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Nevilledog

(54,709 posts) Mon Mar 1, 2021, 04:14 PM Mar 2021

How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Elizabeth Howcroft
@e_howcroft
People are spending millions of dollars on a new kind of rare object which only exists in the online world. They’re called NFTs.

This is one of the most mind-boggling stories I've ever reported. You can read it here, on @Reuters:

(thread)

How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million
In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million.
reuters.com

https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9

Unrolled thread here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1366319743620308992.html

People are spending millions of dollars on a new kind of rare object which only exists in the online world. They’re called NFTs.

This is one of the most mind-boggling stories I've ever reported. You can read it here, on @Reuters:

(thread)

How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million
In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million.
https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9

NFT stands for non-fungible token. This just means that, unlike most digital items which can be endlessly reproduced, blockchain creates a system where each NFT is one-of-a-kind, with only one true verified owner.

Digital art is a major example. But NFTs can also be things like digital trading cards, collectibles, objects in online games, patches of land in virtual worlds, cryptocurrency wallet names, and other digital tokens.

The market has exploded this year. People have been buying and selling NFTs since around 2017, but activity has gone through the roof in the last month or so. Here’s monthly sales on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace:
Image

But why is so much money being spent on things that don’t exist offline?

Some buyers see it as a speculative investment, while for others it's a hobby, just like the physical collectibles market.

A key reason nearly everybody I spoke to gave is the fact that we increasingly live online. During lockdown, a lot of people have been spending most of their waking hours on the internet.

Many gave this example: if you spend all day at home on your computer, why splash out on a gold watch that no one will see? Why not buy something that your friends online can see and that adds value to your online life?

Many NFT enthusiasts also believe that we’re heading towards a full-on metaverse, where people live, work and socialise in increasingly complex virtual world environments, facilitated by virtual reality. In those worlds, they say, NFTs will be how we own things.

Because some people are so certain that NFTs represent the future of ownership, it makes sense to them to spend this much money on these early NFTs. To them, buying now is buying a piece of history.

Here's the story link again, featuring interviews with some of the biggest buyers and sellers in the market:

How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million
In October 2020, Miami-based art collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile spent almost $67,000 on a 10-second video artwork that he could have watched for free online. Last week, he sold it for $6.6 million.
https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9
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