They were ancient internet memes. Now NFTs are making them rich (Scumbag Steve, Bad Luck Brian, Overly Attached Girlfriend etc.)

[Deleted member 52442]

lol what the hell

They were ancient internet memes. Now NFTs are making them rich

Their faces were the backdrop of the 2010s. Now the likes of Scumbag Steve and Bad Luck Brian are cashing in with non-fungible tokens

www.wired.co.uk

Zoe Roth is 21 and gearing up to graduate from university. Sixteen years ago she was standing in front of a burning building in North Carolina when her dad, an amateur photographer, snapped a picture that would take on a whole life of its own.

The pre-schooler's sinister expression in the face of apparent disaster made for perfect meme material; soon it was appearing on messageboards and forums, and eventually named Disaster Girl by Know Your Meme. It took on new significance in 2020 – a year defined by its own steady surge of terrible events. "It's the perfect meme for 2020," says Roth. "Because 2020 was like a dumpster fire." But soon, Roth hopes, the meme will be paying off her student loans.

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She is one of a small number of people whose faces came to define mainstream internet culture in the early-2010s, when image macros and the Impact typeface were seemingly everywhere and there was a photo-based character for any situation.

There's the grip-fisted Success Kid, Bad Luck Brian (for whom everything will always go horribly wrong), the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy gliding his way through a 10k run, Scumbag Steve with his sideways cap and sullen expression, the crazed stare of the Overly Attached Girlfriend, or Clarinet Boy, who looks like he's seen something he'll never, ever forget. This was also a period in which early examples of viral videos were taking hold: seven-year-old David Devore Jr. tripping balls after a dentist appointment, or Chris Crocker mounting an impassioned defence of Britney Spears have become icons of the era.

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Laina Morris, the Overly Attached Girlfriend, landed 200 ether in cryptocurrency

200.00 ETH
$573,932.00

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Bad Luck Brian, whose real name is Kyle Craven, finally saw his fortunes change when he raked in nearly £35,000 worth of crypto

20.00 ETH
$57,342.40

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Chris Crocker's Britney NFT took home a similar amount; Scumbag Steve nabbed £50,000

30.2008 ETH
$86,580.56

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Sold for

3.30 ETH
$9,472.22

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Sold for

300.00 ETH
$860,049.00

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In 2016, a group of Redditors established a satirical subreddit called r/MemeEconomy where they would 'trade' and 'invest' in so-called 'rare' memes. With the addition of cryptocurrency, what started as a joke is becoming a reality. Jones is interested in new technology that will allow NFT creators and owners to fractionalise their NFTs and trade them in bit parts, in the same way that stocks and shares are traded in financial markets

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[Xterrian]

I could see this leading to some drama when multiple people are in said meme. That one party pic of everyone staring at the camera comes to mind as an example.

 

[jph139]

That's interesting - the decentralized nature of memes means they could never really hold ownership over them originally, but the decentralized nature of NFTs means that, even with no real "ownership" of the meme, they're the de facto "artist" from which you'd want the "official" version.

Kind of symbolic of the commercialization of the internet in general when you think about it.

 

[Sectorseven]

Do the photographers get a cut?

 

[Spectral Glider]

The intraweb was such a mistake.

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

So how do they get that money exactly? Did they still had the original and sold it?

 

[ExoExplorer]

I feel like an aging husk whenever I look at NFT shit

 

[Ether_Snake]

I could see this leading to some drama when multiple people are in said meme. That one party pic of everyone staring at the camera comes to mind as an example.

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Don't see how. Nothing holds anyone back from making NFTs with any photo.

 

[Stopdoor]

I feel like an aging husk whenever I look at NFT shit

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Honestly makes me more convinced rich people have too much money

 

[niaobx]

When rich people buy some pieces of art or
something to flex, I understand the appeal. Buying into this NFT shit is just the dumbest thing ever

 

[EternalDarko]

Educate me Era, how does the original asset, and hence money made from it get attributed back to the person in the meme?
Why not in some cases the photographer who took the original pic? Aren't they the owner of some of these assets?

 

[Psittacus]

Educate me Era, how does the original asset, and hence money made from it get attributed back to the person in the meme?
Why not in some cases the photographer who took the original pic? Aren't they the owner of some of these assets?

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It's first come first served in terms of who gets paid

 

[Cipherr]

Millenials and Zoomers finding ways to transfer wealth from the absurdly wealthy to themselves.

 

[Twstr709]

It feels like a scam.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Someone let Drew Scanlon know, needs to cash in now while it's still a thing.

 

[HStallion]

Educate me Era, how does the original asset, and hence money made from it get attributed back to the person in the meme?
Why not in some cases the photographer who took the original pic? Aren't they the owner of some of these assets?

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This was my question as some meme images are really disconnected from the original primary source.

 

[Nox Potens]

NFTs are a lunacy. Hand on let me pay ridiculous amounts of money and cut down a forest so I can have this code that tells everyone I own this thing, but you can only find that code if you go out of your way to dig for it!

 

[Garp TXB]

Does this highlight the absurdity of the capitalism? Or just the absurdity of humanity?

 

[jph139]

Educate me Era, how does the original asset, and hence money made from it get attributed back to the person in the meme?
Why not in some cases the photographer who took the original pic? Aren't they the owner of some of these assets?

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The NFT is not tied to the original asset at all. It's just a token - it's like a certificate of authenticity, meaningful only as far as it can be traced back to its source.

I could do the same thing and auction off an NFT of a picture of Nyan Cat and say this is the "official" Nyan Cat NFT. But who would buy that? I'm just a random dude on the internet. The photographer who snapped the picture of the girl in front of the building could do the same thing - he'd probably get a little more traction. But it's the subject of the photo that drives demand, so it's their "official" stamp that's most valuable.

 

[DECK’ARD]

Disaster Girl has made out like a bandit too, to the tune of $473,000.

Zoë Roth sells 'Disaster Girl' meme as NFT for $500,000

Zoë Roth, 21, will use the money from the sale of a 2005 image of her to pay her student loan.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[PanzerKraken]

Do the photographers get a cut?

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im sure they don't. So I expect the lawsuits to start rolling in too. Theres gonna be so much drama around NFTs

 

[Brinbe]

I'm convinced this is all just massive money laundering

 

[Deleted member 1570]

Maybe memes are bad after all.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

Someone let Drew Scanlon know, needs to cash in now while it's still a thing.

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Yeah I was thinking that too. First class cloth map plane tickets going forward.

 

[Jebusman]

So how do they get that money exactly? Did they still had the original and sold it?

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They need to turn that ETH into something tangible.

These also aren't the original pictures, nor would it matter. By the very nature of NFTs, none of these are "original" pictures. They are all copies being stored on a server somewhere, and you are essentially buying a link that points to a specific copy. There is no copyright transfership, there is no license entitling you to use the image elsewhere (or allowing you to restrict others from using it), and by the very nature of how these are stored you can't move them somewhere else. You are paying for a hyperlink. You are paying for a specific URL to an image on a server somewhere. If the server hosting that image goes down, your NFT actually becomes worthless.

The symbolism that you're "buying" a copy of the meme from the person in the meme is the reason why these are going for so much (plus the hyper-inflated price of crypto and lack of outlets to use it on)

Also, the place these are being sold at (Foundation), takes a 15% cut of the final selling price. On top of this, there's what is known as the "gas" fee to process any of these transaction. Essentially the cost of actually making a transaction on the Ethereum network, which can get rocket high depending on how many transactions are ongoing.

The people making "bank" on this are the sites advertising this stuff, and the few individuals who were already notable enough to take advantage of it. Everyone else trying to join in after the fact is just getting taken for a ride.

Yeah I was thinking that too. First class cloth map plane tickets going forward.

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I think someone (maybe Drew?) mentioned before that technically CBSi owned that image, because it was from footage shot on company time with company equipment.

Not like that actually matters for NFTs, but it might be something they want to avoid until the legal ramifications of all this is sorted out.

 

[Garp TXB]

I'm convinced this is all just massive money laundering

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Wow, I didn't even consider that. Makes perfect sense

 

[Volimar]

Good for Laina, tbh. She had a rough time with her fame.

 

[timshundo]

Me rummaging through my old deviantart profile to see if there's anything I can pawn off before this craze crashes and burns

 

[DavidDesu]

Who even owned the original content? What stops me from grabbing a random ancient meme or picture and trying to sell it. Is it illegal to do so? I don't get any of this. Chocolate Rain dude should sell the song as an NFT and make millions. Salad Fingers too. I don't get it. I just don't get this. These things are worth nothing.

 

[Merv]

I'm convinced this is all just massive money laundering

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God I hate NFTs and Crypto.

 

[Jebusman]

Who even owned the original content? What stops me from grabbing a random ancient meme or picture and trying to sell it. Is it illegal to do so? I don't get any of this. Chocolate Rain dude should sell the song as an NFT and make millions. Salad Fingers too. I don't get it. I just don't get this. These things are worth nothing.

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Is it illegal? Who knows. You're not claiming to actually "sell" the image, just a link that points to the image. But since you had to make a copy of the image in the first place to sell the link to it, you may have violated someone's copyright in doing so, if you didn't have the permission to create that copy.

It's why with meme images (that were so widely spread already), people will probably get away with it. But with music or video, that might be a bit of a trickier situation.

 

[jph139]

Who even owned the original content? What stops me from grabbing a random ancient meme or picture and trying to sell it. Is it illegal to do so? I don't get any of this. Chocolate Rain dude should sell the song as an NFT and make millions. Salad Fingers too. I don't get it. I just don't get this. These things are worth nothing.

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It's not about ownership, not really. Think of it more like... a signature, or something. If your favorite writer signs a copy of their book, that's valuable, because it makes that copy of the book more unique. Of course it doesn't mean anything, it's just a scribble of marker. Anyone can do it. It's not about the objective value, it's about the value created by that scarcity.

NFTs are that to the nth degree - there's only ONE "signed" copy in the world from the original author. Or the subject, in this case.

 

[MisterSnrub]

I'm happy if the real original folks got some real money from their face being plastered around the internet for many years

 

[stumblebee]

Good for them. A lot of them were thrust into an awkward spotlight when they never asked for that kind of attention. Get your money meme people

 

[MadLaughter]

Someone let Drew Scanlon know, needs to cash in now while it's still a thing.

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That blink is now the property of the Red Ventures Media Company.

 

[julia crawford]

Disaster Girl has made out like a bandit too, to the tune of $473,000.

Zoë Roth sells 'Disaster Girl' meme as NFT for $500,000

Zoë Roth, 21, will use the money from the sale of a 2005 image of her to pay her student loan.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Honestly this picture is worth the nearly five hundred thousands dollars

 

[Dyle]

I hope dat boi gets some money

 

[JaseC64]

As far as I know Cartels and shady group could be investing into crypto to launder their money.

 

[BLEEN]

That blink is now the property of the Red Ventures Media Company.

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It matters naught.

 

[Deleted member 2533]

Who even owned the original content? What stops me from grabbing a random ancient meme or picture and trying to sell it. Is it illegal to do so? I don't get any of this. Chocolate Rain dude should sell the song as an NFT and make millions. Salad Fingers too. I don't get it. I just don't get this. These things are worth nothing.

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It's not about ownership, not really. Think of it more like... a signature, or something. If your favorite writer signs a copy of their book, that's valuable, because it makes that copy of the book more unique. Of course it doesn't mean anything, it's just a scribble of marker. Anyone can do it. It's not about the objective value, it's about the value created by that scarcity.

NFTs are that to the nth degree - there's only ONE "signed" copy in the world from the original author. Or the subject, in this case.

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To add to the analogy, while anyone can sign any book, only the author can produce their own signature. So if you're the creator and subject of a meme photo, and someone else tries to turn it into an NFT it will be signed by that other person. It will be uniquely identified by block chain.

If you take a copy of that same image, your block chain will be different. The market will determine that you, as the verified creator/subject, is offering the more valuable NFT.

You can verify yourself via a vid on social media, or a trusted marketplace that verifies identities, etc. just like how an auction house would verify authenticity.

 

[mreddie]

 

[sphagnum]

I hate capitalism.

 

[big_z]

This is just a way to launder money isn't it?

 

[Raysoul]

What's next, someone gonna sell this specific forum post for $500k USD Dollars???

 

[The Real Abed]

Hey. If there are idiots willing to pay that kind of money for a meme so the unexacting meme stars can make a bit of cash, let them do it.

Take the money and run indeed. You just made a nice lump of cash and some idiot owns a stupid image whose only worth is manufactured by the idiots willing to pay that worth. It wont affect anyone else since anyone who is gonna post the meme is gonna post the meme regardless. lol

 

[TheOMan]

I'm convinced this is all just massive money laundering

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But why buy an NFT to do it? Why not just buy ETH directly?

 

[Midramble]

Yeah, there is a lot of pumping.

That said, artists, get your paper while you can.

 

[grand]

But why buy an NFT to do it? Why not just buy ETH directly?

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For the same reason people use art to launder money. It helps avoid taxes and hides the transaction trail of ill gotten money.

 

[Lulu]

200 ether in crypto? The fuck kinda Star Ocean currency is this?

 

[EternalDarko]

The NFT is not tied to the original asset at all. It's just a token - it's like a certificate of authenticity, meaningful only as far as it can be traced back to its source.

I could do the same thing and auction off an NFT of a picture of Nyan Cat and say this is the "official" Nyan Cat NFT. But who would buy that? I'm just a random dude on the internet. The photographer who snapped the picture of the girl in front of the building could do the same thing - he'd probably get a little more traction. But it's the subject of the photo that drives demand, so it's their "official" stamp that's most valuable.

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Thanks, this definitely helps clarify things.

But there's really absolutely no point to this - why would I pay a single penny for something just because the person in the image is essentially selling it, when I could get the same exact image for absolutely free (and not illegally either).