Skip to main content

Side-eying girl image sold as NFT generates thousands of dollars





S
ide-eying Chloe" Clem - a young girl who became an internet sensation when a picture of her looking unimpressed went viral - is selling the original image for thousands of dollars at auction.


It's being offered as a "non-fungible token" (NFT), a way of owning the original digital image.


Where Bitcoin was hailed as the digital answer to currency, NFTs are now being touted as the digital answer to collectables, but plenty of sceptics fear they're a bubble waiting to burst.


What is a non-fungible token?


In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged - like money.


With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.


However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible - it means it has unique properties so it can't be interchanged with something else.


It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting.


NFTs are "one-of-a-kind" assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own.


The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.


How do NFTs work?


Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind.


But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.


With NFTs, artwork can be "tokenised" to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.


Will digital-only trading cards replace physical ones?


As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain.


The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world.


NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.


How much are NFTs worth?


In theory, anybody can tokenise their work to sell as an NFT but interest has been fuelled by recent headlines of multi-million-dollar sales.


On 19 February, an animated Gif of Nyan Cat - a 2011 meme of a flying pop-tart cat - sold for more than $500,000 (£365,000).


A few weeks later, musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6m.


It is not just art that is tokenised and sold. Twitter's founder Jack Dorsey has promoted an NFT of the first-ever tweet, with bids hitting $2.5m.


Christie's sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple for $69m (£50m) set a new record for digital art.


French firm Sorare, which sells football trading cards in the form of NFTs, has raised $680m (£498m).


But as with crypto-currencies, there are concerns about the environmental impact of maintaining the blockchain.


'Side-eyeing Chloe' Clem to sell iconic meme as NFT.


What's stopping people copying the digital art?


Nothing. Millions of people have seen Beeple's art that sold for $69m and the image has been copied and shared countless times.


In many cases, the artist even retains the copyright ownership of their work, so they can continue to produce and sell copies.


But the buyer of the NFT owns a "token" that proves they own the "original" work.


Some people compare it to buying an autographed print.


Is this a bubble?


A day before his record-breaking auction, Beeple - whose real name is Mike Winkelmann - told the BBC: "I actually do think there will be a bubble, to be quite honest.


"And I think we could be in that bubble right now."


Many are even more sceptical.


David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain, said he saw NFTs as buying "official collectables", similar to trading cards.


"There are some artists absolutely making bank on this stuff... it's just that you probably won't," he warned.


The people actually selling the NFTs are "crypto-grifters", he said.


"The same guys who've always been at it, trying to come up with a new form of worthless magic bean that they can sell for money."


Former Christie's auctioneer Charles Allsopp said the concept of buying NFTs made "no sense".


"The idea of buying something which isn't there is just strange," he told the BBC.


"I think people who invest in it are slight mugs, but I hope they don't lose their money."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nobody Will Tell You This: 9 Things Smart Nigerians Are Doing in 2025 to Escape Poverty for Good

The rich are not working harder, oh! No — they’re working smarter . In 2025, fellow Nigerians are breaking free from this generational struggles of a thing by doing things that on the surface looks “ordinary” — but are changing lives behind the scenes. You’re still depending on one income source or waiting for “help,” friend, you are 53561 steps behind. Here for you are some  9 real things some smart Nigerians are doing  to escape the poverty trap: 1. Selling your Voice to AI Companies This actually is real. Demand for human voice data is on the kilimanjaro hight level. Tech companies developing AI models and assistants needs humans who are willing to give their voice. Of course, for a pay. It only requires you to  read scripts into microphones for training of such voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Pays varies. You should expect to earn between  ₦10k and ₦70k per session — just to record simple phrases in your accent. 2. Creating Fake Names and Running...

Juventus bags Ps5 super cup

      Italian giant; Juventus, on Wednesday 20, 2021, breezed past rival; Sc Napoli with a 2:0 win to clinch the PlayStation sponsored super cup.               The Andrea Pirlo's side now have nine super cup trophies in their showroom but the 2021 Ps5 super cup happens to be the first trophy for manager; Andrea Pirlo.     The club was quoted on Instagram "first trophy for mister @andreapirlo21, ninth supesuperc italiana for us🌑 it is good to be a juventino". And then in another post, they shared a video of the team celebrating the victory with a caption "turn on the sound".

Seven mysterious places on Earth that science can't fully explain

  The door to hell (Turkmenistan) A fiery crater that’s been burning for over 50 years after a Soviet drilling accident. Locals swear it’s a gateway to the underworld. Scientists? They’re just impressed by the eternal flames.   🌀 Bermuda triangle (Atlantic ocean)    Ships, planes, and entire crews have vanished here for decades. Theories range from methane bubbles to alien abductions. Spoiler: We still don’t know. Pack a life jacket.   🕳️  The great blue hole (Belize) A massive underwater sinkhole so perfect it looks CGI. Divers flock here, but its depths hide ancient stalactites… and maybe a few undiscovered sea monsters.   🌲  Crooked forest (Poland) A grove of 400 pine trees bent at 90-degree angles. Was it Nazis? Aliens? A botched logging experiment? The trees aren’t talking.   🗿 Easter island moai (Chile) How did ancient people move these 80-ton stone heads across the island? Theories include “aliens” and “they wa...