[HN Gopher] At the Bored Ape restaurant, your ApeCoin is no good...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       At the Bored Ape restaurant, your ApeCoin is no good now
        
       Author : quantified
       Score  : 141 points
       Date   : 2022-06-24 20:27 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.latimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.latimes.com)
        
       | phabricator wrote:
       | What are the numbers here?
       | 
       | This was intended as a 90-day pop-up, and they reported there
       | were few crypto transactions even before the crash. ApeCoin
       | already wasn't a huge part of this.
       | 
       | The entrepreneur plans another restaurant and is already selling
       | NFTs for it. Their involvement with Yuga Labs was minimal. Bun B
       | paid for the burgers.
       | 
       | Is it possible the entrepreneur still turned a healthy profit? Or
       | that was killed in the crash?
        
       | wnevets wrote:
       | Like the old saying goes if you don't know who the sucker is at
       | the table, you're it
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | The "am I a joke to you?" Meme can commence on ape owners?
        
       | annoyingnoob wrote:
       | If Nguyen really believes in ETH and APE wouldn't he want to pull
       | in more of it when its down?
       | 
       | Obviously he needs cash flow to run the business but most are not
       | paying with crypto. I'm reading this as Nguyen lost faith in
       | crypto.
        
       | nonrandomstring wrote:
       | One thing maybe missing from the many good comments here is a
       | separation of digital currencies from crypto coins.
       | 
       | We would do well to start separating the mechanism that stores
       | value from the mechanism of exchange.
       | 
       | That's why I think something like GNU Taler backed by ordinary
       | dollars is a much better way for selling burgers and pizza in any
       | foreseeable time-frame.
        
       | labrador wrote:
       | Crypto, web3 and NFTs are social movements. They are the crowd
       | that knows things. As the hippies used to say about LSD and
       | counterculture, "You're either on the bus, or off the bus."
       | 
       | Crypto, web3 and NFTs are spiritual tech that is throwing off the
       | shackles of corporate control and making a new society. It's an
       | identity. It's a brand. It's a community. If I was in my 30's I'd
       | probably be into it. I would know damn well there was a lot of
       | hype, but so what, it's fun and maybe something amazing will come
       | out of it. Meantime, it's a party, and we can all take turns at
       | the mic making deep pronouncements about how we're empowering the
       | forgotten poor of the world. What's not to like? Who cares if we
       | lose money. It's the price of entry to the party.
       | 
       | Edit: This isn't what I believe. This is me trying to see it
       | through the eyes of a young enthusiast
        
         | soared wrote:
         | Yeah, it's koolaid flavored like money with an anti
         | establishment label on it.
        
         | heyitsguay wrote:
         | Yeah but the hippie movement was about realizing the untapped
         | potential for social freedoms locked away behind a repressive
         | and outdated society. (Before it burned out and dissipated)
         | 
         | Crypto is about shallowly co-opting the patterns of discourse
         | of genuine social movements to try and get rich quickly.
        
           | labrador wrote:
           | I agree with you. I was just trying to see it through the
           | eyes of a young enthusiast
        
         | threeseed wrote:
         | > throwing off the shackles of corporate control
         | 
         | The entire crypto industry is built on the back of VC money.
         | 
         | And I fail to see how Opensea is not the epitome of corporate
         | control when it has ~80% market share in the NFT marketplace
         | space.
        
       | branon wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/gHyY7
        
       | walrus01 wrote:
       | How many really tiny violins can I buy with one apecoin?
        
         | kobalsky wrote:
        
         | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
         | Fewer than you could last week.
        
       | choward wrote:
       | > Perhaps that was what Nguyen was thinking when he spent more
       | than $330,000 on the various ape NFTs on display at his
       | restaurant.
       | 
       | Wow. I can't imagine what anyone is thinking when they pay that
       | much to brag about some random blockchain that says they own an
       | arbitrary URL that may or may not link to an image.
        
         | adrr wrote:
         | How do NFTs work with copyright laws? Does owning an NFT grant
         | you rights and how does that work with copyright law?
        
           | hnthrow1010 wrote:
           | The short answers are: they don't, no, and it doesn't. Some
           | NFTs do have a separate legal document saying you get a
           | copyright license (or maybe even the copyright) if you "own"
           | the NFT, but this is not required, and is entirely separate
           | from the NFT. The author could very easily mint multiple NFTs
           | of the same thing or just sell more licenses of the same
           | thing on the side; if you look into the fine print of any NFT
           | marketplace they will say straight out that you are not
           | actually getting any exclusive ownership of anything unless
           | the seller explicitly says so in separate legal terms. And
           | even then, it usually is on the buyer to do any due diligence
           | to make sure that the copyright actually belongs to them and
           | the artwork isn't ripped off.
        
           | breakfastduck wrote:
           | No, it does not because the NFT is a receipt. You are
           | literally buying a receipt for your purchase of... a receipt.
        
         | Spooky23 wrote:
         | I remember when my nine year old commented on the YouTuber
         | "What's inside" guy trading a Tesla for some NFT - "dad, that's
         | really dumb"
        
         | raylad wrote:
         | That actually doesn't apply to Bored Apes.
         | 
         | With those NFTs you get copyright ownership of the image.
        
           | Bjartr wrote:
           | It's more complicated than that.
           | 
           | > The Bored Ape Yacht Club terms of service grant a
           | commercial license to exploit the copyright of each Bored Ape
           | to the owner of the relevant NFT.
           | 
           | So the holder of a Bored Ape NFT has a license to
           | commercially use the off-chain image associated with the NFT
           | by way of an on-chain URL. That license is granted by the
           | actual copyright holders of all of the Bored Apes.
        
             | vba616 wrote:
             | Yes, of course.
             | 
             | Just like you can create anything, and license it as you
             | wish, and keep a list of authorized licensees on
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_tape.
             | 
             | The NFTs are better because...
        
               | lupire wrote:
               | NFT provides a decentralized way to transfer the
               | ownership in a globally visible way.
               | 
               | Look, I hate cryptoc, but this is about the one thing in
               | the whole world that NFT is actually good for.
        
               | sydd wrote:
               | Ownership of what? A random SHA string? Or the data in
               | the NFT? Which has some laughably small size (a few KBs)
        
               | vba616 wrote:
               | How is it decentralized?
               | 
               | Perhaps people use the word differently.
               | 
               | I don't understand the word "decentralized" to mean "not
               | occupying a specific physical location".
               | 
               | To me it means more like "having many independent parts"
               | or "not having a single point of failure".
               | 
               | For example, land titles in the US, I believe, are
               | decentralized. There is not one single national/federal
               | list of who owns what.
               | 
               | But having a blockchain is like having that list. I don't
               | know if that is "centralized" in an absolute, yes/no way,
               | but it seems _more_ centralized.
        
               | Gigachad wrote:
               | And this is important because? It doesn't need to be
               | globally visible. If I sell you ownership, I can do that
               | via email or a piece of paper. And then when it's
               | disputed you can bring up the email and transaction
               | receipt.
               | 
               | And it doesn't even require an entire countries worth of
               | electricity to do it.
        
           | addicted wrote:
           | Even if that's the case, does anyone think procedurally
           | generated computer art of Bored Apes would be worth even a
           | fraction of a few dollars if it wasn't for crypto marketing
           | making people believe they can sell it for much more? In
           | other words, the only value these things have is the belief
           | that a bigger sucker will come around who will pay even more
           | for it.
           | 
           | And has it actually been copyrighted with the USPTO and the
           | various copy protection agencies across the world? Because if
           | not, then who will actually enforce it and what legal backing
           | does that copyright have?
           | 
           | And if it has been copyrighted, then what value does putting
           | it on a blockchain add when the copyright enforcement is
           | being maintained by the same entities that would have done it
           | if it was on Shutterstock?
        
             | lupire wrote:
             | For BAYC and some others, it's not just the art, but also
             | membership in a club that gets various privileges.
        
             | GuB-42 wrote:
             | Speculation is one thing, and I think it is what drives the
             | costs to such ridiculous extremes.
             | 
             | However, I don't think it explains all of the value.
             | 
             | First is the art itself, probably not worth much
             | considering that it is rather generic and partly generated
             | art, but some people may actually like it.
             | 
             | Then there is the idea of being part of something big. Some
             | people think that NFTs are revolutionary, that in the
             | future, this is what will represent property, more than a
             | paper in some administrative office. Owning a NFT now is
             | like owning a piece of history.
             | 
             | And there is also this idea that many collectors share that
             | if it is rare and unique, it is worth having, and apes are
             | rare and unique.
             | 
             | I know some collectors who spend thousands on collectable
             | items, like video game cartridges or trading cards with no
             | intention to ever sell them back. It is their treasure, it
             | represents a lot of dedication and effort, they may have
             | memories attached to it. It may sound stupid to outsiders
             | but it is important.
        
               | hnthrow1010 wrote:
               | I would have no problem with NFTs if they were simply
               | billed as a useless "collectible" thing sitting in an
               | account that you can use as an excuse to show off how you
               | donated to an artist. But from that perspective, you
               | don't need blockchains or smart contracts; the only thing
               | needed is a donations platform like Patreon. The
               | ridiculous nonsense about how NFTs are going to be "rare
               | unique property" and "an investment" is a pure grift. It
               | is shameful to see artists repeating those lies just to
               | make a dollar. You are getting nothing from them. At
               | least with trading cards you technically do get a picture
               | you can look at, and maybe you could use them for
               | enjoyment to play a game. With NFTs you are literally
               | getting nothing. They are designed to seize the minds of
               | people who have that "collector" personality and take
               | advantage of them.
        
           | axlee wrote:
           | So...from the government? Great work at decentralizing.
        
           | pueblito wrote:
           | No, with copyright law you get ownership, the nft is just a
           | public receipt
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | The copyright holder is free to write up a license that
             | says the current holder of the NFT may use it as if they
             | hold the copyright, though. Many NFTs don't, but it's
             | possible.
        
               | knorker wrote:
               | But nothing guarantees that the seller of the NFT, the
               | current holder of the NFT, is also the current copyright
               | holder.
               | 
               | It's basically completely disconnected, so while the
               | transfers may traditionally be done at the same time
               | between the same entities, that's not a contract. The NFT
               | just gives you a Blockchain url. If you didn't sign
               | anything else then you got nothing else.
        
             | cratermoon wrote:
             | Remember the case of the crypto guys who bought a physical
             | copy of Dune worth $40,000 for $3 million and thought that
             | gave them the rights to make an animated series out of it?
             | Good times. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a38
             | 815538/dune-c...
        
           | remram wrote:
           | You get copyright on a software-generated image? What's the
           | point?
        
             | jameshart wrote:
             | Good point - the individual ape may not even be a
             | copyrightable image.
        
             | teekert wrote:
             | This has nothing to do with copyright. You own a piece of
             | the blockchain, sad thing is that thing is not even an
             | image or anything, its a url, and its target can change.
             | It's like a collective delusion.
             | 
             | This emperor has no clothes, but still mant people choose
             | to believe.
        
               | Gigachad wrote:
               | No one ever believed. Other than crypto tech bros on HN
               | shilling it all day. Take a look at what the general
               | public thinks. They saw it as a scam on day one, and
               | continued to see it as a scam which is why all the
               | consumer product companies failed to have their NFT
               | products take off.
        
           | neilalexander wrote:
           | In many NFTs, the content itself is not covered by a hash
           | (although the URL pointing to it is) so it would be
           | incredibly difficult to prove that "ownership" in any case?
        
             | imachine1980_ wrote:
             | Would be more fun to ddos the hosting, or buy the domain
        
           | rejor121 wrote:
           | Would that hold in a court of law?
        
           | jameshart wrote:
           | Are you sure?
           | 
           | Certainly the _first_ person to buy a bored ape from BAYC,
           | they definitely entered into a legal contract with BAYC that
           | granted them a copyright license.
           | 
           | But if you bought a Bored Ape NFT from someone else, did the
           | sale contract you made with them definitely include another
           | copyright license transfer? Or did you just buy an NFT?
           | 
           | What if the previous owner of your Bored Ape, while they held
           | the copyright, took it upon themselves to separately sell the
           | copyright to someone else, so by the time you bought the NFT,
           | they didn't even have the copyright any more?
           | 
           | What if the previous owner of the Ape, as its copyright
           | holder, and perhaps unknown to you, chose to release it to
           | the public domain?
        
             | throw_nbvc1234 wrote:
             | I don't think they're transferring the copyright but
             | granting IP and commercial rights to the NFT holder. As
             | many of the other commenters are pointing out, this isn't
             | the typical way NFT's work but some are like this. Just
             | like some NFT's don't point to a url but either are stored
             | on chain (cryptopunks) or via content-based addressing
             | (IPFS hash).
             | 
             | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220311005470/en/Yu
             | g...
        
               | jameshart wrote:
               | The problem is when you buy a second hand bored ape, you
               | don't have any direct contract with BAYC.
               | 
               | They might be able to enforce terms of their original
               | contract on the first party buyer - 'once you sell the
               | ape you no longer have this license'. But they have no
               | contractual relationship (no 'privity') with you.
               | 
               | Perhaps possession of the ape entitled you to go to BAYC
               | and get a license contract?
               | 
               | That's great, so long as BAYC 1) continues to honor that
               | agreement (and since you have no contract with them to
               | begin with there's nothing obliging them to do so) and 2)
               | continues to _exist_. If they go under and their
               | copyright in their apes gets auctioned off, good luck
               | finding whoever acquired your ape and persuading them
               | that since you own a hash in a blockchain they really
               | have to grant you a license to use that ape.
        
               | lupire wrote:
               | No, BAYC license terms say that whoever owns the NFT has
               | the commercialization rights.
               | 
               | Now, all you have to legally is prove that you own the
               | NFT, because theft and computer hacking aren't a legally
               | accepted way to transfer ownership.
        
               | jameshart wrote:
               | _so long as BAYC continue to honor that agreement_.
               | 
               | And as an owner of a second hand ape you have no legal
               | recourse if they (or their successors, or their receivers
               | during their bankruptcy) decide they no longer want to.
        
             | gus_massa wrote:
             | But they don't transfer the copyright! From
             | https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/terms
             | 
             | > _ii. Personal Use. Subject to your continued compliance
             | with these Terms, Yuga Labs LLC grants you a worldwide,
             | royalty-free license to use, copy, and display the
             | purchased Art, along with any extensions that you choose to
             | create or use, solely forthe following purposes: (i) for
             | your own personal, non-commercial use; (ii) as part of a
             | marketplace that permits the purchase and sale of your
             | Bored Ape / NFT_ [...]
             | 
             | > _iii. Commercial Use. Subject to your continued
             | compliance with these Terms, Yuga Labs LLC grants you an
             | unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display the
             | purchased Art for the purpose of creating derivative works
             | based upon the Art ("Commercial Use"). Examples of such
             | Commercial Use would e.g. be the use of the Art to produce
             | and sell merchandise products (T-Shirts etc.) displaying
             | copies of the Art._ [...]
        
         | Uptrenda wrote:
         | It works fine with actual art but I've yet to see an NFT
         | comparable to say: the Mona Lisa. When I got into the
         | blockchain space ~9 years ago I would have never imagined years
         | later people would be going crazy over pictures of jpegs.
         | People used to discuss amazingly cool tech stuff: like SSL
         | oracles or privacy-preserving payment protocols. Now it's all
         | about what the price is and moronic NFTs. It's embarrassing.
        
           | hkgjjgjfjfjfjf wrote:
        
           | hnthrow1010 wrote:
           | >People used to discuss amazingly cool tech stuff: like SSL
           | oracles or privacy-preserving payment protocols. Now it's all
           | about what the price is and moronic NFTs. It's embarrassing.
           | 
           | It is because blockchains cannot actually be used to do any
           | of those cool tech things in any meaningful way. If you try
           | to build any of those things on top of a blockchain you will
           | realize quickly that blockchains are bad solution. The only
           | purpose of them is to pump up the value of a casino token
           | which is then used to pay a tax to the operators of the
           | network. It's no surprise that after this nonsense you're
           | only left with irrational actors.
           | 
           | And that is only for the average user; for the whales, the
           | purpose of them appears to be mainly profiting off of massive
           | amounts of fraud and criminal activity while maintaining the
           | plausible deniability of being able to say "technically we
           | don't control the blockchain so we're not responsible".
        
             | colinsane wrote:
             | > It is because blockchains cannot actually be used to do
             | any of those cool tech things in any meaningful way.
             | 
             | today we have both of the things which GP mentions as being
             | under development 9 years ago, so this part is seemingly
             | false.
        
               | hnthrow1010 wrote:
               | No, what you're leaving out is that they work just fine
               | without blockchains. The addition of blockchains just
               | makes them worse.
        
           | jjtheblunt wrote:
           | is that because physical paints can't be immediately copied
           | like a sequence of bits can?
        
             | yawnxyz wrote:
             | but you can order a print of the Mona Lisa very easily for
             | like $15
        
               | cratermoon wrote:
               | The loss of fidelity between the physical original and a
               | $15 print is comparable to 10,000 generations of jpg
               | decoding and re-encoding.
        
               | iamacyborg wrote:
               | The original you see today isn't the original that would
               | have been seen immediately after it was painted.
               | 
               | Mona Lisa is pretty crap anyway, if you ever find
               | yourself in the Louvre, look at what's hung on the
               | opposite wall. Now that is an impressive painting.
        
               | jjtheblunt wrote:
               | (totally agree, and found myself laughing reading this)
        
               | spapas82 wrote:
               | In case anyone wonders which is the painting... http://ww
               | w.worldsbestpaintings.net/artistsandpaintings/paint...
        
               | iamacyborg wrote:
               | There's a very good book written about it's history which
               | was published recently.
               | 
               | https://thamesandhudson.com/napoleons-plunder-and-the-
               | theft-...
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | Uptrenda wrote:
             | I think its more because only the greatest artworks have
             | ended up being curated. I'm sure if NFT art were as old as
             | physical art there would be more to choose from. I want to
             | also say that in my view I don't believe an NFT has value
             | by itself unless its being used somewhere that people like.
             | For example: a skin in a (popular) game. Otherwise it
             | really is just a file sitting on a computer. It ought to
             | have an impact somewhere and there ought to be at least
             | some backing promise that such an impact will stay.
             | 
             | I really do think digital property has value but only when
             | you do it right.
        
             | cmeacham98 wrote:
             | No, or at least not entirely. Even if I was to
             | (theoretically) copy the Mona Lisa so perfectly that no
             | existing technology could tell the difference, the original
             | would still be worth more than my copy.
        
         | abxytg wrote:
         | It's not hard.
         | 
         | "Surely this will appreciate, I am a genius"
        
           | pwillia7 wrote:
           | It's FOMO because they knew people that bought at something
           | you would feel is ridiculous and sold for 40x or whatever and
           | so they convince themselves the same thing will happen. I
           | think this is less crazy than the first round of buyers after
           | the initial pop.
        
         | chaostheory wrote:
         | Are we sure that those weren't wash trades?
        
       | jboggan wrote:
       | Reminds me of a time that I played a Bitcoin poker game at some
       | Google VP's place up in the hills with Charlie Lee and a few
       | other early crypto luminaries in 2014. It took us over an hour to
       | figure out sending BTC to the "buy-in" pot because most of us had
       | 2FA enabled on our Coinbase accounts and the cell reception was
       | so bad at that we couldn't get our confirmation texts. We ended
       | up writing IOUs on a sheet of paper.
       | 
       | I thought, "if the people in the vanguard of this movement can't
       | figure this out, maybe it isn't all that it's cracked up to be".
        
         | quickthrower2 wrote:
         | Coinbase isn't the movement
        
         | dubswithus wrote:
         | Google VP doesn't have decent Wifi?
        
           | lupire wrote:
           | In 2014 it was hard to give out the wifi password, I guess.
        
             | InitialBP wrote:
             | Wifi access does not universally mean the ability to
             | receive texts, it can depend on your particular device and
             | mobile carrier.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | Wait how do I do text over wifi?
        
               | derekp7 wrote:
               | I believe Google Voice can do text directly from the app,
               | no cell service required (just an internet connection).
               | And my phone service has been able to do LTE over WIFI
               | for a number of years.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | Ah my phone doesn't have apps, that makes sense though.
        
           | tschwimmer wrote:
           | Perhaps it was SMS 2fac, which is additionally funny because
           | luminaries should know it's the vastly inferior choice. In
           | fact, it must be because I don't think authenticator apps
           | generally need an internet connection.
        
         | lupire wrote:
         | I'd like to hear more stories of the antics of these
         | "luminaries".
        
           | deadbunny wrote:
           | "crypto luminaries" using Coinbase...
        
         | elif wrote:
         | the first man to ever build and sell a car, recounting his
         | critics in the transportation industry: "There's nothing the
         | matter with me. It's you! You're crazy if you think this fool
         | contraption you've been wasting your time on will ever displace
         | the horse."
        
           | arcticbull wrote:
           | Do you have a citation for that?
        
           | 3a2d29 wrote:
           | Ahh the classic "people were wrong once about a technology,
           | therefore all potential technologies are good."
           | 
           | So if I found a quote about someone saying nuclear energy
           | would power cars...would that disprove crypto? I guess so
        
           | outworlder wrote:
           | The contraption actually had some utility.
        
         | bhtru wrote:
         | That's more on simply poor cell service if anything at all
         | though no?
         | 
         | The tech even then seemingly worked for you then. Your
         | anecdotal is comparable to saying students at a college not
         | being able to add one another on Facebook in it's early days,
         | because the campus Wi-Fi was on the fritz.
        
           | blahblah123456 wrote:
           | Yes, but in real life blame doesn't matter. What matters is
           | the alternative (a hardwired credit card terminal or cash)
           | would've worked, and this didn't.
        
             | arcticfox wrote:
             | I mean, if the wifi didn't work the credit card terminal
             | likely might not have either. I've had issues tons of times
             | in remote places with credit card readers.
             | 
             | And cash is cash, but I don't think crypto is really
             | competing with cash, more with cash-alternatives (like
             | credit cards, venmo etc.)
        
             | idiotsecant wrote:
             | That's essentially saying the same thing as if the cell
             | phones didn't work a hardwired landline would have.
             | 
             | It's true, but it's also missing the point.
        
             | CameronNemo wrote:
             | A real cryptocurrency wallet also would have worked.
        
               | colinmhayes wrote:
               | 90% of people won't use their own wallets.
        
               | adrr wrote:
               | I wonder what percentage of the crypto population has
               | wallets compared to having all their crypto on an
               | exchange. I don't know anyone with a wallet.
        
               | serf wrote:
               | having all of your currency on an exchange, regardless of
               | the currency, has never been a good idea.
               | 
               | (signed a MtGox victim.)
        
               | hnthrow1010 wrote:
               | The problem with that is, these networks are rather
               | convoluted and are basically unusable for most people
               | without relying on exchanges or other similar services.
        
               | colinsane wrote:
               | > if the people in the vanguard of this movement can't
               | figure this out
               | 
               | the people "in the vanguard of [the cryptocurrency]
               | movement" _absolutely_ use non-custodial wallets (SW or
               | HW). the part of this story where "the vanguard" is using
               | custodial wallets is the least believable.
               | 
               | the average speculator, sure -- they'll go with
               | whatever's easiest for them, which is probably to keep
               | their crypto on the exchange. "vanguard" users? lmao.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | How would it have worked without the ability to
               | communicate with the blockchain. I could double and
               | triple spend to my heart's content.
        
               | Nextgrid wrote:
               | Not disagreeing with any of you but a blockchain payment
               | terminal that's itself connected to the internet could
               | technically receive your signed transaction from your
               | (offline) phone and then submit it to the network on your
               | behalf. The balance on your phone wouldn't update until
               | it itself gets back onto the network and resyncs its
               | state with the blockchain.
        
           | ajross wrote:
           | > The tech even then seemingly worked for you then
           | 
           | Only because they trusted each other! I mean, any currency or
           | barter mechanism anywhere in the world or throughout history
           | works if you trust the person to pay you tomorrow.
           | 
           | BTC was supposed to be able to move beyond that, somehow. And
           | it turns out that the world still runs on trust.
        
           | ethanbond wrote:
           | Except that... you don't need to use Facebook to
           | hypothetically buy food or goods or services...
           | 
           | Facebook isn't an appropriate analog to what BTC/crypto aims
           | to be.
        
       | NoGravitas wrote:
       | I wonder if you can right click on the burgers and get them for
       | free.
        
         | koolba wrote:
         | No they probably disable right click to prevent hackers. You
         | have to be a true l337 to replace the onclick handler first.
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | These merchant adoption and abandonment stories are always
       | implementation issues with no inspiration or education.
       | 
       | A) Point of Sale systems have handled this "volatility" issue for
       | an entire decade. Use an implementation that shields the merchant
       | from volatility. They usually liquidate for you.
       | 
       | B) Why would you list the prices in ApeCoin or Ethereum? Just
       | show dollars and accept whatever, because A) handles whatever
       | proportion you want to keep in dollars or some other crypto.
       | 
       | C) If nobody wants to use that payment method, who cares its
       | free. How often are you getting UnionPay customers, going to make
       | an article about that too?
        
         | burnished wrote:
         | re: C, it was also a restaurant review and a pretty ringing
         | endorsement.
         | 
         | When I got to the end all I could think was "weird yelp
         | review". I really enjoyed it.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | If a crypto-themed restaurant can't get it right, what hope do
         | the rest have?
        
         | roywiggins wrote:
         | If a crypto-themed restaurant doesn't think it's worth it, I
         | can't see how anyone else would either. Like, this is their
         | whole brand!
        
           | yieldcrv wrote:
           | This crypto-themed restaurant didn't research a single thing,
           | I wouldn't use it as validation or invalidation
        
       | spullara wrote:
       | Coupa Cafe was early on this trend. They got 2 BTC in a month for
       | about $200 worth of coffee:
       | 
       | https://99bitcoins.com/coupa-cafe-sells-coffee-to-the-silico...
        
       | rejor121 wrote:
       | Nobody could see this coming! Lol
       | 
       | Seriously, crypto has yet to solve any real world problems I've
       | faced. And NFTs are just the worst. Money laundering schemes at
       | best.
       | 
       | If I can't buy an apple easily with crypto, it's useless.
        
         | 99_00 wrote:
         | If you can't use it to keep armed men authorized to use deadly
         | force from putting you in a cage for the rest of your life it
         | will at best be peripheral.
         | 
         | That's why people use the currency of their nation.
         | 
         | They must pay taxes and fees to exist as a part of society. Not
         | doing so means you either fall off the social ladder or are
         | imprisoned and have your life destroyed.
         | 
         | It's one thing that Modern Monetary Theory gets right. The
         | government creates demand for its currency through taxes and
         | fees that must be paid under threat of violence. So you work
         | and earn the currency to pay for your right to exist.
         | 
         | Is that nice? No. But denying that the threat violence keeps
         | this version of society together is denying reality. And trying
         | to replace a system that is willing to use violence to maintain
         | it's existence with dreams just doesn't work.
        
           | peyton wrote:
           | So if taxes go up, there will be more demand for a currency?
           | And if taxes go down, there will be less demand for a
           | currency? I'm not sure that's right.
        
         | emilsedgh wrote:
         | Crypto does solve a few real world issues (fast, global, cheap,
         | secure, anonymized transfer of value).
         | 
         | But it seems that some people thought it fixes the "i want to
         | get rich fast" problem, and was bloated as a result. It was
         | never meant for that problem.
        
           | outworlder wrote:
           | > fast
           | 
           | Not fast. Most cryptocurrencies have unbearably slow
           | transaction or confirmation times. Maybe if you are buying a
           | car, they will be confirmed by the time the paperwork is
           | done. Even with initiatives like the lightning network, it's
           | still slow. So much so that some of the major exchanges will
           | tally your transactions off-chain, to be confirmed later.
           | 
           | > cheap
           | 
           | It really isn't. Be it gas fees or computational power
           | 
           | > secure
           | 
           | Eh, depends. Surely the transaction itself may be from the
           | blockchain's viewpoint. But if your coins get stolen or your
           | exchange gets hacked you really have no recourse. And that's
           | just one issue. And before anyone says "hardware wallet",
           | exploits have been found for those as well, assuming they
           | were even secure to begin with.
           | 
           | > anonymized
           | 
           | They are not anonymous. With a few exceptions, all
           | transactions are visible in the chain, forever. This works as
           | long as you never need to convert to/from fiat. The moment
           | you do, your identity is exposed - even retroactively. It's
           | way worse than cash. Tumblers only help so much.
        
             | EL_Loco wrote:
             | I'll agree with anyone saying that this NFT craze is
             | idiotic, and that most cryptocurrencies don't have any
             | utility, but to say that crypto isn't fast, cheap or secure
             | is like saying 90's internet couldn't have webpages with
             | pictures because gopher couldn't have pictures. I send
             | money to my sister from my algorand wallet to hers in one
             | second (literally), any amount for something like $0.0001.
             | I'm not well versed enough in security to make any claim
             | about safety, but if I have to trust someone regarding the
             | security of some software, it might as well be this
             | company's founder. Right now it's by far the best method to
             | send money accross the globe.
             | 
             | edit: forgot to add that it's also very energy efficient
        
           | maxerickson wrote:
           | Except it isn't particularly fast, cheap, secure or
           | anonymous.
        
           | doopy1 wrote:
           | No realistic takes on crypto allowed on HN, you might get
           | banned.
        
             | arcturus17 wrote:
             | The idea that crypto solved "fast, global, cheap, secure,
             | anonymized transfer of value" is not "realistic" - it's
             | preposterous.
        
             | noAnswer wrote:
             | Bitcoin can only process 7 transactions per second
             | globally. Ethereum 25. That is not fast. If you want to get
             | an actual transfer cheapness goes out of the window. And it
             | is not anonym either.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | There are much faster cryptoasset networks, which I'm
               | sure you already know, but the problem then becomes
               | liquidity and volume required to not create slippage in
               | the process.
        
             | chaps wrote:
             | Can you explain why you think it's realistic? Nothing they
             | claim seems to hold much truth in-practice.
        
             | ethanbond wrote:
             | Describing crypto transactions as fast and cheap? Yeah,
             | incredibly realistic!
        
           | al_borland wrote:
           | With the first big boom, weren't wallet companies (which most
           | people seem to need to make things easy enough) requiring
           | photo IDs to open accounts? That kids the anonymized piece
           | and once that's gone the traditional means were already fast
           | and cheap (and I assume global as well).
           | 
           | I think the idea of digital cash is cool, but practically
           | speaking, it isn't enough of a upside to deal with crypto. I
           | can't even tell you the last time I used actual cash. It was
           | at least a year ago.
        
           | hnthrow1010 wrote:
           | >Crypto does solve a few real world issues (fast, global,
           | cheap, secure, anonymized transfer of value).
           | 
           | Crypto does not solve any of those issues. The actual
           | solution to most of those issues is called a "payment
           | service" of which there were many that existed before
           | blockchains. How is it do you suppose that companies like
           | ebay and amazon were able to securely and quickly process
           | internet payments in the 90s? They certainly didn't need
           | blockchains to do it. You could argue that they aren't
           | anonymized, but neither is crypto; it is only pseudonymous at
           | best, in practice it is not even that as the exchanges that
           | do the bare minimum of fraud prevention will require you to
           | identify yourself.
        
           | arcturus17 wrote:
           | > Crypto does solve a few real world issues (fast, global,
           | cheap, secure, anonymized transfer of value).
           | 
           | I pay people from Argentina to Ukraine and there are myriad
           | ways I can transfer them money quickly (seconds, sometimes),
           | cheaply (down to fractions of cent on the dollar) and
           | securely without resorting to crypto. I have no need for
           | total anonymity but from what I hear crypto is not great on
           | that front, either.
        
         | nikanj wrote:
         | Fully anonymous global ransomware would be really hard without
         | cryptos.
         | 
         | Monetizing hacked boxes would be much tougher if you could not
         | turn them into Monero miners.
        
           | phabricator wrote:
           | It wasn't that hard. Payment was in pre-paid credit cards.
        
           | doopy1 wrote:
           | It's not fully anonymous even WITH crypto. They have call
           | centers. Banning crypto won't make ransomware go away, it
           | will just increase the cost of ransom.
        
             | giaour wrote:
             | > Banning crypto won't make ransomware go away, it will
             | just increase the cost of ransom.
             | 
             | That must be why ransomware demands were so much higher in
             | the pre-bitcoin era. Unless you're including the cost of
             | sending a cargo jet full of cash or gold halfway around the
             | world?
        
           | bredren wrote:
           | So would dark markets.
           | 
           | Dark markets are described as a small piece of the pie for
           | LE.
           | 
           | But P2P music sharing / digital music sales was also that way
           | until they couldn't be ignored and ultimately destroyed
           | traditional music distribution.
           | 
           | There is a reason big, reliable markets get shut down and it
           | isn't all exit scams. It's because they're incredibly
           | successful and they would not be so without crypto.
           | 
           | The ransomware market is too hard for most to get into and
           | the "deals" take time to put together. There's not a great
           | reason for them to prop up coin value.
           | 
           | However, dark markets are open to just about anyone, and
           | presumably haven't even begun to touch growth potential.
           | 
           | All that said: throw in parent's value prop too--is bitcoin
           | worth $20k a coin today? IDK, maybe? I sold bitcoin-
           | embroidered hoodies at the first ever national bitcoin
           | conference in san jose for half a coin and that seemed a bit
           | nuts.
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | > "Yes, ethereum is a currency in a way where you can exchange
       | [non-fungible tokens, or] NFTs and stuff ... but as far as buying
       | food and all that, maybe not," one crypto-enthusiast diner, Marc
       | Coloma, said as he munched on fries outside the restaurant.
       | "People want to hold onto their ethereum. They're not gonna want
       | to use it."
       | 
       | Then what is the point then? Apecoin and Ethereum certainly
       | cannot be used for payments and holders don't even want to spend
       | their ETH or APE crypto. They have either been terrified with the
       | 10,000 BTC pizza purchase to never spend it or they are scared of
       | the gas fees that will eat up the transaction cost if the chain
       | gets congested again.
       | 
       | It is a loss of confidence that is so bad that they have no
       | choice but to use dollars for payments instead.
       | 
       | That is a complete failure and it just took one crypto crash.
        
         | eknkc wrote:
         | Why would anyone want to buy food with crypto anyway? Can't
         | understand that.
         | 
         | It is not faster. It is not cheaper to transfer. It is not even
         | as anonymous as cash I'd say.
         | 
         | I can see why would someone buy stuff online using crypto but
         | this does not make much sense.
        
           | dhosek wrote:
           | But that was the original promise of crypto currency, that it
           | would replace cash and checks and credit cards for all
           | transactions. It was based on a lot of ignorance about how
           | money actually works, but that was the claim way back when. I
           | had a manager back in 2007-8 whose wife had a bakery that
           | accepted Bitcoin as payment and he was a big crypto advocate.
           | I could tell back then that all the claims made no sense.
           | What amazes me is that crypto still hasn't gone to zero a
           | decade and a half later. Although as John Maynard Keynes
           | said: "Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay
           | solvent."
        
             | cypress66 wrote:
             | > But that was the original promise of crypto currency,
             | that it would replace cash and checks and credit cards for
             | all transactions.
             | 
             | Some fanatics may have claimed that. But the bitcoin
             | whitepaper itself says that traditional payments are good
             | enough for most cases (and then enumerates cases where it's
             | not, such as if you want non reversible transactions).
        
           | nikanj wrote:
           | If you got cryptos from selling contraband, and would rather
           | not pay taxes/leave a paper trail from converting to fiat
        
             | koolba wrote:
             | Spending crypto at a spot where you in person ate a burrito
             | leaves its own paper trail.
             | 
             | I guess you could make an onion router style delivery
             | network to get your meal, but you'd also have to convince
             | thousands of others to use it as well to hide amongst them.
        
         | BoorishBears wrote:
         | It didn't take a crypto crash, crypto has been a failed
         | currency since BTC hit a dollar...
         | 
         | Extreme deflation is arguably more deadly than hyperinflation.
         | If you know that by holding a dollar today, you can get 2
         | dollars worth of goods tomorrow, why are you going to spend a
         | dollar?
         | 
         | Likewise, once Bitcoin went from fractions of a penny to a
         | dollar, what incentive was left to spend it? You could argue an
         | ideological want force it as a currency... but how many
         | people's morals hold up at 10x returns? 100x returns? 1000x
         | returns?
         | 
         | If BTC (or any major crypto) had become the official currency
         | of a country, it'd be a failed state by this point.
        
           | djbusby wrote:
           | BTC is official in El Salvador.
        
             | rscnt wrote:
             | Most people in my circle that pay taxes and hold crypto
             | disapprove this.
             | 
             | People are overall indifferent or disappointed with the
             | decision.
             | 
             | We don't know who or whom holds the BTC that was bought
             | with tax money.
             | 
             | It just takes a couple day of rain to have the capital
             | flooded and our president is busy talking about crypto.
             | 
             | Web services build by the government are a disaster, can't
             | handle a decent volume of requests or are simply too buggy.
             | 
             | With our taxes we've financed "chivo", the entire thing has
             | been a disaster they spent an awful amount of dollars to
             | have basically nobody use it.
             | 
             | Not even crypto bros use the chivo apps, most transactions
             | can be attributed to people doing "scalping".
        
               | BoorishBears wrote:
               | It's great to see a perspective from the ground on this.
               | 
               | I'm originally from an "emerging market" (aka 3rd world
               | country) and I don't share the enthusiasm crypto bros do
               | about emerging markets interacting with crypto.
               | 
               | It's rarely from a beneficial place. Crypto is absolutely
               | perfect to allow a corrupt government to quietly siphon
               | the nation. No planes full of dollar bills, no heavy gold
               | bricks. Just a movement from one digital address to
               | another.
               | 
               | Sure in a pinch it might be a lifeline, but it's a flimsy
               | lifeline and these countries need a lot more than a
               | glorified remittance system to recover. It's fun to laugh
               | at NFT bros trying to buy overpriced restaurant food, but
               | last few months have likely been disastrous for a lot of
               | very poor people.
        
             | iostream24 wrote:
             | And Bukele has locked up more than 2% of the population in
             | inhumane conditions...
             | 
             | Hardly a promotional asset...
        
               | el-salvador wrote:
               | 2% of the _total_ population. It must be higher when
               | other variables are added to the calculation.
               | 
               | - The % of male population imprisoned. My guesstimate is
               | 4%.
               | 
               | - The % of male population between 18 and 29 y/o
               | imprisoned
               | 
               | I don't have the raw data to calculate it at this moment.
               | But it must be higher once gender / age / income are
               | considered.
        
             | grey-area wrote:
             | https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/el-
             | salvador-p...
             | 
             | https://www.cato.org/commentary/el-salvadors-road-
             | currency-c...
             | 
             | https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/crypto-crash-
             | leaves-e...
             | 
             | President Bukele's government declared a state of emergency
             | on 27 March, following a spike in homicides allegedly
             | committed by gangs, which has since been extended
             | twice....Despite a drop in the homicide rate in recent
             | years, El Salvador continues to be one of the most violent
             | countries in the world....The government's financial
             | problems are not because of bitcoin, but they have gotten
             | worse because of bitcoin.
             | 
             | QED
        
               | rscnt wrote:
               | The president doesn't care about the issues that concern
               | his position.
               | 
               | There was an intiative by the treasury to try and have
               | people use a single document to deal with taxes, where we
               | previously used two, this is something important for most
               | people, the guy hasn't even mentioned on his social
               | networks.
               | 
               | They also build a public vet that was supposedly financed
               | with the earnings of BTC - when the price dropped the
               | president mentioned that he hasn't sold any meaning all
               | the money spent to promoto chivo or crypto has come from
               | our tax dollars.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | fortzi wrote:
           | BTC is an official currency in San Salvador, which is
           | arguably indeed a failed state. I'd argue, though, that it's
           | just another symptom of the reasons which made it a failed
           | state in the first place (populism, corruption, etc.)
        
             | dhosek wrote:
             | San Salvador is a different country from El Salvador, just
             | for the record.
        
               | kgwgk wrote:
               | San Salvador is not a country - it's a city. The capital
               | of El Salvador.
        
             | BoorishBears wrote:
             | I largely agree, I mean the president that got it through
             | last year also violated their constitution to get another
             | term and was upheld by his own puppet court...
             | 
             | But BTC hasn't helped at all. It's not even _the_ official
             | currency, just one alongside USD, and yet it's already
             | accelerated the country towards defaulting on their bonds.
             | 
             | While all this goes down the president is still making
             | noise about a "Bitcoin city". A very "meta" commentary on
             | cryto I feel.
        
               | el-salvador wrote:
               | >It's not even _the_ official currency, just one
               | alongside USD, and yet it's already accelerated the
               | country towards defaulting on their bonds.
               | 
               | And its day to day usage is very low.
               | 
               | There was a spike in use after $30 sign up bonus and
               | during the 2021 bitcoin conference and following months
               | which attracted tourism from bitcoiners though.
        
           | MichaelBurge wrote:
           | > If you know that by holding a dollar today, you can get 2
           | dollars worth of goods tomorrow, why are you going to spend a
           | dollar?
           | 
           | Does that mean if you can find a non-defaulting bond that
           | pays higher interest than inflation, the US dollar will
           | completely collapse?
           | 
           | Because why would anyone spend $1 when they could get $2 of
           | goods in N years...
        
         | swatcoder wrote:
         | > and it just took one crypto crash
         | 
         | I'm mostly crypto-skeptic, and appreciate your insights, but
         | this part is to be expected with any market: when the value of
         | something is up, certain business models become profitable and
         | start manifesting. When the value goes down, they stop being
         | profitable and those models vanish (or become sustained
         | externally).
         | 
         | It's easy to see in high profile markets like resource
         | extraction, real estate, venture capital availability, etc
         | 
         | So of course the business model of "use crypto as a currency"
         | will vanish/diminish when the currency value of a coin is
         | substantially down.
        
         | mojomark wrote:
         | > That is a complete failure and it just took one crypto crash.
         | 
         | Disclosure: I hold virtually no crypto (a few thousand XRP)
         | 
         | As I watch this show from the sidelines, I wonder if the latest
         | crash (and no doubt future crashes) isn't exactly the force
         | needed to distribute crypto more widely into more hands,
         | normalizing to some roughly steady state value. After several
         | swings of the pendulum, you end up at some more or less stable
         | value with many more users, making actual marketetplace
         | purchases with crypto more ubiquitous. I guess time will tell,
         | eh?
        
           | rglover wrote:
           | > exactly the force needed to distribute crypto more widely
           | into more hands
           | 
           | Yes, but not "crypto." Bitcoin. The entire crash was due to
           | VCs and hedge funds overleveraging into shitcoins [1]. It
           | started with Luna and that created a domino effect for the
           | rest of it. Sprinkle on the panic typical to all markets and
           | kablamo.
           | 
           | In essence, that's good (albeit painful to some degree)
           | because it's a truly free market. Bad players got washed out
           | and there's more to come as far as I can tell. Fairly excited
           | as, like you suggest, it means people have a chance to
           | acquire more Bitcoin while they still can.
           | 
           | [1]
           | https://twitter.com/DylanLeClair_/status/1524377921338724354
        
             | mnd999 wrote:
             | Bad players will be back next week with a better con.
        
               | rglover wrote:
               | Welcome to humanity, skipper.
        
           | clpm4j wrote:
           | Who does the distribution? The vast majority of people in the
           | world can't afford to buy crypto. The people who hold most of
           | the BTC, ETH, SOL, and whatever other major coins were
           | already rich before they got into it. Maybe single digit
           | thousands of people went from non-rich to rich through buying
           | and holding crypto, but that's a tiny fraction.
        
             | rglover wrote:
             | > The vast majority of people in the world can't afford to
             | buy crypto.
             | 
             | You can buy fractions of it, meaning the affordability is
             | relative to the individual and what they can spend.
        
               | clpm4j wrote:
               | That just means poor people are dividing their already
               | limited resources to buy a fraction of something that
               | they can't use to pay for rent, food, and clothing. If
               | you can only afford to buy a fraction of something, then
               | you can't afford it.
        
               | rglover wrote:
               | That's rapidly changing. Considering that Bitcoin has the
               | potential to help more than it hurts (developing
               | countries don't have to plan growth at the barrel of a
               | Western gun), there's an incentive to start moving in the
               | direction of making it a standard.
               | 
               | See Central African Republic and El Salvador. Countries
               | are waking up to the mafia operation that is the IMF and
               | its favorite weapon, the dollar. Because it's still early
               | in the adoption cycle, critics will continue to be
               | "correct" until one day they wake up and find they've
               | been left behind.
        
               | el-salvador wrote:
               | > See Central African Republic and El Salvador. Countries
               | are waking up to the mafia operation that is the IMF and
               | its favorite weapon, the dollar.
               | 
               | I'm not an economist, but doesn't the IMF use a basket of
               | currencies called SDRs instead of dollars? And isn't the
               | IMF owned by member countries.
               | 
               | Interestingly, El Salvador still owns more IMF shares
               | than Bitcoin.
               | 
               | - El Salvador Bitcoin: 49million USD after compunding for
               | -53% losses [2]
               | 
               | - El Salvador IMF shares: 402 million USD (207 million
               | SDRs) [1]
               | 
               | [1] https://www.imf.org/en/About/executive-board/members-
               | quotas
               | 
               | [2] https://nayibtracker.com/
        
           | kevingadd wrote:
           | How is a crash going to distribute eth or btc into more
           | hands? A bunch of people losing their shirts doesn't seem
           | like it's going to motivate more people to buy in, and
           | individual investors may panic sell before prices go down
           | further.
        
             | rglover wrote:
             | > A bunch of people losing their shirts doesn't seem like
             | it's going to motivate more people to buy in
             | 
             | It will if they're smart enough to ask "why" people lost
             | their shirts and take the POV of someone like John
             | Templeton. The best time to buy is when everyone else is
             | panicking or ignoring an asset you view as undervalued.
             | 
             | Just like the stock market, though, that's not likely to
             | happen. Most people are controlled by emotions, not logic,
             | and so miss out on many opportunities.
        
           | tablespoon wrote:
           | > I wonder if the latest crash (and no doubt future crashes)
           | isn't exactly the force needed to distribute crypto more
           | widely into more hands, normalizing to some roughly steady
           | state value.
           | 
           | No. Hodl the dip.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | 7ewis wrote:
           | I agree to some extent, but there are far too many shitcoins
           | out there and people think it's all a 'get rich quick
           | scheme'. There's also lots of bad press about crypto scams,
           | we have things like Terra and other stablecoins losing their
           | peg, all these smart contract hacks etc.
           | 
           | Then we have all the whales and hedge funds manipulating the
           | market, pump and dumps... it's really is the wild west out
           | here still unfortunately. On top of all that, your parents
           | probably think Crypto.com is the only place to buy it, and
           | the more tech inclined may read 'not your keys, not your
           | crypto', create a wallet and lose the keys or typo an address
           | and lose the coins.
           | 
           | Plus we can't forget all the newer investors, over the past
           | year or two. All of which are probably deep in the red right
           | now and will sell at any opportunity when things look to
           | start improving (and probably tell their mates to avoid it
           | too).
           | 
           | I think the whole industry needs to take a step back, quietly
           | work away for a few years, keep building things, improve
           | security, increase trust. Drop all the DeFi farming pools
           | with the ridiculous earn rates, stop the hype every time a
           | new coin is launched. Get back to basics, create some real
           | utility.
           | 
           | I'm not sure what the answer is on stablecoins or encouraging
           | people to spend crypto. I think it's become too ingrained in
           | peoples heads that crypto is an investment rather than a
           | currency. Stablecoins were a partial answer to that, but they
           | also kind of defeat the purpose too. We're back to trusting
           | the US government, Tether and/or algorithmic stablecoins -
           | which so far have proved to _not_ work. I believe it will
           | take decades for people to stop tracking their crypto
           | holdings and always converting it back to local currencies.
           | Maybe we need some 'super' stable coin, that's backed by
           | stocks, currencies (fiat and crypto) globally but not pegged
           | to any one thing, kind of like an ETF? Is that possible
           | algorithmically though and would governments ever legalise it
           | and allow people to be paid in it?
           | 
           | I do think the tech that the crypto industry has created is
           | great, and I do hold numerous cryptocurrencies (and am making
           | a loss too...) but we're a long way off making prices
           | recoveries, rebuilding trust and actually becoming useful in
           | society.
        
       | gkoberger wrote:
       | I dislike crypto, especially NFTs. But here's my best attempt at
       | understanding.
       | 
       | BAYC transfers ownership of IP for the ape you've bought. It's
       | not just a picture of the ape on OpenSean; you can use it.
       | There's something really fascinating about this. It's one
       | character, but it's also broadly part of the larger ecosystem.
       | 
       | We're so used to, say, Disney owning IP. But what if you could
       | spend $300k and have a restaurant themed like Mickey Mouse? And
       | you're not a cheap knockoff... you're expanding on the lore and
       | the You could have a community of built in people or, like the
       | guy in the article, maybe they just thought the vibe was cute and
       | didn't know what BAYC was even.
       | 
       | I think it's really interesting that people are building and
       | creating and expanding this universe. Imagine something like
       | Pokemon, where everyone was able to create and consume
       | games/content/etc.
       | 
       | Here in HN, the sentiment tends to be against Disney-style
       | copyrights. The crypto community is playing with what community
       | and intellectual property actually could mean.
        
         | Avshalom wrote:
         | among a lot of other things:
         | 
         | > It's one character
         | 
         | no, it's one picture. some one else might own the rights to
         | functionally the same character but with a smile instead of a
         | frown or even just a different background color.
        
         | crooked-v wrote:
         | > BAYC transfers ownership of IP.
         | 
         | Does it, though?
         | 
         | > Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, Yuga
         | Labs LLC grants you a worldwide, royalty-free license to use,
         | copy, and display the purchased Art, along with any extensions
         | that you choose to create or use, solely for the following
         | purposes: (i) for your own personal, non-commercial use; (ii)
         | as part of a marketplace that permits the purchase and sale of
         | your Bored Ape / NFT, provided that the marketplace
         | cryptographically verifies each Bored Ape owner's rights to
         | display the Art for their Bored Ape to ensure that only the
         | actual owner can display the Art; or (iii) as part of a third
         | party website or application that permits the inclusion,
         | involvement, or participation of your Bored Ape, provided that
         | the website/application cryptographically verifies each Bored
         | Ape owner's rights to display the Art for their Bored Ape to
         | ensure that only the actual owner can display the Art, and
         | provided that the Art is no longer visible once the owner of
         | the Bored Ape leaves the website/application.
         | 
         | That's not IP ownership, just a conditional license, despite
         | their talk of "owning" and "purchasing".
        
           | gkoberger wrote:
           | You posted the "Personal Use" section of their terms, and
           | intentionally cut out what comes before and after it.
           | 
           | For anyone curious to read the full terms, they're here:
           | https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/terms
        
             | Animats wrote:
             | Overview of copyright transfer.[1]
             | 
             | Full copyright transfer and licensing are not the same
             | thing. The BAYC terms seem to be a sale of an instance of
             | the Art, with a limited nonexclusive license to the
             | intellectual property. An exclusive license is considered a
             | transfer, but this isn't one. If you got an exclusive
             | license, nobody else, including BAYC or OpenSea, could
             | display the Art without your permission until the copyright
             | runs out. BAYC didn't give up that much.
             | 
             | It's not clear that BAYC images are copyrightable in the
             | US, because they are procedurally generated from templates.
             | That will probably be litigated at some point.
             | 
             | There's an interesting trade dress question. Suppose you
             | fed a supply of BAYC images into a machine learning system
             | and had it crank out similar images. Does Yuga Labs have
             | any claim against you?
             | 
             | [1] https://www.intellectualpropertylawfirms.com/resources/
             | intel...
        
             | charwalker wrote:
             | Can I mint the terms as an NFT or is that recursive?
        
         | mediumdeviation wrote:
         | But you can already license your IP using a contract or a
         | license, and that contract can be inked in paper or done
         | digitally. You can even give exclusive license or transfer your
         | rights. The only difference using the blockchain is, well, the
         | blockchain.
         | 
         | This is an even less interesting use of the blockchain than
         | Bitcoin - at least with Bitcoin there is no longer a central
         | authority needed to prevent double spending. Here the
         | blockchain is facilitating a transaction that can already be
         | done without some authority to recognize it.
        
           | cypress66 wrote:
           | I don't care about bored apes or jpeg nfts in general, and
           | don't know how true it is that you receive ownership of the
           | ip.
           | 
           | But if it worked that way, then the concept is pretty cool.
           | You say "you can already license..." yeah, but this is one
           | click stuff and you're good to go. What you're saying is slow
           | lawyer stuff and a fully manual process.
           | 
           | Of course this one click to purchase IP could be done
           | centralized. But decentralized can add transparency, instead
           | of relying on paper trail and companies that can go defunct.
        
             | tracerbulletx wrote:
             | Literally every stock photo site already does this.
        
               | gkoberger wrote:
               | But you can't turn around and sell that stock art to
               | someone else.
        
               | tracerbulletx wrote:
               | You could if they changed the wording of the license
               | being transferred.
        
               | gkoberger wrote:
               | Okay, so they don't actually already do it, but they
               | could do it.
               | 
               | How would you keep track of who currently has ownership?
               | How do you make sure I don't sell ownership to 5 people,
               | or keep using it myself? Do I need to hire a lawyer each
               | time?
               | 
               | Yes, this can be done without the blockchain. But also,
               | does it matter to you if the code is in SQL or the
               | blockchain? The blockchain is just a technology. (I do
               | think the environmental impact is worth considering, for
               | the record.)
        
               | Gigachad wrote:
               | Ultimately these are problems that just do not need
               | solving. There is no real world use case to sell and
               | transfer ownership of a stock photo multiple times.
        
         | nathanvanfleet wrote:
         | The only way this scales is that there are tens of thousands of
         | "character" all of which are extremely similar, generated on a
         | template and randomly arranged. None of them seem particularly
         | iconic though I understand that certain hats etc are rarer than
         | others. But none of them stand out as any sort of personality.
         | So if you were to say try to make your own Bored ape restaurant
         | a block away are you really standing out because _your_ ape has
         | a nose ring?
        
         | remram wrote:
         | You can mostly use any and every one of them for a lot of
         | purposes under fair use. I have seen a lot of Apes around the
         | net, way more than I would have liked.
         | 
         | You can't make, say, a cartoon featuring one of them, but would
         | you want to do that?
        
       | krapp wrote:
       | But I have a bottle of vintage slurp juice on reserve! I can't
       | pay for it now, all I have is real money.
        
       | jansan wrote:
       | You need to try harder to find the greater fool.
        
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