Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
Could you use an NFT to verify the authenticity of Tom Brady’s last touchdown ball?
So to my group of mates, crypto is nothing more than a joke.
A joke that at this point, I’m happy to go along with.
They don’t want to put any time into discovering the use-cases and I don’t want to put in the time helping those that don’t want to be helped.
But every now and then they cast out a line with a juicy looking piece of bait that I just can’t help but chomp down on.
Yesterday was one of those days and I just couldn’t resist…
One of the lads in the group chat brought up Tom Brady’s last touchdown ball selling for $518,628 before he ‘unretired’.
Hilarious!
The poor bloke that bought it.
But it was the following flurry of messages which to me was a fat hook full of juicy bait just bobbing in front of my eyes.
“I think any football is useless.”
“Unless it has a code saying it was.”
“You could probably go out and buy an official game ball, put it behind glass and say that was the last TD pass of the last superbowl.”
“I just don’t know how well balls can be tracked in years to come.”
“Even if you have it and buyers don’t believe that it’s legit, how can you convince them?”
“Naa, it definitely is.”
“I paid 500K for it.”
I just couldn’t resist.
“If only there was some sort of immutable ledger that was able to track authenticity and ownership.”
CHOMP.
Ah fuck, instant regret.
“So you’re telling me that you’d rather the NFT than the actual game ball?”
That big rusty hook now poking itself through the outside of my cheek is about as fun as you’d expect it to be.
“Well no, that’s not actually what I’m saying at all.”
“The NFT is simply an entry on an immutable ledger that ensures authenticity and ownership… of the physical ball you paid for, is tracked.”
I thought I’d explained myself pretty well and I might be able to get this big fucking metaphorical rusty hook out of my mouth now.
But I was wrong.
Back he came.
“How though?”
“How does a computer token track a game ball?”
“What if old mate goes down and buys an official game ball. says “this is the game ball”, and tries to sell that with the NFT?”
“The actual ball is still in his hands but now some clown has a game ball and a NFT that means nothing.”
By this stage I’m getting tired from swimming against the current of public opinion that crypto is a joke.
Oh why didn’t I just eat the other piece of fish swimming next to the fucking hook?!
Fuck it, I’ll give it one more go I think.
“The value is obviously still in the physical ball.”
“But the accompanying NFT just tracks authenticity and ownership from the point Brady hands it to the NFL commissioner and onto the auction house.”
“It shows the ball you have in your possession isn’t a fake, thus solving the original problem you had which was that you couldn’t trust what you were buying.”
Yes Dane, surely that logical explanation has you free and you can go about your day like normal now.
Well it seems we’ve at least come to terms that the original entry on the blockchain can’t be altered and therefore nobody is buying stolen or forged property.
But damn, why is this clown still reeling me in?!
“What if the buyer is the one who then on-sells a fake ball WITH the NFT?”
Hahaha!
Yep, we’ve now official hit “it’s a poster” areas.
A sure signal that it’s time for me to concede the fight.
Finish reeling me in, scale me, butter me up and throw me on the barbie.
I’m done.
No NFT is saving that sophisticated level of forgery.
Unless…
…There was sophisticated, scientific identifiable metadata unique to that exact ball which could also be tracked within the immutable NFT!
Naa, I’m going to stop myself right there.
The Mr Bean documentary has proven that getting away with it is possible, so you can bet your bottom dollar that no scammy NFT is going to fix this problem.
Case closed, NFT’s have no use-case.
Back I go to laughing at the joke that all things crypto is in the mainstream.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
Best of probabilities to you.