The Web3 part of this would be that no company needs to be responsible for the database that says that a player is in possession of a particular item. The fact that limited cooperation between companies is needed is what could allow the adoption of standardized schemas.
I'd be curious if even that would be so simple. There could be competing blockchains or types of NFTs. You might also get into the situation where instead of every company building the software to verify ownership they just pay specialized companies.In that situation Web3 technology isn't really all that different than a company building a virtual shop API. A company like Valve could probably do this better than Opensea could and without all the extra Web3 technology.
It's interesting how little this is talked about. In the case of something like Vuele, they don't need to have an external database (the blockchain) for their concept to work. They could allow Vuele accounts to trade ownership of download rights and set up a marketplace for people to buy and sell.
But given the option to buy the right to download Zero Contact from some Vuele user or buy the download from the Apple store, why would anyone choose Vuele?
I think the bet on NFTs is that enough people will buy into the concept that it will legitimize itself. No one would want to go out of their way to buy movies from Vuele but if NFTs were to become popular enough people may be willing to buy movies from popular NFT marketplaces like Opensea, which they may already be buying other things from.
The initial impetus is dependent on people having an innate desire for scarcity. It's not solely about speculation. If you tell people they can be one of twenty people to own the original Vuele copy of Zero Contact there are going to be some buyers.
I think the BLM group and the BLM movement should be differentiated. While many progressives may have supported the BLM movement I don't believe the openly Marxist organization is as popular. Also, just cutting the quote at the dismantling part without including the rest of that statement seems disingenuous.
I don't think it matters whether the source is legit or not.
People have to ask themselves why they are buying an NFT.
If they are buying it because they have a genuine interest in owning the NFT then they might want to make sure what they are purchasing is "authentic". Which I imagine in this case means there isn't, and won't be, an NFT that has more claim to being "authentic".
The more popular case for buying an NFT, I imagine, is for its value. Whether that be to sell it for more or simply to own something of value. In this case authenticity doesn't really matter. Two years from now it is entirely possible that MOMA's NFTs are entirely worthless. Everything with a brand is going to be trying to sell an NFT.
Consider trading cards based on 90's cartoons. Both Pokemon and Dragon Ball were popular cartoons. Only Pokemon cards cards though still have any value, to my knowledge.
More than trying to recognize whether the source is legit people have to understand the NFT culture. "Bob's online NFT Shop"'s Starry Night NFT might be worth millions in the future while MOMA's version is worthless. The value isn't really about authenticity. Both could be entirely forgotten tomorrow as it turns out that people don't care about art NFT and it turns out that COVID variant NFTs are the thing that has staying power.
It seems like you are imagining that highly prized engineers are valued for their ability to write bug free code or have their code correctly meet expected requirements.
This individual is likely being paid this amount because of their ability to identify and solve difficult problems. There aren't guardrails for that sort of thing.
As to their replaceability, I think it's a case of it being a safe option. This person has proven themselves, through their experience, that they are worth this amount. There may be others out there who can do the same work but they haven't "proven" themselves.
Whether the value obtained from an engineer paid this amount is worth it is another question. Are they providing twice the value of an engineer paid $445k? Maybe not, but this person is in a better place to negotiate.
I'd be curious if even that would be so simple. There could be competing blockchains or types of NFTs. You might also get into the situation where instead of every company building the software to verify ownership they just pay specialized companies.In that situation Web3 technology isn't really all that different than a company building a virtual shop API. A company like Valve could probably do this better than Opensea could and without all the extra Web3 technology.