I consider cryptopunks to be a weird modern combination of tech + art + collectibles (beanie babies being one of the most classic collectibles examples). With regards to the beanie babies comparison, what would the price of beanie babies be today if there were only 10,000 ever created?

I think the answer to that question is that beanie babies would be have astronomical value simply bc people like to collect and own things that others think are valuable. Even today, some of the rarest beanie babies are extremely valuable.

All of the above is an oversimplification -- beanie babies probably never would have generated enough awareness to become valuable in the first place had they been extremely limited in production.

The good news for punks is that the world is different today and I can at least envision a world where the vast majority of people have heard of them and even if they think they are stupid, know that some people will pay a lot of money for them, which is what's needed to create/hold value.

I think the collectibles / art NFT stuff will mirror the real world -- most stuff is worth essentially nothing, but some people will pay unbelievable sums to own stuff that's perceived as the best or most important.

disclaimer - this is not investment advice and I'm talking my own book.

NFT (just pixels) (Value if people decide it is value.)

NFT + onlyfans. (NFT gives you exclusive to private videos of your favourite pornstar. (Or "exclusive behind the scenes" from your favourite artist)

NFT + interest. (NFT gives you randomly some other NFTs sometimes. Or you get some % of sales from your favourite artist. Or NFT from your favourite hotel that gives you a nice digital artwork from the hotel + % of returns on the hotel

NFT + authentic reality (Russian gangsters flashing there 1Million digital avatar in the nightclub. )

NFT + neuralink (private acces too memory of others)

scarcity + valuable feel gives it value. Why do people pay 1k for something useless like a watch? because it is signalling status. if you create scarce NFT that gives something extra besides just pixels and can be used for signalling people will pay

I've been bullish NFTs since 2017, neat to see the space mature a good amount this cycle. Last time it looked like XCP (Counterparty) was going to be a driver, but not much came from it (the project that made the most noise was Pepecash). Maecenas was another neat-sounding idea that didn't come to fruition.

Been waiting for something like NFTX and I hope (and assume) indexes will mature so it's easier to buy some beeple, hashmasks, and so on. Rarible kinda unusable given gas fees, but other projects are shifting to L2, increasingly on Matic, like Aavegotchi (which is an NFT/Defi project that IMO will be the cryptokitties of this cycle). Has all the pumpamentals, launches in a few weeks, thank me later.

One thing I really like about the NFT space for this cycle is that gas fees are less troublesome for longer term art collectors. That said, I don't have a damn clue about how to appropriately speculate on who the next beeple is (nor do I want/can afford to buy at most price points I'm seeing), so the indexes breaking out is really awesome.

A little fun fact, NFTs were even mentioned in emails between Satoshi & Finney back in the day, sort of as a showerthought of potential for what they were creating.

I've been looking at Aavegotchi for the past two days and ended up purchasing some $Ghost....I'm still a little unsure of how much i really want to get into this but I may fomo in cause a cryptopunk just sold for over a million dollars.

I bought a few prints from eulerbeats (21 is the best beat) and think it's a cool concept. Apparently Mark Cuban may have purchased some too! Bonding curve aspect is interesting and having entered a littler earlier, provides a little security I feel...

I need a crypto punk post your collection GP

Is there a way to buy GHST if you're like me and live in the US and own no crypto and are not at all into this shitcoin scene and you think NFTs are stupid but want to make money off of the next fad because you're resentful that all these neckbeards are becoming millionaires from it?

Bought a pack just to see how this stuff works. It is now 1 hour after "pack opening" went live and the entire system is very laggy and choking. It seems like low value NFTs with high volume might not be a good idea to run on a blockchain.

If only high value NFTs are feasible it obviously makes most sense to secure on ETH and maybe one other chain making these budget networks like WAX pretty much useless.

Whats best way for a noob to get into NFTs. How would you go about adding it to a crypto portfolio.

What type of allocation ? btc/eth/shitcoins

I think I am just going with the NFTX (NFT index fund) in the future. As I wrote in my last post I have tried out WAX and have been disappointed, FLOW with a $25B fully diluted market cap seems to lack upside and I have no clue so starting to buy individual NFTs just has to be stupid. Someone mentioned Aavegotchi which I will look into, but right now just playing it safe with NFTX seems to be my best bet.

Uniswap is the best way, but you'll need ETH to get it. So if you own no crypto it's a few-step process of getting ETH on coinbase or wherever, setting up metamask on uniswap, sending ETH to uniswap, then buying GHST and paying an annoying gas fee.

how many of these cryptopunk transactions do you reckon are wash trades to artificially boost demand?

prob impossible to tell one way or the other, but since you see the addresses in plain sight i assume someone has been able to dig if they wanted to

there should be a pokertableratings but for the ether addresses that won and lost the most ether scalping punks and topshots

Would be pretty sweet. I've been exploring the various parts of the crypto world that would best suit an online poker player's skillset; some of these new funky markets like NFTs probably have some burgeoning possibilities (beyond trading Alts through a bull cycle, or leverage trading btc).

The elephant in the room for NFTs is wash trading collusion, but I'm not close enough to the space to assess how detrimental this is. For analogy, I'm not worried about collusion in online NL (on let's say bovada) for the most part, but PLO is a different animal in this respect.

I invested in BONDLY. It's 5x'ed for me since opening day on uniswap No interest in the collectibles just liked their idea and the bull crypto market dripping into a bull alt market

NFTs are going to be massive.

The idea of owning works of art that I can display on screens in my home sounds fantastic.

Would like this answered too. I am open to the space but have no effin idea how to value these types of assets so am looking for a way to invest in it all. Is just buy ETH the answer?

It was a terrible experience but a good learning one for me. I couldn't get any cards until 45 minutes into the opening and then it took me forever to "craft" anything. Given that cards are minted first come, first serve, it was a completely unfair system that allowed a select few to get all the early mints. Should have been pre-minted.

All that being said, I ended up putting a ton of my cards on for sale and im pleasantly surprised that i've already more than doubled my investment. I'm now worried that I put things up for sale too cheap...then again i'm looking at the sales history and most things that have sold for over 1k, are the early mints, of which i have none.

I also held one ultimate pack unopened that i may keep for awhile. Looks like they're going for $125 now. Not bad considering i bought it for $50 this morning.

I feel pretty much the same and also more than doubled what I put in. Pretty good considering I have no clue what I am doing and also have never played Street Fighter. Get a bit of that early 2000s poker feeling, where all you needed was a starting hand chart to do well.

So, it's easy to see the ownership history of any punk, and easier to conclude that one who has changed hands a lot has been self-dealt.

There's all sorts of clever analysis people can do via analyzing address clustering, but IMO no one capable is really incentivized to peel back that curtain. Best case scenario they find a small amount of self-dealing, worst case they find a **** ton of it and it doesn't look very good. A lot of the traction is real, though. How much exactly, idk. But NyanCat sold for $500k. Gary V, Chamath, and Cuban are buying lots. I personally know lots of people who have bought CryptoPunks, including several who did so to use as their avatar and say they will never sell.

I know on OpenSea there is a ~7.5% fee to trade. Not sure if there's a fee on these punk sales, but if so, self-trading would be costly.

Well, looks like Chamath agrees with the cryptopunks thesis.

the NBA topshot stuff has been going crazy in the last week or so, anyone got any opinons on it? NBA players are even tweeting about it

personally, the topshots have 0 value for me. the only nfts that particularly interest me on an intrinsic value are punks.

i think they still have upside for flipping over the next week or two. seems inevitable that a big player or influencer mentions it. so far its just been mid players like josh hart, dinwiddie, etc. damion lee was on a topshot show tonight and hes in laws with the currys. have to assume the founders have big plans.

the bulls think it will match paper cards, so these 200k brons should be 2 mil+. they think the introduction of international markets will help (obv cant hurt). the omega bull argument is that this will be like an exchange of player value which makes it > cards

w/ regards to how i see things in a year, i can't help but be a bear

TopShot has been an entertaining follow.

truthfully, I'm laughing at the idea that a Troy Brown Jr. block in a fanless regular season game has been trading in the $20-30 range. But some iteration of the concept actually interests me quite a bit. if the NFL did something like this (the NBA appears to be set on its course here), and limited the distribution on each play to 1/1, they'd be cooking with gasoline. Release plays from the last few years and drip out the classics slowly. Officially licensed Bart Starr Ice Bowl sneak token? and only one exists?? And you get some stable inflation as each future week is played. I'd be thrilled to see the market sort out the greatest plays of all time. alas, just a fantasy, as the Topshot model is better optimized for cash generation.