Time Ticking On OpenSea And NFT Marketplaces
Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with NFT markets if they are honest about what they are selling and clearly state the limits of the product they are pushing on people. This is NOT the case for the current NFT marketplace state, I've provided plenty of criticisms in the past on the misrepresentation of NFTs
You can read them here:
- Spill The Hot NFT - A Possible End Game
- Does Art NFT's Supercharge What Was Already Wrong About Art
- Art NFT's Are Going Missing
- Why Art NFT’s Have No Real Value
Now I am going after the perverted purveyors of this jpeg crack that people are falling for, and will leave them hurt. I wasn't going to talk about it, but I actually got a call from a pretty prominent investment company asking me if I wanted to get in on a pre-IPO deal for OpenSea, which I declined.
I could have probably made a lot of money, people don't know about where the real money is made, and that it's all backdoor deals you will never be privy to because you don't have the network or the net worth to meet those people.
I am not saying that I do, I just happen to be a big mouth that critiques a lot of things online so people will ask me my opinion on certain opportunities.
After getting the offer, I decided to look into this scam, I wondered why something that is a "decentralized" marketplace would need to raise equity. I mean surely if you're just a front end on-chain and allowing people to buy and sell jpegs you wouldn't need to be a business, the two ideas don't compute, so I had a look into it.
OpenSea funding
OpenSea is not some front end website pulling in data from AWS, Polygon and ETH, it's a fully functional CENTRALISED business as is the norm with most things you interact with in the digital asset space and if anyone tells you a dapp is decentralised you're smoking something, its a marketing term, not a practice.
OpenSea has raised $427.2M, in 9 rounds of funding, with a total of 57 investors (Angels and VCs) who have come and gone in various rounds. Raising half a billion dollars or close to it, for what?
You're charging people a minting fee, sure you pay gas fees too since you work with chains, but that should be factored into your costs. Sure you can subsidize it to get more people in, which I don't doubt they do, but where does all the money go?
- Acquiring liquidity for the chains they use and payment methods
- Marketing
- Hiring staff
- Making their own NFTs
- Trading on their own platform
- Bots to manage bids and scalping like any exchange doesn't want to admit to doing
OpenSea scandals
OpenSea has not been without its fair share of darama, having seen another collection court case with a "stolen ape" lawsuit was filed against OpenSea, alleging that Opensea's
"security vulnerability allowed an outside party to illegally enter through OpenSea’s code and access Plaintiff’s NFT wallet, in order to sell Plaintiff’s Bored Ape at a fraction of the value."
Someone was able to buy the plaintiff's Bored Ape for 24.89 ETH (~$60,000)—much less than the 135 ETH (~$332,000) the plaintiff had recently listed it at. The scammer then quickly flipped the NFT for resale for 92.9 ETH (~$225,000) within an hour.
The case is similar to the stolen ape lawsuit filed on February 18, and the plaintiffs in both cases have hired the same lawyers.
OpenSea has also had to deal with scandals such as employees doing insider trading and the list goes on. The issue is these platforms are merely big fish opportunists praying on people's insecurities, lack of understanding, and desperate need for quick returns.
If it were truly decentralized, why would it need all this marketing? Because it's not an organic ground-up movement, this is astroturfing a false idea using a boatload of cash and marketing.
NFT marketplace fatal flaws
The thing you need to realize is this platform and many like it aren't about rewarding the customer/artist/trader, you are the product, they are using to justify higher multiples on their valuations so they can sell out until they IPO and then sell that equity to people who don't know any better.
This is not a sustainable business, this is riding a trend, which is why the clock is ticking to get it IPO'd and cash out before the crash and burn.
Sources:
Have your say
What do you good people of HIVE think?
So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."
Let's connect
If you liked this post, sprinkle it with an upvote or esteem and if you don't already, consider following me @chekohler and subscribe to my fanbase
| Safely Store Your Crypto | Deposit $100 & Earn $10 | Earn Interest On Crypto |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I think the NFT marketplaces are going to get off easy honestly. They can do everything possible to prevent scams but they can't catch them all. Can't blame the gun for shooting the person, you know.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
You're probably right for the most part, the only thing that can really be taken down is insider trading and securities fraud which I've seen a few alligations, we'll see if they stick
Yep, only time will tell
well... you sure about that because pretty sure that's exactly what is happening with gun laws. Come on it's the government they give no shiz about anything besides being a money hungry corporation. The will allow it to happen collect massive taxes and only get involved when it means they will come out with millions and investors are left with nothing. It happens EVERY time.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This is true. They will find a way to get a cut, but I think it'll be a "hey, pay us or we will fuck you" kind of deal. I don't think the marketplaces will actually be blamed for scams. I dunno though, I'm just a dude on the internet lol
Lol he has a clear bais to ignore criticism of NFTs as a collector, not saying you can't do something and be cynical about it lord knows I am about my job. But most people will hide behind a positive sentiment to try and validate their participation in things they know to be wrong
Just yesterday I explained to someone on HIVE why UST is a ponzi and his response was I hope the ponzi makes me money, that's all the sentiment around NFT and crypto wrapped up in one statement right there
Fully agree with these points and it's going to get hammered by the SEC. There's a lot of sketch NFT projects that care nothing other than profits. But don't get me wrong there's also very legitimate cases and very legitimate methods people have used NFTs to fuel their creativity and income as the world changes around them from shutdowns. It does remind me of 2017 again though and the sh(t coin era of a few legit projects and a majority quick money grabs.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I do think there is legit cases for patronage of artists but that's not what's going on and lets not conflate the less than 5% with the 95% of confirmed garbage being sold to people. It's not only a false sense of value which continues to be diluted each year as new NFT collections come online but also insider trading and a massive marketing budget to push this on people because it lives in a regulatory grey area
I believe in free markets and I'm glad there are spots for people to trade, buy and sell.
I don't think it's a scam at all, just traditional business.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Hiding behind the its a "free market" argument to me is a bit of a cop out, if you're selling people something on false pretenses its fraud. Traditional businesses offer you a product, not insider trading, selling unregistered securities and using their customers as exit liquidity
Exactly now i don't think Whatsup sees this as intentionally supporting illegal scam products but that's what she doing. Unfortunately alot of crypto is this way. these altcoins the only coin that should exist in reality is bitcoin. applications should incorporate bitcoin into it. we've just created a scam atmosphere of unregistered securities we all may very well be breaking the law essentially cirminals.
So what's really take a look at what nfts are. nfts is like me selling you the color red. it's like me selling you fake land to mine gold during the california gold rush of the 1800's
Now i have envisioned a future with by the use of augmented reality we could have successful products like nfts. .right now its ridiculous. .the metaverse is ridiculous essential floating cartoon characters and we calling that the new greatest threshold of our technology and reality.
No it's just floating cartoon characters that's it, lol So what's happening with nfts well typically the nft creators are washtrading their own property to drive up the price. The security issues are endless. these jpegs.. even saying that.. Sounds stupid.
these jpegs often times are hosted on centralized servers.. This is a regulatory nightmare. it's a scam free for all. People on hive always talking about far right wing free markets.. which tells me all i need to know about the people on hive.
However when justin sun used free markets over on steem they screamed bloody mary then they wanted courts and regulation they wanted to sue justin sun to take him to court. they wanted all the regulatory help they could get.
whenever it's going their way to scam people and run pyramid schemes on people. they fine but as soon as it doesn't go their way then they want help this is alot of crypto right now. not just the hive people..
when i created bitcoin myk what was the basis of it? that anybody could put the energy into it and produce a token that represented it. without spending a dime.. anybody could rise to the same set of circumstances as any whale who would attempt to centralize the network.. you can't even deposit onto bitcoin myk network. you have to mine it and mint your tokens through activity. So not only do people have that ability all bitcoin holders get it free whenever they have a rise in their bitcoin balance.. for example say they have 1 bitcoin.. and their balance changes to 1.5 bitcoin. at any time they can mint more bitcoin myk
now why would i do that? to take out any exploitation of the network. in my mind only bitcoin should exist..so bitcoin myk can only exist as a companion to bitcoin not a replacement as a network to take the load off bitcoin and buying it is optional you can earn as much putting energy into the network and activity.
crypto is exploited because people are ignorant. that's not an insult that's a word that means people are unaware and don't know @themarkymark brought this abomination to the hive ecosystem.. these jpegs.. now do i think marky mark meant ill will.. i'm not sure.. i don't think he did but at the same time from conversations with him he seems to embrace ignorance and as he's one of the biggest benefactors on hive he's probably as well oblivous and unconcerned about the protection and safety of the hive ecosystem otherwise i can't in good conscience say he would have brought that crap here.. because a thinking person would have thought about all this.
a thinking person understands what a unregistered security is.. what the howey test is if they are doing things for the best interest of the community. but in this free market ideology which is code word for do whatever it takes to make money even if it means hurting or kiling or poisoning people.. that's their free pass
So folks some of you all read my threads some of you secretly agree some of you scared to rock the boat for fear of losing your $2 upvote.. so let me be clear and say this.
You don't have to do anything to rock the boat.. The things i'm telling you all are going to happen regardless to this chain to this space. these changes will come willingly or unwillingly and whether you're a victim of some scam project or a victim of these nfts and defi systems and aren't educated on the markets and crypto and teh economy in general. .won't matter because this is something that i don't want ot happen but will likely happen and you all will be enlightened to many things you all don't know right now.. so learn all you can.. if you not sure look it up and ask questions and test people. i see you all asking marky mark questions every week on his blog.. but marky ,mark don't know much, lol. thats the problem, lol.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I fully agree with your sentiments, it's a game of musical chairs and everyone thinks they are going to be the smart one that gets out before its too late and pocket the profits of someone else losses. It's really a nihilistic approach to life, like oh its a free market, that means I can find an obscure way to rob people of their money where I am distanced from the issues.
It's hilarious how many crypto people are anti-tax, but they are creating systems and advocating for systems where they get to be the tax man
I agree only BTC needs to exist and if you can't build a product on BTC, its bound to die regardless of its good tech, the fundamental economics will always be broken.
I also agree it will come to a halt eventually, but because it's not been declared illegal or governments wasting resources going after ponzis that are doomed to fail, it seems like that is taken as permission to normalise ponzis
Yes and i don't think they really understand the differences between currencies and unregistered securities, lol. So to them if it's kinda scammy and can make them some quick money they wanna do that they just don't wanna be the one left holding the bag when it all goes to hell.
So i'm not sure that means they really interested in the development and infrastructure of the crypto system. I don't think they even gave it any thought really. These are really high risk scam start up businesses. LIke penny stocks without any reporting . it's just mostly ripe for criminal activity and bad results..
We generally glamorize successful crypto stories but it's countless stories of people just losing money mostly. that gets left behind in the luster and hope for gold. i keep making the gold rush comparison because remember with the gold rush they were always talking about the guy who got rich off his mines but they found out the people who really got rich were the people who sold you the mining equipment and pick axes as such.
So all these scammy projects and ideas pop up and it's the same thing really. the guy who sells you the dream or the equipment to in your mind pursue it. He gets rich.. so in this world that's generally the project creator or maybe the very first person to find gold on the land which is the first round of people into the crypto. so bitcoin is established and although i still believe ethereum was an unregistered security and should have been fined. i think that started a bad message that spawned other projects.. So again i'm not getting so much people around here believe in the idea of crypto as much as they just believe in the idea of making profits and sending it back to fiat..
Because let's face it.. no matter how much they earn in these cryptos they aren't going to buy a car in hive or that nft they holding.. or anything of real importance. likely they going to have to do that in something with less volatility and a great deal of liquidity and that's going to be bitcoin.
So everyone else is really just kinda full of it really, lol.. So that's the hard truth. .then there is the sugarcoated version which we get with many of these altcoins haha
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta