So, if I read it correctly: you give Trump a hundred bucks and he creates a virtual wallet that holds the image of a ‘card’ and proves you gave a hundred bucks to Trump.
If I collect these things can I show them off to my family at Christmas?
NFTs are complicated, and I know this is simplifying, but think of it like a “star registry”. You are registered in a database as the owner of an NFT. What gives it the veneer of legitimacy is that the people who register you are also the people who made the NFT. So it’s better than other similar scams in that sense, in that it’s not just some random organization.
One thing that will vary is whether or not you also have the rights to the image. As in, do you have exclusive rights to make money off the NFT. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. it depends on the agreement you sign when you buy it.
But yes, anyone can copy and paste a digital image off the web, can download and reproduce it exactly. So you can’t have the only digital copy of an NFT. But you are the only “official” owner, it’s like having a deed.
You might then ask, what’s the point? And I’ll answer, I have no idea. That’s why I have never bought one. It seems like a really expensive pet rock fad to me. But that’s just my opinion.
Here’s an extensive thread on the SDMB about NFTs if you want more discussion:
More likely, someone who buys one will brag to MAGA friends on a right wing web site. Set the image as their avatar. And so on.
Would like to note that I don’t think it’s coincidence that Musk started portraying himself as a superhero a few weeks ago, and now here comes Mr Originality.
Now that we know this ‘announcement’ had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with merchandising and grift, shouldn’t we move it out of politics?
Well, technically he hasn’t made it yet. We could still be surprised further!
If anyone has the “Falling in love with Kim Jong Un” card, I’ll trade them two “Throwing paper towels at hurricane survivors” cards.
You don’t need to put a copyright mark on anything for it to be copyrighted.
On the web site it says the cards are not for investment but they can be sold. Trump gets a 10% kick back on any sale. It’s subject to their terms and conditions but I could not link to them.
Oh, hey, I don’t have any throwing paper towel at survivors cards. I don’t have a falling in love with Kim Jong Un card either, but would you be interested in an “Insulting gold star families” card? I could even throw in a couple “Perfect phone call” cards if that sweetens the pot for you.
I’ll keep a peeled eye out for the “telling the Boy Scouts about his buddy’s sex yacht” card.
You people who put TFG out of the business of selling state secrets have nobody but yourselves to blame for this.
More interesting fine print:
If you are planning on making money off this via the bigger fool investment strategy you should realize that Trump takes a 10% royalty fee on any resale. (ETA: Ninjad by Crane)
Although each card has at most 20 copies in circulation there are 45,000 cards being made (of which 44,000 are sold on the site, not sure what the other 1,000 are being held for). So either there is a sweatshop where Mexican art students are cranking these things out, or more likely they are all slight variations of a theme. Trump in Red superhero suit and Blue T in front of purple city; Trump in Blue Superhero suit with Red T in front of green city etc.
There is a no purchase necessary 2nd chance drawing which you will get a code for if you send a self addressed stamped envelope. The instructions for this has the following disclaimer:
Sponsor may reject any entry in its/their sole discretion if the entry in whole or in part: contains any illegal or offensive activity, or is obscene, defamatory, likely to incite violence or illegal; includes any material in violation of any third-party’s rights; contains material which is (or promotes activities which are) sexually explicit, obscene, pornographic, violent, self-mutilating or mutilating of animals, discriminatory (based upon race, sex, religion, natural origin, physical disability, sexual orientation or age); is threatening, profane or harassing; portrays Sponsor or any person or entity negatively; violates any third-party rights including but not limited to copyright, trademark, patent, contract, and/or publicity or privacy rights, of any other person or entity;…
Given that all they are asking for is your name address and Crypto wallet number I’m not sure how an entry would violate any of these things, but perhaps they have experience with people using any opportunity to give Trump a piece of their mind.
You can only buy a maximum of 100 Cards: At first this surprised me. Why would Trump voluntarily limit his revenue stream. Then I realized that 100cards x $99 is just below the $10,000 reporting requirements. Can you say Money Laundering operation? Combine this with the 10% kickback from re-trading, so that repeatedly selling the NFTs to themselves can generate an unlimited stream to funnel whatever ill gotten crypto you have straight into Trumps pocket.
Oh my God, I keep laughing every time I think about this. Think about this:
The man won a miracle election. He had like a 1% chance to beat Clinton.
He could have announced around 2019 that he had achieved everything he wanted, not run a second time, and gone of as an actual success*.
Nope, even when it helps himself, he can NOT stop himself from doing more.
This is another embarrassment from him. Just humiliating.
*Uh, in the eyes of his voters
Best thing about this - when he actually has something to say about his politics, nobody will bother to listen. Everyone will think it’s another business scam. For instance if he picks a running mate and summons the press for a big announcement, nobody will show up.
And of course, he will scream about being censored.
That sounds worse than your typical NFT. No big surprise for something coming from Trump. Everything he produces is always going to be worse than usual.
We might want to change the thread title to reflect that we now know what the “major” announcement was.
Good news: the deed is cryptographically secure and unfakeable.
Bad news: the deed has no legal effect whatsoever. At most, it grants you the unquestionable right to brag that you paid X money for whatever’s at the other end of a certain URL.
I feel compelled to add my voice to those saying they did not see this coming. Because of this thread (and only because of this thread) I was aware that there was a ‘major announcement’ coming today, and like others here I had some possibilities in mind and I actually devoted some time speculating about the likely implications for each of them.
But this was not a possibility I would have come up with even if given a month’s time.
As a society we truly need to make sure we have a plan in place, when the time comes, for the preservation of this man’s brain for scientific study.
The Institute of Jell-O is standing by.