described it as "very small" and measured it to be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). It is not known what size it was during Napoleon's lifetime. The item's current owner has allowed ten people to see it and it has never been recorded on camera."
"You have to share your $90.6 million with commenters."
Only commenters who are also "miners."
https://www.investopedia.com/tech/how-does-bitcoin-mining-work/
"Where’s your $90.6 million? You’ll have to go out and get it. Maybe you can turn your blog posts into an NFT."
That's my point. I did the math based on Beeple.
"The coder was given the name Metakovan by his mom. "When I was describing what I was doing, she came up with the name… Metakovan means king of meta in Tamil.""
The prefix "meta-" denotes "change, transformation, permutation, or substitution"
Not anymore. Now "Meta X" usually means "X about X", like "metadata", which term referring to ubiquitous jpgs and mp3s is probably responsible for the popularity of the "meta" prefix.
Not a question, only an observation: rich people will spend their money on just about any stupid thing.
I still have no idea what the heck this story is all about.
But I will be designating a few personal items "Non-Fungible Tokens" and patiently waiting for them to increase in value.
Here's your $90.6 million. If "you" (meaning the Artist Formerly Known as Ann Althouse) can come forward and show that this entire blog was merely a conceptual art piece from the get-go, that every commenter (including yours truly, Crack, and even Meade) simply a robotic creation, and that entire piece has somehow been preserved by some Russian hacker using blockchain technology, then Mr. Metakovan or one of his competitors will surely bid at auction to get this "art" (minimum $90.6 million).
But they wasted that $69 million on garbage and then will right off that loss against their taxes. Why couldn't they have wasted that $69 million on overpaying their taxes so the government could spend it on high speed rail in California or NASA's SLS project?
"measured it to be 1.5 inches"
bitcoin
A documentary that aired on Channel 4, Dead Famous DNA, described it as "very small" and measured it to be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). It is not known what size it was during Napoleon's lifetime.
Given that dried tissue is 70-80% water, it was likely twice a big flaccid. Who knows when it was tumescent.
Live or dead, I'll bet it stunk.
@Meade: More like Bill Gates's company.
"It is not known what size it was during Napoleon's lifetime."
The human body is 60% water. What percent water do you think a penis is? Dry out that water -- get to the strip of leather or desiccated eel condition, and what do you think you'd have to show for yourself?
"...described it as "very small" and measured it to be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). It is not known what size it was during Napoleon's lifetime."
Shrinkage!!!
"Live or dead, I'll bet it stunk"
Cheese-eating non-bathing surrender monkey.
There must have been a mistake. I thought the $90.6 million direct deposited in my account was the Coronavirus relief check.
Ah, Singapore. The choice of Chinese money laundering shell companies.
That's all this is, again, all, and I mean ALL of modern art is money laundering.
Ann Althouse said...The human body is 60% water. What percent water do you think a penis is? Dry out that water -- get to the strip of leather or desiccated eel condition, and what do you think you'd have to show for yourself?
Likewise, Ed Gein's personal collection of desiccated breasts was no reflection of the rack-worthiness of his victims.
Yes, I went there.
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
You created the thing but that's the easy part. The challenge is to convince the buyer of the value.
In short- you didn't do the work.
Your $90.6 million is in the works. By the time the President and Speaker-for-Life are done it will buy a medium coffee and donut. That's when you get it.
Ann Althouse said...
"...whatever happened to Napoleon's penis..."
Why am I thinking this is going to end up being the title of a horror porn screen play co-written by Dave Begley and Lazlo Spatula?
The human body is 60% water. What percent water do you think a penis is? Dry out that water -- get to the strip of leather or desiccated eel condition, and what do you think you'd have to show for yourself?
>>
The non-bone (heh) portion of the body is more like 72% water. (bone is 31% water, and 18% of your bodyweight, ergo, it subtracts about 12% points from the water percentage).
Unlike other mammals, of course, the human penis has no bone inside it.
The check’s in the mail.
I'll chip in a little today. But I gotta tell you, we've got a long way to go.
How would your life change if you had $90.6 million, Althouse?
"In short- you didn't do the work."
I did. For sale: CarbonCredit WokenTokens. $1.9 Trillion each. I know, I know, you say they look just like Oreo cookies but they're not, they're special. Each purchase helps save the polar bears while paying off your racism reparations debt. Order now and receive free shipping and handling. But wait, there's more! We'll send you this free gift: "Investors' Guide To Collecting Celebrity Politicians' Used Covid Masks." Operators are standing by.
"Unlike other mammals, of course, the human penis has no bone inside it."
That's what she said. (Sorry--too easy.)
I don't loathe finance, I love it- all aspects of it. I'm fascinated by markets and value investing, in traditional and non-traditional asset classes. Blockchain oriented 'assets' are fascinating to me, but mostly as an observer.
Some random observations:
Historically, art and collectibles are one of the most robust asset classes, many subclasses dramatically outperforming traditional assets like bonds and equities. Go look up Chinese porcelain...
We had a client divorced from their well known and successful private equity manager spouse. She picked the art when they were married and got the art in the divorce. She's now worth more then her ex, lapping his net worth a few times over...
The smartest most successful investor we know, with the touch of Midas everywhere he goes, chose a series of entry points to buy Bitcoin a few months ago. Bitcoin is priced far above those entries, and may not see them again, at least for a while. Perhaps never.
Meade said...
I did. Operators are standing by.
Now you're getting it!
What is money, anyway? It's a fiction that we all agree to. From time to time the agreement falls apart, then all Hell breaks loose. For instance, we choose to believe that the bank has our money, even though we know they lend it out. When we all decide we want it back, the bank fails.
"Is there a philosophical question to contemplate?"
"Where's my $90.6 million?"
You know, you guys just can't be left unsupervised. I checked this thread at 9:58 and there was a polite conversation going on. I come back 40 minutes later and it has degenerated into talk of Napoleon BONE-A-PART's equipment and its current state of disrepair. Sheesh.
And by the way, just to tie everything together, the link between this thread and the one about the walrus is, the walrus does have a penis bone. It's called an "udjuk" and much merriment is derived on Baffin Island by offering one of these to tourists and then telling them what it is.
They can't make up virtual bitcoins.
I don't know. The big ETFs, the futures markets and even just big ass corporations moving cash into crypto suggests they may well find a way to control/manipulate the market. And that's the carrot vs. the regulatory stick. I'm afraid to buy more crypto at current prices, but keeping some powder dry for when the regulators make their move.
---and that it might lead to the end of the world. [Ann]
Yes, good point. Like so many, many things. Amazing, when you stop to consider. How are we still here??
"Unlike other mammals, of course, the human penis has no bone inside it."
Speak for yourself...
The Greatest Fool theory is a cornerstone of today's art market.
Me? I'm long on tulip bulbs.
If I am buying a piece of art, I want it to look like the artist spent some time on it, I admit. The other thing I want is for it to be very clear that it wasn’t produced on a printer from a collection of ones and zeros on a computer. I suppose that with 3D printing, it will soon be possible to create almost perfect fakes of any painting, requiring a jeweler’s loupe or fancy tests to tell the difference.
I wonder how that guy who bought the banana duck taped to a wall for $120,000 feels about his purchase right now. Money laundering is what comes to mind.
"The Greatest Fool theory is a cornerstone of any art market.”
Fixed it for you.
I thought about sending a check, but I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't want it.
""The coder was given the name Metakovan by his mom. "When I was describing what I was doing, she came up with the name… Metakovan means king of meta in Tamil."""
The Tamil to English translator doesn't support that. He may be bullshitting.
"How would your life change if you had $90.6 million, Althouse?"
I would spend time thinking about what to do with $90.6 million.
I wish I had bought Bitcoin the first time I read about it. This would have been a few months after it was launched on the web. I remember a commenter named "Person" who explained and promoted it on various libertarian sites I frequented at the time. I don't remember him ever saying how much of it he owned, but at various times I looked up the price with the thought I might buy some of it, it ranged from 1-50 dollars/coin. One of the things that inhibited me was, in fact, the price as ironic as it might seem. My thought was that to make a large amount of profit on it, I would have to buy several thousand coins. Turns out I only needed to buy a hundred dollars worth.
I don't lose sleep over missing out, though. I am self-aware enough to know I never would have bought Bitcoin at $50/coin and held it til today. I would have cashed out long before it even reached $500/coin. I also know I likely would have repurchased it at some intermediate to today's price and sold it for another, but lower, intermediate price in a panic to get out before it went to zero.
What is Bitcoin's long term value? I think the answer is very clear- zero. It isn't really different from every other currency in history. Something will eventually kill it. The most likely thing to kill it in the near term is the material cost in mining it. It takes a lot of electricity and computing power to verify a single transaction regardless of the transaction size. The problems solved keep getting more difficult. Ten years ago, you could mine bit coin on your desktop computers of that time. However, today, you really need first rate specialized hardware to be able to compete with other miners successfully. It is a never-ending war of competition. Additionally, things like quantum computing will probably make the blockchain as secure as putting a $100 bill on a sidewalk. And then there are the governments who do not like a currency they do not control. I could very easily imagine the US government deciding to outlaw bit coin and make it a long prison sentence for using it.
They can't make up virtual bitcoins.
Far easier for a custody agent to just sell hot air and misrepresent ownership to their clients.
Iman said...
I have been the caretaker of Vincent Van Gogh’s amputated ear for several generations. It rests in my ice box, professionally wrapped and sealed to protect it. I’ll be bringing it to market soon... just a heads-up
I have Lassie on cassette barking out "Joe needs help, follow me!"
At least that's what the guy who sold it to me claims.
The guy who bought it paid in bitcoin. Probably got into that early and turned out prescient. Now hoping for same with nft. The publicity is the whole point.
AA you need an early bitcoin investor among your readers. Hope it wasn't Chuck.
There was a story a few weeks back about a guy in the UK that had lost his old hard drive 5-6 years ago containing the electronic wallet with like a hundred million dollars of Bitcoin at today's prices. He had accidentally thrown the hard drive into the trash which was picked up and taken to a landfill. He was trying to get permission to search a section of the landfill to find the old hard drive offering the local goverment a piece of the proceeds. I don't know if he got permission or not.
Close Match and Related Words
வேட் கோவன் [ vēṭ kōvaṉ ] , a potter , குயவன் .
கோவன் [ kōvaṉ ] , a herdsman , இடையன் ; 2 . a king ; 3 . the vashista ; 4 . Siva .
.....................
http://dictionary.tamilcube.com/
Wonder what "All Your Base Are Belong Us" is worth. Or the original LOLcat.
I wonder how that guy who bought the banana duck taped to a wall for $120,000 feels about his purchase right now. Money laundering is what comes to mind.
A banana duck? I’d be pissed, those ripen and spoil way too fast.
Ann Althouse said...
"The Art market serves many as a giant money laundering and tax avoidance vehicle. It's a dirty business."
Well, this NTF business makes that look *more* obvious than when there's some painting involved, so the govt ought to look into it. I suspect clever people are getting way ahead of the govt... and that it might lead to the end of the world.
------------=================
the govt ought to look into it >>> and make Reparations and Treasurys into NFT ... so that it might lead to the end of the world and usher in CAPITALISM AND INIDVIDUAL RIGHTS
Dr. Althouse: Well, this NTF business makes [the art market serves many as a giant money laundering and tax avoidance vehicle. It's a dirty business] look *more* obvious than when there's some painting involved, so the govt ought to look into it.
Really? A famous painting is just one form of non-fungible token. A PNG image of a famous painting is just a fungible token. Whatever aesthetic value the famous painting may have is captured just as well by the PNG image. The market value of the famous painting derives from its non-fungibility. Now we have both the global networking technology (note the not-limited-to-any-legal-jurisdiction aspect of this) and the cryptographic technology (including impenetrability by entities with the resources of state actors—yes, including the NSA, who were defeated by Edward Snowden) to make anything we want an NFT.
I suspect clever people are getting way ahead of the govt...
That happened when Phil Zimmerman published the source code to Pretty Good Privacy in a physical book so it didn't fall under cryptographic technology export restrictions, and was sold around the world, at the very latest.
...and that it might lead to the end of the world.
It will inevitably lead to the end of centralized government. The world will not only be fine, but will be better off.
Ann Althouse said...
"How would your life change if you had $90.6 million, Althouse?"
I would spend time thinking about what to do with $90.6 million.
LOL!
I have sometimes pondered winning a big lottery prize (although I don't buy tickets). It is a bit stressful thinking about that I would do with the money. Maybe that is why I don't buy tickets.
tim maguire: Only someone completely ignorant of the centuries of heavy thinking that has gone into "value" could make such a statement.
Exactly.
It turns out there is a correct theory of economics, and a bunch of incorrect theories of economics. The current kerfuffle over cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the definition of "value" in a marketplace, etc. is a grand unfolding of a proof by demonstration that Austrian economics is the correct theory of economics. Everyone who backed the wrong theoretical horse is, of course, up in arms about it.
Yancey Ward said...
I wish I had bought Bitcoin the first time I read about it. This would have been a few months after it was launched on the web. I remember a commenter named "Person" who explained and promoted it on various libertarian sites I frequented at the time. I don't remember him ever saying how much of it he owned, but at various times I looked up the price with the thought I might buy some of it, it ranged from 1-50 dollars/coin. One of the things that inhibited me was, in fact, the price as ironic as it might seem. ...
What is Bitcoin's long term value? I think the answer is very clear- zero.
------------==========
how is bitcoin any different from [John Mayanard Keynes']? solution of paying people to dig holes and also pay people to fill them up? to avoid / prevent /cycles/
tcrosse: What is money, anyway? It's a fiction that we all agree to. From time to time the agreement falls apart, then all Hell breaks loose. For instance, we choose to believe that the bank has our money, even though we know they lend it out. When we all decide we want it back, the bank fails.
Sounds like you've read Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles!
Paul Snively said...
tim maguire: Only someone completely ignorant of the centuries of heavy thinking that has gone into "value" could make such a statement.
Exactly.
It turns out there is a correct theory of economics, and a bunch of incorrect theories of economics. The current kerfuffle over cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the definition of "value" in a marketplace, etc. is a grand unfolding of a proof by demonstration that Austrian economics is the correct theory of economics. Everyone who backed the wrong theoretical horse is, of course, up in arms about it.
----------==========
where does this fit in?
austrian-economics-and-bitcoin-a-virtuous-cycle
And, again: Where's my $90.6 million?
Your share of our National Debt zeros that out.
Narayanan: where does this fit in?
IMO, there are two respects in which Bitcoin deviates from Austrian monetary theory:
1. It's an existence disproof of the Austrian monetary theoretical stance that the money commodity must first have served some other purpose.
2. Bitcoin was deliberately designed with an initial inflationary mechanism, almost certainly in order to spur adoption via speculation.
I suppose I would add a third point:
3. Bitcoin, unlike other money commodities, is not privacy-preserving.
The first two points lead me to believe "Satoshi" knows Austrian monetary theory very well, was aware of point 1, and designed point 2 to overcome that challenge—a successful experiment, so far. However, most cryptocurrency activity remains speculative, and unfortunately, cryptocurrencies have become financialized—that is, a bevy of derivative instruments have sprung up around them—well in advance of any meaningful adoption as a medium of exchange.
Point 3 makes Bitcoin anathema to monetary civil libertarians. See ZCash for the most credible alternative I'm aware of.
Meade said...
"Live or dead, I'll bet it stunk"
Cheese-eating non-bathing surrender monkey.
------------============
I doubt Napoleon ever surrendered though he migh not have bathed or wash hands before eating cheese /monkey see nonkey do/
How did Napoleon first achieve power in France?
Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France by d. an overthrow of the French government. He overthrew the Directory (which was running France for a short period of time) in a coup d'etat with some of his close compatriots and became "First Consul" for ten years before eventually becoming an emperor.
"I doubt Napoleon ever surrendered though he migh not have bathed or wash hands before eating cheese /monkey see nonkey do/"
LOL. Oh come on, Narayanan. History. I'm sure there must be some set of lies we can agree upon.
Paul Snively said...
Narayanan: where does this fit in?
------------==========
thanks
Paul Snively said... What is Bitcoin's long term value? I think the answer is very clear- zero.
------------==========
Narayanan: how is bitcoin any different from [John Mayanard Keynes']? solution of paying people to dig holes and also pay people to fill them up? to avoid / prevent /cycles/
Paul Snively said ... 2. Bitcoin was deliberately designed with an initial inflationary mechanism, almost certainly in order to spur adoption via speculation.
Keynes wanted inflation too. [so did Milton Friedman]
Art is a wonderful way for people who have too much money to prove to the world what aesthetes they are. Their discernment is amplified by how much money they spend on a work.
Crypto? Nah. The dollar can't fork.
Where's my $90.6 million?
Where's the video of you eating 453,000 egg salad sandwiches?
When your gov't is debasing its currency you get these misallocations of resources. Money is so cheap to obtain that it gets squandered on the frivolous rather than the productive.
It's as if we can all be rich by owning bitcoins and never have to produce anything useful again. What's going to happen when the 21 million bitcoins are worth the entire domestic product of the world?
"Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own worries. The troubles we have in a day are enough for one day." Some guy said that.
Girls want to talk about dicks. It's understandable. Dicks are very important to girls.
Scott: Crypto? Nah. The dollar can't fork.
Actually, the dollar can, and does, fork all the time, both by Fed open-market operations and by private banks extending loans consisting of nothing more than new dollars measured against a reserve ratio.
Cryptocurrency fan or not, you don't actually believe the supply of dollars is stable, do you?
I don't understand this post, but I rally don't care that I don't.
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