The new internet

February 20, 2021

'Nyan Cat', an animated .gif that was uploaded to the internet on April 2, 2011, sold overnight in an auction on Foundation for over USD$500,000 (300.00 ETH).

NFT's are having a moment and for me it's both confusing and exciting. The more I learn, the more I'm like, "oh yeah, finally. This was a problem that needed to be solved that I didn't realised was a problem until someone solved it."

There is something weird about the idea of buying and owning...well...data. Would you pay half-a-mill for a .gif? That everyone can download for free? I mean, I guess the idea here is that you're not paying for the file. You're paying for the ownership of the NFT. Did I get it right?

Some people are calling this "the biggest unlock of artist opportunity in 100+ years" and maybe that's true. How long until Kaws drops an animated digital piece? Can I own a few minuets of a movie? What about photography?

I wondered today what Positive Posters would look like if it was created today with things like Foundation exisiting? Could the artists have had a way to auction off their posters to anyone around the world without ever having to ship it?

This feels new and good. Which is not something I find myself saying about online much nowadays.

(The Verge has a good overview of all this).