[bszupnick]

> This is peak absurdism. Why not simply donate the money? How is this better than a Kickstarter?

This reminds me of the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS.

Does pouring a bucket of ice water over one's head cure ALS? Obviously not.

Did creating a trend that went viral help take strides towards curing ALS? Yeah! According to Wikipedia[1] this meme brought $220 million to ALS research.

So I'm not sure you can simply say "why not donate the money instead of buying NFTs" since NFTs are what people are interested in now!

Maybe this is an instance of meeting your customer where they're at.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge

[pavel_lishin]

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge wasn't the ALS Light A Tire On Fire challenge.

[jayd16]

I guess you could say there's value in riding any flavor of the month. However, I think there are plenty of fads that responsible organisations should shy away from. The fact that something is gaining popularity is not an excuse, imo.

[gowld]

Would that $220M have gone somewhere else equally valuable is Ice Bucket didn't become a trend?

Attention is a finite resource.

[jonathankoren]

Dumping a bucket of ice water over your head doesn’t cause severe environmental damage. This does.

Also, everyone likes weird videos of bad things happening to people. NFTs don’t have widespread public interest, nor do they have an viral sharing feature. Videos do.

[casi18]

> nor do they have an viral sharing feature.

yet here we are...

[jonathankoren]

...talking about NFTs in general rather than the nonprofit[0] or how to donate to them.

[0] I already have forgotten their name.