[jawns]

> Before the customer leaves the store, two tokens appear in her digital wallet. The first is an NFT version of her new sneakers, usable in any game or virtual world she chooses. The second is an authenticated NFT receipt, which admits her into your exclusive online community of verified sneaker-lovers. She’s now a customer for life.

This leads me to wonder: Why would I want an NFT of my sneakers in a game or virtual world, rather than just, say, a representation of the sneakers themselves, minus the NFT? I suspect it's because this introduces scarcity into the virtual world. There's no technical reason why every character in the game couldn't have the same pair of sneakers modeled on a real-life sneaker. But if you need an NFT tied to a physical purchase, now that virtual pair of sneakers costs you $99, and you can walk around that virtual world knowing that your fashion can't be easily (or inexpensively) replicated. This definitely has classist implications.

As for the exclusive online community of verified sneaker-lovers, note the words "exclusive" and "verified." It's a gatekeeping method so you don't have to associate with the hoi palloi who might love sneakers just as much as you, but don't have the cash to buy enough to get into the exclusive community. And who's going to build or maintain this community? Solana is enticing you with visions of an ecosystem, but it's not actually going to build that ecosystem.

[MikeDelta]

> Solana is enticing you with visions of an ecosystem, but it's not actually going to build that ecosystem.

Indeed, it will only make sure to get a cut of the profits.