@trenthead

NFT Prices Drop as “Crypto Winter” Descends

Bloomberg reports that the popular Bored Ape NFTs saw a 25% decrease in average price along with other “blue-chip” tokens.

Referring to “expensive digital images of monkeys” as “100% based on greater fool theory,” Gates drove home the point that assets like NFTs are entirely contingent on a consumer market that believes they have value. Unlike, say, a house, which retains the intrinsic value of being a place to live, no matter what extrinsic value is conferred upon it by demand in the real estate market, an electronically unique picture of a cartoon monkey does nothing for you, unless everyone believes it is a desirable object. Hard to believe, but there you have it.

The Rise of the Internet’s Creative Middle Class

Fourteen years ago, Kevin Kelly famously proposed that an artist could make a living online with a thousand true fans. Has time proved him correct?

The recent history of the Internet, however, warns that we shouldn’t necessarily expect the endearingly homegrown nature of these 1,000 True Fans communities to persist. When viable new economic niches emerge online, venture-backed businesses, looking to extract their cut, are typically not far behind

Bill Barr Calls “Bullshit” on Trump’s Election Lies

On the second day of public hearings on the January 6th attack, the former Attorney General and other members of Trump’s inner circle revealed the extent of their hypocrisy.

This made for compelling congressional testimony. I cannot think of any other instance in American history when a former Attorney General of the United States has accused the President who appointed him of peddling “bullshit” to the American people.

Opinion | Donald Trump, American Monster

A man of pure narcissistic psychopathy feels no guilt and has no sense of the damage he does.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/opinion/trump-january-6.html

The hearing drove home the fact that Trump was deadly serious about overthrowing the government. If his onetime lap dog Mike Pence was strung up on the gallows outside the Capitol for refusing to help Trump hold onto his office illegitimately, Trump said, so be it. “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” he remarked that day, chillingly, noting that his vice president “deserves it.”