What is going on? Can I go back to the old days now please, when the most shocking computer news was a new floppy disk that wasn't floppy?Īnd I realise now, I've made an unfounded assumption that everyone will know what I'm referring to. In fact, the ONLY notable thing about it is that someone was willing to pay $170,000 for it. The cat is not beautiful, or a great achievement, or technically amazing, or in any way notable. The art isn't even in any way seeming to be (or claiming to be) fantastic art in any way. It's not like the NFT-linked original is different in any way from the copy that anyone can google in ten seconds. Hell, I may even have spent the odd quid or two on microtransactions, to 'own' shiny extra features in online games.īut what I'm struggling with here is why anyone would spend $170,000 on a cartoon picture of a cat, where anyone can download the exact same picture for free. I can do streaming subscriptions now, I can do virtual goods. I was thinking 'I give you money, and I don't even get a physical CD? But that's just data on my hard drive!'īut I got the hang of that eventually. Forget hats bought in a game as a microtransaction, I had trouble with the idea of digital music. Like many old people, I had trouble with the idea of virtual goods. I understand that bitcoins value comes from speculation and artificial rarity.

I get that money isn't real, and I vaguely understand how blockchains work. But I've tried to get my head around digital marketplaces.

Despite growing up in an era before the internet existed, and when computer memory was measured in kilobytes. I thought I was keeping up with the world, and vaguely understanding technology.

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