NFT and the Future of Digital Content
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From what I've read, it does seem to make a big difference in theory, but yes I haven't found any real life data either.
I was also looking for enegry use of the IPFS where a lot of art pieces connected to the tokens are stored, but also on that no real numbers, I was interested because the energy for the art storage should be added to the enviromental impact of NFTs making things even worse, but by how much is hard to tell. Maybe it's close to nothing, maybe it's a lot.
Yeah I saw that - mine was for Champion athletics NFTs (bizarrre concept). Not sure if that's the same for everyone, but it's a bad look for Daz to be promoting other brand's NFTs.
...that's the one I got.
It's in a picture file, so your text checker doesn't notice it.
...sneaky.
That is proof that someone in DAZ is reading these forums and when they saw that you were blocking emails that had NFT in them, they started using images... Be careful of what you say
...need a new version of Tamper Monkey to blot out unwanted graphics..
A quite a while ago I read about Proof of Stake in a tech article declaring it the next big advance in the cryptocurrency game... it was big and bold about all the great changes it was going to bring and how it was going to save the planet and make getting rich quick a green thing... but nowhere did it mention a single hard number, statistic or percentage... just "a lot", "big", "tremendous", "revolutionary"... and other words which are not numbers.
Since then and over the past couple of years I've read many articles about Proof of Stake and aside from one at a site that shills for Ethereum and makes a "99% savings" claim with no information or data to back that claim, nobody mentions any numbers on energy savings.
Even in articles that go into deep technical details, they avoid translating the technical advantages into sort data that's useful for comparison.
I learned long ago that when you ask a salesperson how powerful, fast, or efficient something they are selling is, compared to the competition and they say "a lot more" without citing anything and just keep repeating "a lot more", the thing isn't "a lot" better.
Generally, if you have a product, system or method that is actually significantly better than the competition or and existing product, system or method, you are going to be touting those hard numbers, not talking around them.
Based on a general avoidance of this information, I'm forced to assume that while there probably is some level of energy savings, it's probably not all that significant or every tech site would be citing reliable sources and providing links left and right for anyone who wants proof.
My feeling is... provide a reliable source with numbers or it didn't happen.
In my 29 years of experience, I have met all of 1 (one) salespersons that actually understood what he was selling.
At work, I am the first person that gets the new orders from sales as I check what's been sold and doing the scheduling for it and there isn't one day that I didn't have to comment on what they have sold and/or agreed to - They just love my commenting, or as the head of our US office said "Everytime I get an email from Pertti, he's flipping the bird..."
Don't talk about sales guys. In one of the companies I worked for, they promised everything to the customer, plus the coffee machine, the kitchen sink, world peace and a free unicorn. All just to get the contract signed. And we, as the "delivery team" had to sort out that mess.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHU0HinVhYc
I have a 3D hobby besides making 3Dart, the collecting as many 3D models for as less cost as possible. The NFT missery, for me it just seams another damn way to steal art
, makes me even more anxious to spend as little as possible here. I will stay true to a policy that I tried to maintain before, only buy for 1.99 or 2.99 unless I can't stand another day without something and that is very rare.I wish I could stop buying here completely but unfortunately I am a hopeless Dazoholic 
. This won't change a damn thing, what do they care about one single very loyal customer 
, but I needed to say that I really hate the descisions Daz has made lately, NFT and the ridiculously priced season pass 
.
Blockchain.... is there really a needed use for it besides burning a farck-ton of energy 24/7 for people's amusement? Not that we haven't or aren't already doing that to a lesser extent, but to be heaping more on top of what we already have is just insane.
Well, the "The Diigitals" NFT proves it's not just a way to mint money.
Yes, you can put blockchains to benefical use. It is even a bit like NFT's, but not for getting insanely rich. Instead, it is used to create a "digital twin" of a real product. One of the usages is protecting original pharmaceuticals. There have been quite some cases where falsified medicines have reached the end customer. And not just the usual suspects, like blue pills or "fat burners".
Now even cancer medication is falsified, and the copycats are getting better and better with the faking. The problem is: the active ingredients for such medicines are very expensive to start with. So, to make. a profit, there is less in the packing. Much less, up to nothing. Imagine a chemotherapy with diluted medicines versus the correct one with the original product. A difference between dieing and living. With a "digital twin" you have all the data of a product (i.e. when it was manufactured, the whole transportation chain, etc.), so it is rather easy to sort out falsified drugs. Some companies are already using blockchains this way. But they are not using any of the "established" block chains, but an own implementation using PoS.
Before this falls off the front page and Daz thinks we've forgotten about it, I wanted to remind them yet again why I've stopped buying here and started spending more money at that other place. See below...
First excuse my spelling and grammar mistakes...
Here's my take on the whole Daz3D NFT scenario:
I tried to get in on it.
I know a couple of people who have been striving for years and years to get a decent paycheck for their digital artwork and they finally got paid a reasonable amount of money for some of their long time efforts.
For them the NFT thing worked. For now, at least.
So I tried to get in too...
I started doing digital art 6 years ago and I'm rarely able to sell my work for a decent amount of money.
I usually receive a 10% commission but that is about it.
What I found out about this NFT thing is that you have to pay upfront to 'mint' (yes, I know, even the term is... cringey) your artworks.
What does mint mean? Basically to upload the digital file to their servers and get the digital 'certificate' on the blockchain thingumajigg.
How much does it cost? Between 150$ to 200$.
Which is a lot for someone like me that thought/hoped this would work more or less like the print on demand sites that I usually upload my work for sale.
In those there is no upfront cost. None.
You get paid a commission when you sell and that's it.
So the NFT's aren't unlike the 'real' art world.
If you have money to pay gallery owners / curators to promote or show your art you'll be ok.
If you don't then no one will notice you.
So what do I think Daz is doing by getting in the wagon of NFT's?
I think they're trying to get the type of artists mentioned above (people like Beeple, Hodass, Peter Tarka, Roman Bratschi, Rik Oostenbroek, etc... ) to look at Daz in a more serious way.
Daz has a huge library of 3D assets but isn't that well known in the creative/ad 3D community.
Most people associate Daz with their female sexualized models and don't really know how much more stuff they have in the shop.
So by getting in the NFT craze I believe they're trying to get noticed by the big digital artists / curators.
A way to diversify their target customers.
Especially useful since they now have all these bridges to the popular 3D softwares, like C4d, which are used extensively by said creative/ad professionals.
Will it work?
No idea. At all.
If I had to risk a guess I would say that it might. Given the prices of the products being reasonable (compared to other 3D asset stores).
That's it. Rant over.
@psfilipe
I respect your opinion, but I see NFTs less as a way to protect art and, for Daz anyway, more as a way to make fast money. I don't have a problem with making fast money. However, as long as NFTs are tied to etherium/bitcoin, I will never consider them anything but a scheme. If it were true that NFTs were set up to secure artist's IP, then why are most NFTs utter crap? Stupid gifs and videos that took maybe 10 minutes to make. It's a money making scheme and nothing more. The 69 million dollar one was a fluke that I doubt highly will be repeated. But ever since, people are trying to jump on the bandwagon. I'm not having any of it. And I'm not having anything to do with a company having any of it. ;)
Laurie
I mostly agree with you, Laurie.
I don't believe NFT's will protect artists and I also believe they already created the elitist environment that they advertised against in the first place: the democratization of the Art business.
For me, the moment they setup that 'minting' fee, they lost me as a potential investor.
If it was some sort of nominal fee I would get it.
But 150$ to 200$ (in some cases higher) to make an upload is bullshit. And I'm also poor...
About the Beeple thing... It was not a fluke.
Mike Winkelmann (Beeple) is making one artwork a day for 12 years straight. Every. Single. Day.
I'm not saying that I like everything he does, of course.
But I do like a some of his art and, honestly, the amount of work, effort, humbleness and expertise he demonstrates with his work should be commended (he has tutorials and even shares source files).
So despite 69 millions being a sort of insane amount I'm hard pressed to choose a more deserving digital artist than Mike to receive such amount.
See he isn't being paid a sum for a single piece. He's being paid for 12 years of ridiculous detailed and creative work that he shares with the community all the time.
Same here, not spending money at this store.
@psfilipe I saw this African and Mexican artist on television who were now able to take proper care of their families thanks to NFTs, I wish them and people like them all the luck and I hope their investment pays off. I get they may not have the luxury of choice.
I do have a problem with a system that burns the planet we live on for greed, under the pretence that it's good for art. These are the speculators who trade NFTs, not because of the artistic value, but because of the value as a commodity. I have an issue with Daz starting a immensely polluting side business while there is enough to fix in their core business, this leaves me feeling neglected as a customer. I also have a problem with a system that encourages art theft without any means to compensate those who have been wronged, or enforce regulations on wrongdoers.
Sad thing is, the environmental impact of NFTs may affect the earlier mentioned artists more than people in the West.
BTW, I did not find you post a rant, I found quite eloquent.
Yes, I also have concerns with the environmental problems that NFT's pose.
That said... I believe that more credible and curated data is needed to access the true impact of this technology.
Impact measure is one of the most difficult things to prove in a study and I see a lot of bullshit from either side.
This is all new and I think there is a lot of propaganda from both the NFT investors, that want to take on the financial market, and the people from the 'old' financial model that are, in some cases, doing their absolute best for crypto/blockchain to fail.
Old or new? Which one is the best model? I honestly have no idea.
I know there are crooks in both sides, that's for sure.
I need to think more about this.
It's a complex world...
Good intentions of the ones that came up with the idea in the first place is one thing, and how the idea is used when exposed to the world is something completely different.
Just browse through the auction site https://opensea.io/assets
About 15 million items, "owned"/sold by anonymous sellers, almost 2 million CryptoKitties which were created in a Kitty-Game and have no real value but someone has still paid 1.2 million USD for one... Land areas in Mars (real not virtual) are being sold by "authorized" seller...
How is it going to help the little artist to have his/her artwork mixed up amongst the trash and obvious scams by anonymous sellers?
There is no proof of origin and/or ownership required for minting = Anybody can mint whatever and claim to be the owner.
I'm not quite convinced that we know the real story behind the Million dollar deals either, but trying to go there gets the post deleted...
Oh, I'm quite aware of the amount of bullshit floating as NFT's out there.
I'm also quite aware of the potential of my own work being sold by some rich creep that's willing to pay 150/200$ to 'mint' one of my works.
I think these are weird waters, for sure.
That said I'm very happy that some friends got finally paid.
They, specifically, deserved their share (and of course they didn't get 'millions', but still good money).
Beeple actually uses Daz assets and he's talked about it a bit. I don't think you're wrong, but several of the artists who were the early adopter faces of the NFT market are people who use Daz models in C4D.
Part of the reason Daz isn't well known is that there's still stigma against using premade models in 3D art, so artists who do it aren't exactly out there waving their arms and yelling, "You could do this too! Go check out this program!" and I have a lot of respect for those who do. It's less prevalent than it used to be, but there's an enormous prestige gap between being perceived as a sculptor and being perceived as someone who poses dolls. People who aren't familiar with 3D can imagine themselves doing the latter easily, even if only because they don't know the skillset it takes to make it look good.
OT: I told my sister about Daz and ever since then she has been nitpicking my work. I'd like to see her try to produce the same results. It's not just the thousands I've spent on assets; it's also the time spent doing tutorials and figuring out the most basic stuff. When you start using Daz, there's no pop-up that alerts you to how headlamps work, or the difference between Iray and 3Delight, or even the difference between the G3, G8, and V4. Now, things seem pretty easy. But I wanted to tear my hair out the first time I tried to use the geometry editor. Some people want Daz to make a manual, but I don't see that happening. They sell tutorials, and if there was a manual, they'd lose money.
I've actually been pointing self-publishing writers at DAZ as an alternate to paying someone to do their book covers for them. In fact I compare it to being as easy as playing with dolls (and ask if they happen to have a five-year-old who can help them with it!) I tell them to think of posing their dolls in a dollhouse, having their little brother/sister hold the flashlight as they snap a picture. Then I point out that they can change anything in the shot from the wallpaper to the expressions on the faces. If they don’t like something they can play with it until they do – unlike having to settle for what someone else thought you wanted.
As with anything else there’s a learning curve, but DAZ is less of a curve than a lot of other options, and a few free ready to roll figures/outfits/environments means they can test the waters for just a little of their time.
Yes, I know Beeple, and others, use Daz assets. I can even spot them, occasionally.
Some of them are more open about it and some prefer not mentioning it.
Hence Daz's move to facilitate things via the bridges.
All I'm saying is:
I get why Daz is doing this. I also get why some artists are doing this. And, guess what, I get why people (like myself) are against NFT's.
Unfortunately crypto, NFT's and even the blockchain is already lacking the needed transparency for general people to accept and understand all the pros and cons.
It was a complicated pipe dream from day one and, of course, it got immediately exploited and mutated.
So, in my view, the boat already set sail.
Like every complex issue in this world things became polarized, politicized and now reduced to a war between two sides.
Hell... You're criticized for taking either side. Better.... You're even criticized for NOT taking any sides ("How dare you not being against something that has this much impact in the environment??!?").
Don't get me wrong I'm as much a nihilist, misanthropist and cynic as the next guy...
But I'm tired. I'm just really, really tired of the binary nature of everything in this age.
Oh, totally agree with you, by the way.
There is a stigma against using assets.
But like a previous user said: What about stock images?
What about the tools we use? Shouldn't we be digging holes with our bare hands?
One of the main reasons I talked nonstop about Daz for years is that this style of engaging with 3D bypassed a lot of mental blocks I had against it, where I couldn't even imagine where to start and I assumed the skills involved would be way over my head. So when I saw that it was like playing with dolls--or what I'm used to, dressing up characters in video games and taking screenshots of them--I thought that so many more people could be doing 3D if they had this entry point. So I really do have a lot of respect for people who present it like that as a way of showing 3D from a new perspective.
The attitude I mean is more like...there are always gonna be people who heckle the magician if they think they know how the trick is done, or who don't see any value in art if it doesn't place the artist in a superior skill class, completely discounting any unique ideas or personality that make it special.
I think 3D assets will eventually be as normalized as stock images, and they're already on their way. We're just in a weird transitionary period between "3D is the thing wizards do with magic computer clay! :O" and "I should really learn 3D one of these days, huh."
If Daz is trying to reach out to the Beeples of the world, one of the reasons it disappoints me is that I've been dying for them to talk directly to regular-people digital artists and instead they seem really keen on trying to capture influencer attention or something with everything but renders, The Thing Their Software Is Good At. Blender and Unreal are gonna eat their lunch.
(If my first introduction to Daz had been all of their ads desperately trying to position it as an animation suite I would have gone, "Huh, that's cool looking" and kept looking for something that would let me do pictures.)
Well said! Not only do we have to deal with it when we visit the store, now daz is cramming it down our throats with an nft sales banner in every one of their sales emails. Like you I have been voting with my money here since the rollout of daz connect a few years ago. Daz should be doing this on a seperate site away from here selling nft's have no place here. I know you have heard this a lot, but I love your avatar!