> i get the whole hype thing but are people really this dumb hat they are willing to fork over cash for a token whose only aim is to be a bubble store of value and general pissing contest who owns the more elusive ones?
For what it's worth, most physical art investment isn't much better than that.
The amount of art that is (essentially) forever locked up in "toll and tax free warehouses" (Zollfreilager, no idea about the actual English word) is immense - alone in the warehouses of Geneva, there are over 120.000 pieces of art worth many billions of dollars [1]. No one can visit or see them, they are only tokens and change owners at auctions for ever higher and higher prices.
Art loses its meaning that way, it's yet another enjoyment that has been hijacked and completely transformed by hyper-capitalism and money laundering, not to mention looting, theft [2] and Raubkunst (art pieces confiscated by the Nazi regime mostly from Jews, ending up sold on the open market or being kept by Nazi officials and museums).
For what it's worth, most physical art investment isn't much better than that.
The amount of art that is (essentially) forever locked up in "toll and tax free warehouses" (Zollfreilager, no idea about the actual English word) is immense - alone in the warehouses of Geneva, there are over 120.000 pieces of art worth many billions of dollars [1]. No one can visit or see them, they are only tokens and change owners at auctions for ever higher and higher prices.
Art loses its meaning that way, it's yet another enjoyment that has been hijacked and completely transformed by hyper-capitalism and money laundering, not to mention looting, theft [2] and Raubkunst (art pieces confiscated by the Nazi regime mostly from Jews, ending up sold on the open market or being kept by Nazi officials and museums).
[1]: https://oe1.orf.at/artikel/644453/Monumente-verschwindender-...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Freeport