This my not-at-all-hot, hot take of the day: NFTs are stupid.
While non-fungible tokens are enjoying a moment in the sun and many consumer brands are looking to get a piece of a market that has suddenly seen some eye-popping investments, I think everyone in the business of hotels should be happy to hear that they provide something of real, tangible value at a period when people are trying to make money doing anything but that.
If you’ll excuse my curmudgeonly nature on this, I’d just like to dive a little bit deeper on NFTs and why they are, once again, remarkably stupid. I’m sure by now we’ve all seen stories like this one about how someone jumped on NFTs, sold a bit of code and made a huge sum with relatively little effort. It’s all definitely very eye-catching, but the questions it always begs are: Who is making these investments and what exactly are they getting?
To tackle the latter question first, it’s shockingly little. Say you buy an NFT of an image, some people investing in the space still don’t even realize that you’re not actually buying the image or — more importantly — any piece of the copyright of that image. You’re buying a bit of code that points you to a place online where that image is stored. And there is absolutely no guarantee that image will be stored there indefinitely. So in essence you’re buying the idea of something you like, including somewhat fittingly, a picture of a trash can where you might as well be putting that money.
And to answer the…
