Random NFT Views

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Here’s an event that looks to introduce NFTs to those with lots of money to spare:

Gwyneth Paltrow and Mila Kunis joined a Zoom in January to encourage 5,000 women in the audience to break into the male-dominated world of crypto.

“We have watched a lot of these bros get together and earn a lot of money,” said Paltrow, sporting a black turtleneck, sun-kissed glow and a disarming smile. “We deserve to be in this space just as much.”

Kunis had recently launched a cartoon series with her husband, Ashton Kutcher, that uses NFTs, a digital deed often used to sell digital art that exploded into a $25 billion market. “We are so conditioned as women to be risk-averse,” Kunis said. “I want to take risks and I want to see what happens.”

The two-hour event resembled a pandemic-era PowerPoint party, where friends share slide shows on random topics, and LuLaRoe, the multilevel-marketing company that convinced women to bulk-order brightly colored leggings by promising sisterhood and financial independence. It was hosted by BFF, a community co-founded by Brit Morin, a press-savvy start-up founder and half of a Silicon Valley power couple, to launch collections of NFTs. [WaPo]

WaPo reporter Nitasha Tiku isn’t afraid of zeroing in on the cultural dynamic:

The pitch for gender inclusivity is a much softer sell than seen in celebrity TV ads and sponsored posts. But these women-focused projects also hinge on the same logic that drives the rest of the crypto market: FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Crypto skeptics say these efforts overpromise the financial upside and gloss over the risks, propping up an overhyped market rife with scams and hacks. Meanwhile, crypto enthusiasts are dismayed by the way high-profile projects have ignored the work of existing diversity efforts and allegedly taken ideas from young women of color without credit.

And, given the lack of utility that appears to be inherent in NFTs, it continues to smell like a scam. But I remain ready to be convinced otherwise.

In other news, this sad little rant made me laugh. I know this isn’t about NFTs, but given that cryptocurrencies and NFTs both depend on blockchains for their technical existence, I think I can stretch a point. And billionaire Peter Thiel’s whining about a repressive gerontocracy keeping him down – a billionaire down! – is an amazing joke. Not that I wasted my time on it – I do that with the VFYW contest – but depended on Holger and Christopher Reeves for a summation.

Maybe he worships money, and feels that Buffet not joining him for the daily session is an insult and affront to the monolith.

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About Hue White

Former BBS operator; software engineer; cat lackey.

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