I like blockchains, and I love #SamHarris. But this #NFT nonsense is clouding even Sam’s thinking. Case in point:

“What we’re proposing to do at #WakingUp is to create our version of the [Giving What We Can] Pledge. We might add some other relevant wrinkle to it, but basically it would be the same pledge. We want to create #NFTs based on the ‘daily heads’ that have become this ever present piece of artwork within the app, and give them out to perhaps 10,000 people who have taken that pledge. Consider what this will make possible. […] It’s the kind of idea that this technology has suddenly made possible. Everything I just said would make no sense without the #blockchain and NFTs.”

Er… what?

Your use case is: “I want to publicize that these people have signed this oath, or donated this much money — and create a cute avatar for each one of them”. You are the CA (Certificate Authority), you have a URL, and you can create and assign as many personalised images as you want.

#GivingWatWeCan is already doing that (minus the JPEGs), the Waking Up Foundation can do that, and anyone can do that with early-90’s web tech.

How are a distributed public ledger, a consensus mechanism, and a mining algorithm essential, or even useful, here?

https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/272–on-disappointing-my-audience