Admittedly, one can sound like a cranky old man when failing to understand the hot new trend.

Not this time.

NBA Top Shot is the dumbest thing ever.

But what is it?

As a simple explanation, you pay real money to acquire digital-only NBA highlights, like an online trading card system. You purchase what’s called a “non-fungible token” (NFT), which is a unique digital asset, and each of these crypto-collectibles is connected to a “blockchain,” which ensures the authenticity of the item and prevents hacking and faking.


With Top Shot, you might pay $10 for a clip of Ben Simmons driving, kicking, and passing to a wide-open Seth Curry. Or, you might spend 15 bucks for Kyle Lowry drawing a charge (i.e. flopping). It sounds dumb on the surface and it’s even dumber when you dive deeper, because you discover that people are paying tens of thousands of dollars for digital shit that doesn’t even exist in the material world.

More from CNBC:

The NBA licenses the reels to Dapper Laps, which digitizes the footage, making a limited amount to create scarcity. Some NFTs feature highlights in different angles and digital artwork. One is currently listed for over $240,000.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has compared Top Shot to the old-school model of trading cards, where consumers can have fun trading and collecting scarce items – only with no risk of damage or theft. “And the value is still set by the same laws of supply and demand,” he wrote in January.

“Leave it to Mark Cuban to frame it in a good, sensible, easy-to-understand way,” said (Tom) Richardson, also SVP of strategy at Mercury Intermedia. “So if enough people wanted that same Zion Williamson highlight, that NFT, and bidding on it they got up to $100,000, that’s supply and demand. Someone thought it was worth $100,000.”

Well that someone is an idiot. $100,000 for a digital highlight of Zion Williamson? You’ve got to be kidding me.

But this is where the online marketplace is currently centered, and you see it in video games, too. For instance, you’ll go out and buy Overwatch for $39.99, or something like that. Then, within the game, pay more real money for in-game currency that gets you “loot chests” or similar items that provide NFTs in the form of character emotes, or color shaders, or other stuff that’s purely cosmetic and otherwise useless. You might end up with something that turns your armor from blue to yellow, and people pay real money for these things, for some reason.

The thing about trading cards is this – at least they exist. That Clyde Drexler rookie card can go on your mantle, or in a display case. You can  go to a convention or to some kiosk in the mall and look through binders full of women cards and see the items and enjoy a tangible experience. There’s even real, human interaction involved!

In the case of Top Shot, you’re paying real money for highlights that can be fucking watched on Youtube at no cost. Some guy will go out and pay $200,000 for a highlight of LeBron dunking the ball, when he can simply pull up the video clip anytime, anywhere, and watch it that way. For free. In perpetuity. With Top Shot, he gets to be part of some dorky exclusive online club, I guess.

At the risk of burying the lede, we should point out that this is just another platform for tech oddballs to explore, because they want to make money. It’s the same as people getting in on bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, because it’s about diving into a burgeoning marketplace with intriguing profitability. Maybe that Kyle Lowry flopping highlight is only worth 15 bucks now, but if Top Shot continues to be popular, you sell that NFT for 45 bucks next month, because some other dipshit thinks he can turn a bigger future profit.

Nobody necessarily cares about being the sole owner of a digital-only NBA highlight, we hope; they’re just in it for the cash. It’s all part of the grift.

 

Kyle:

 

Maestro.