Some players have become so obsessed with the concept that on-court trash talk now involves barbs about how much spectacular dunks and blocks will be worth as crypto-collectible clips.Įarlier this month, The Stronach Group launched an NFT series of GI Preakness S. Yet another New York Times story on May 13 described how National Basketball Association players are investing in and trading proprietary, NFT-backed video highlight collections. A conceptual artist created a specific shade of blue, stored it digitally, then sold it for $800. Someone else bought a “digital house” that can be owned, but not actually lived in for $500,000. 29, Sophie Haigney described that idea in the New York Times, detailing how someone recently paid more than $69 million at auction to “own” an NFT-derived JPG image that anyone else could freely download on the internet. In essence, the buying and selling of NFTs is closely linked to our society's infatuation with ownership and property rights. Cut through the jargon and they are just a piece of code with specific functionality and a unique identifier.” These tokens may refer both to an actual item, such as an artwork, as well as its authentication. On May 20, David Stevenson of the Financial Times in London described the complicated concept of an NFT as “a certificate of authenticity held on the blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions that cannot be hacked. Rather, its entire structure is based on trying to replicate–and capitalize from–an ever-changing, real-time digital bloodstock marketplace.Īssets that take the form of NFTs have been popping up in the news with increasing frequency. It doesn't even have a pick-the-winners or betting component (yet). Even though Zed Run conducts virtual races 24/7, it is not so much focused on the actual racing, per se. My opinion? Although there are enough waving red flags surrounding Zed Run to keep my digital wallet fully sealed, I must admit to being drawn in by how the platform is completely unlike any other digital horse racing endeavor to date. I read through the company's work-in-progress website and absorbed varying outside opinions on it that ranged from “next big thing” to warnings about the platform being a pyramid-styled investment vehicle that could be rewarding early adopters at the expense of late-to-the-party participants who might have to bear the costs of any collapse. I spent a good chunk of the weekend trying to get my head around Zed Run's core concept (“to create an ecosystem where collectible digital assets hold value and have use in an exciting and ever-evolving gaming and wagering environment”). This is especially true when highly hyped trading is based on assets that have no tangible underlying value outside of their specific marketplace. Or it at least has the appearance of thriving, because, as with any rapidly emerging market–crypto, traditional, or otherwise–you never truly know who is driving or profiting from the stampede. The Australia-founded Zed Run has been thriving in recent weeks. “I'll either buy a house with the money I make from it or never show my face for a year.” “This is either going to be the smartest or stupidest thing I've ever done,” one Miami-based Zed Run enthusiast who has amassed 48 horses told the Times. A third touted the thrill of being able to churn a “crazy return on investment,” and predicted that prices on individual digital equine assets could soon surge into the million-dollar range, matching–and at times far exceeding–the auction prices of real-life Thoroughbreds. Another sold an entire stable for $252,000 when demand skyrocketed for that particular collection of “limited drop” offspring. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency-styled racehorse trading spree rages on at Zed Run, the online global marketplace that went live in 2018 and has since sold 11,000 “Thoroughbreds” that exist only as digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).Īccording to a May 12 New York Times article by Taylor Lorenz, one trader reportedly flipped a single “horse” that initially cost $16,000 on Zed Run for $125,000. There's also an old saw about never investing in any business transaction you don't fully understand or can't explain to someone else (or yourself) in fewer than 30 seconds. There's an adage in poker playing that says if you take a look around the card table and can't tell who the sucker in the game is, it's you.
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