Featured Image Credit: the internet
Topics: Cryptocurrency
If you are ever having a bad day, just let your mind wander back to the guy who was trying to sell a picture of a rock for over $1million and ended up with nothing.
Those who don't understand the concept of NFTs are not alone in their plight. The idea is you take something, usually an image but can also be a sound or in an item in a video game, and it is tied to a blockchain. The blockchain acts like a list which keeps track of who owns what things.
If you want to see just how disastrous the whole thing is take a look at the video below.
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The reason cryptocurrency and NFTs are so controversial is because of mining. Mining is required to keep the cryptocurrency ecosystem alive but requires huge amounts of electricity and components such as graphics cards to work. In short, the whole endeavor is killing the planet, and worst of all it's the reason you can't get your hands on the fabled PS5.
This being the case, it's hard then to not feel a bit of Schadenfreude when a cryptobro loses out on the big bucks. Started four years ago, EtherRock is a series of clipart rocks which have been painted different colours and minted onto a blockchain. The series of images saw a surge in price of late and are now selling for an average of $600,000.
According to a report by Vice, one owner wanted to sell his rock on the marketplace for 444 ether but accidently put it on the market for 444 wei. Ether and wei are related like pounds and pence, except they are much smaller. It takes a quintillion wei to make one ether, meaning that while 444 ether are worth around $1.2million, 444 wei is worth less than a single cent.
Commonly in the crypto world when a hot new product drops, or sells for a good price, the huge wave of bots circling overhead swarm down to purchase. Even noticing his mistake the owner had no chance to change it. In under a second a bot had purchased it and was now selling it itself for a much inflated price. In a tweet, the alleged owner told his story asking "Am I GMI?" a crypto acronym for "going to make it" in hopes that the electronic currency would one day make him rich.
So far it appears his rock is forfeit as he has had no message back from support. On the bright side, at least now all of his personal wealth isn't tied to an image of a rock a child could have drawn in MS Paint.