NFT’s or Non-fungible tokens are a digital asset sold via cryptocurrency and held on the blockchain. Slaylebrities like Logan Paul and other creators are making millions by selling them to their audiences but is this ethical?
What is a NFT in simple terms?
The hubaloo about Slaylebrities shilling NFTs
Influencers turned scammers have been multiplying like rabbits on social media. Everyone is joining the FOMO culture thanks as the result, following a cult-like club that if we’re not following the trend, we won’t get our first million dollars.
In a way, it’s true. But only to some extent.
Recently, Mark Cuban’s little NFT company on social media is exposed by the news and Coffeezilla (internet detective). It turns out, that account was running scammy NFTs. The 1.7 million followers on Instagram called @NFT just disappeared from the platform. A spokesperson from Meta said that the account has violated its rules repeatedly, thus the termination.
If billionaires are running scam NFTs, how can anyone trust what’s true and false anymore?
Or if NFTs are even worthed anymore? Perhaps it’s about to be a bubble and burst?
NFT is becoming an “investment” and not an art appreciation
In my previous article, I wrote that I was for NFTs as I support the idea that now artists can earn more recognition and earn money.
As a former digital artist, it’s nice to know that artists can make a living to create art.
Back then, during the Deviantart days, I had a huge problem with people copy-pasting my art or stealing them and posting them somewhere else, pretending that they were the ones who made it. I had to call them out or people who followed me helped me scold them. It was really annoying.
Now, with this concept of scarcity, it was a pretty neat technology to help artists.
But of course, some greedy and narcissistic “influencers” came in, and turned this business into a shady one.
If you ever see anything to do with NFTs, you’ll find many of them spoke rarely about creating art, rather making money out of them. None of them spoke about how to draw human anatomy, colouring techniques, shading tips, or lightings! No art advice at all on how to make an attractive art that people would love.
Only money. That’s it.
At first, I thought it was okay since this could be similar to art auctions. However, due to the FOMO culture promoted by influencers, the market prices became surreal and insane to the point the prices were too high. In the end, the joke “save image” became a huge meme.
And the whole point of NFTs is thrown out the window.
If you ever ask people why they buy NFTs, I doubt it’d be easy to find someone who actually appreciates the art. In fact, some turned out to be scam artists.
“Influencers” are the new faces of marketing
This is another reason why I took a huge break from social media, and still am. Yes, I’d be missing out on a lot of things, but the contents there are mostly filled with getting rich quick schemes.
And let me just say that it’s very easy to get caught up with those kinds of content.
If you ever noticed in company marketing, they hire a lot of influencers now. This is because people trust humans more than trusting a company or brand. It’s more human and trustworthy that way.
Bob Iger, the former CEO of Disney, once told in an interview how he personally called a family of the Disney park guest after their son was dragged by an alligator in the theme park. Instead of just sending a message, he personally called them, told them that they’ll make sure it won’t happen again and gave them updates about how they planned to make the park safer from alligators.
The reason he did this is that it is more personal to apologize rather than just throw in a public statement or throw in some compensation money. He wanted to express how sorry he was for letting it happen, establishing his trust in the family that he’s going to make things right for the family.
I believe he made the right call, and that made him a responsible CEO too during his time.
Now, this method type of method is similar to how marketers always hire influencers to build trust among customers. People are following influencers because they ‘know’ who they are and what they do, so establishing trust was much easier.
The problem is most influencers, especially those who are involved in the blockchain world, particularly NFTs, turned a blind eye and scammed their viewers for their own gains.
And the sad part is, sometimes, little research is done to confirm whether or not these types of NFTs or even cryptos are worth the investments.
“Influencers” promote to pump their own gains, not for the audience
With stocks being in a slow down, people turn to meme coins. But these coins can be made up and the ones who usually gained the most are the creators. Just take a look at Squid Game coin, none of the investors can pull their money and it went all the way to zero.
It’s no different with NFTs. There are JPEGs that turned out to be scammed as well or it was ‘right-clicked saved.’ Either way, nothing good tends to come out of it, unless you really like the art.
Sadly, influencers who promote these things are doing it for the sake of instant rich or sometimes getting into money laundering. It’s sad how great technologies are turned into a money-grabbing system. And there are victims in the process.
Recently, Ice Poseidon was caught scamming his fans to invest in a scam coin and Coffeezilla exposed him live. He admitted that he stole $500,000 from his fans. Based on the contents I saw him post, I assume his audience is mostly young people. If that’s true, he had no consent on doing what he did.
And now, Mark Cuban just disappeared after he was caught promoting scam NFTs.
That was just one influencer, imagine the other influencers out there doing the same thing and having no regrets doing so. And there are so many more out there online, preying on desperate people for their own gains.
The worst part is that most of these influencers were respected ones. Their account is with a tick mark and verified as trusted.
I don’t know if Mark Cuban even knows that he’s promoting scam NFTs, but the fact remains that his little NFT shop is scammed and now blocked by Instagram. As I’m writing this, I don’t know whether he’s going to address this incident. But the fact remains that he’s promoting scam NFTs to his audience.
If big influencers can do this, imagine what the other online influencers may do to their fans and audience.
How to spot a scam NFT?
To be honest, I don’t even know myself. Even the ones with blue tick marks turned out to be a scam and influencers who have their blue tick marks turned out to be unreliable as well.
So, this can only boil down to one question.
Should we invest in NFT?
I addressed this before in my previous article, and my answer at the moment still holds the same.
If you’re an art dealer, and you actually like the art and have the money to pay for it. By all means, go ahead.
But if you are someone who just jumps into the hype train of NFTs, thinking you can be instantly rich, best you get off the train. Logan Paul invested $623,000 on a bumblebee NFT, now it’s worth $4,000.
Although there are companies investing in these technologies, doesn’t mean you have to invest in them too. Remember:
You are paying thousands of dollars for a JPEG.
Is Mark Cuban losing the plot?
DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that nothing in this video shall be construed to be financial, legal or tax advice. The content of this video is solely the opinions of the speaker who is not a licensed financial advisor. All personal opinion is intended for general information purposes only.
Source Better Marketing hub
Influencers turned scammers have been multiplying like rabbits on social media. Everyone is joining the FOMO culture
