Removal of Crypto / NFTs from Tatsumeeko plans

[bounce.house.chaos#1392]

Hi there. First of all, I'm not going after anyone in particular. This is something too many platforms are trending towards, and it saddens me to see that Tatsu is supporting Blockchain technology. Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other Blockchain based things are commonly exploitative, used for money laundering, and extremely harmful to the environment. There is still time to recant on the promise of crypto in the forthcoming Tatsumeeko. Rather than use crypto to bolster a virtual environment with virtual people, Tatsu should consider the actual environment and actual people first. 

[IllestGekko#2082]

Interesting....I would like to understand why you feel cryptocurrency is exploitative, harmful to the environment and used for money laundering.  I have heard things like this, but I am not sure how to define validity of it.

[Dabido#0001]

We understand your concerns regarding the environment and agree that many blockchains burn the rainforest! However there are others like Solana which do not impact the environment any more than a web server. As with all new technologies, the pioneers will naturally not be perfect but the technology will always keep improving. 

Solana uses up less power than an American household in a year, globally.

Regarding blockchain being exploitative, bad actors are common where regulation is lacking. This however should not stop us from embracing new game changing technologies (no pun intended). With current technology, digital ownership of virtual items has always been somewhat of a shaky concept  especially when these were just things stored on a database prone to manipulation or server faults. However, with blockchain issues like these become a thing of the past, providing security, transparency and fault tolerance. There are many bad faith projects out there, but there are also as many equally good ones.

We do not intend to scam and exploit our loyal users and if we wanted to do so we would have done it many years ago, not wait until 6 years later. The blockchain ecosystem may not be mainstream now, but it definitely is on the path to being a key technology that will change the internet. Hit me up if you'd like to learn more about blockchain, we'd be glad to answer.

[It was me, Dio#4217]

agree with op, crypto is a pyramid scheme, even the creators of nfts themselves said that it's a scam

nfts went in the trash for me even before i knew what they were ever since crapto nerds stole a deceased artist's portfolio and profited off it (qinni). preach that it's got good motives all you want, but i've seen nothing short of scummy come from this entire thing. especially a shitload of art and IP theft, money laundering, scams [see: ransomware], broken priorities [see: people blowing their savings on it and ending up broke] and going round telling random people how amazing it is like some jehovah's witnesses 2.0.

 

it's basically a circlejerk of generating artificial value that creates the illusion of art ownership. if you really want to support creators, commission them, engage with their content, promote their work. don't use them as middle men to fill your own pockets.

 

i'm also concerned about the ethics of this whole thing because i'm guessing a decent amount of tatsu's userbase is underage. don't think it's a good look to expose kids to ponzi schemes and lure them into gambling with their parents' money using sparkly graphics

as with all pyramid schemes, the only winner is the one who started it up and their circle; all profit balances on uncertainty and a loop of artificial scarcity

 

if you're a crypto evangelist who just wants to end up telling me "we're not like the other blockchains, we're environmentally friendly UwU" then don't bother replying to me and just block me

i made up my mind about this all the way back in '09. i've seen enough of this discourse on other platforms too to know that this is the turning point where everything starts going down the shitter and the community gets divided because financial incentives end up taking precedence over ethics

 

it was never about supporting creators to begin with, but about justifying theft under the guise of economic freedom. a extremely dangerous premise for IP laws, because it legitimises theft and makes it easy to literally steal someone's work and claim it as your own "because well see i paid for this hyperlink so i own it even if it's yours and you never put it up for sale". how does this "reinforce ownership" in your opinion? it lets money decide ownership and not actual IP rights, which has nothing in common with creative spirit.

 

once you get a drop of the kool-aid, there's no turning back from being en route to terminal capitalism

Edited November 14, 2021 by It was me, Dio#4217

[Dabido#0001]

I appreciate you clicking 2 buttons to create a forum account and another 10 minutes typing out your strawman blockchain ponzi and NFT scam argument thats been heard repeatedly over the past 10 years.

Users can continue to use Tatsu for free even after our switch to a decentralized backend architecture! I'm not sure what you know about blockchain but not everything is an art NFT scam. This has nothing to do with financial incentives more than it has to do with our shift to a new technology.

Also - we are not middlemen filling our own pockets with the hard earned sweat and blood of creators - WE ARE THE CREATORS. Almost all the art for Tatsu was created by us from scratch instead of being STOLEN PROPERTY like all the other top bots you see out there. If you have so much time complaining about our backend technology switch why don't you go complain about every other top bot that uses truckloads of stolen content and generates 100x more revenue than us?

And don't even get me started on supporting creators - how many hungry artists and game developers have you seen by now, huh? Get off your high horse and stop pretending to know what supporting creators mean. If even 5% of our users paid us 5 bucks a month we'd be getting enough money to pay everyone a decent salary but nope!

We're grateful for all the people who help out with our community and also those who have funded us. We're running on a shoestring budget paid for by a tiny subset of people and subscribers who appreciate what we're doing and want to see us take Tatsu to the next level. If you consider losing money and being cashflow negative every month since 2015 some kind of capitalist strategy I gotta applaud you, we're doing it right. We feel a strong sense of responsibility to our community and the people who have been with us all this way that's why we're sticking it out.

It's easy to type from behind a computer screen - It's a different story when you're actually a part of it.

 

Now on to the technical aspect:

Tatsumeeko literally works the same way as it currently does now, just that the underlying technology is swapping to the Solana blockchain to facilitate a decentralized architecture.

Here is how we're using blockchain:
- Instead of data being stored in a centralized database like we currently do, it utilizes blockchain to keep a ledger of all transactions and allow users to do what they want with their items

- Users can transfer their items to each other and do what they want with it - completely independent of our oversight

- The current player trading economy becomes owned by the community instead of by us

- No, we are not using blockchain to sell overpriced 10000USD pieces of art to kids in a gigantic ponzi scheme like you like to think

- NFTs literally just mean VIRTUAL ITEMS ON THE BLOCKCHAIN not PONZI SCHEME ART PIECES

- Decisions will be made by our community through a consensus voting mechanism completely TRANSPARENT because of the blockchain so people can influence our development decisions

 

Also, like it or not, people are already trading items for real money in Tatsu against our terms of service. When theres a demand there will always be a supply. If you had to deal with the number of scam reports we couldn't do anything about you would be in a more understanding position. We're making it safer for users to conduct these transactions by legitimizing it through the use of blockchain.

Just like outlawing prostitutes and sentencing people to jail for possessing drugs won't stop people from doing those things, neither will banning people from trading virtual items for real money. People will do it anyway, so its better to provide a safe environment where they can do so.

 

As the leader I recognize the shift to decentralized technologies from a centralized architectures. Not everything using a new technology has to be some kind of scam or capitalist invention. If i wanted to I could just ban you, delete this thread, let you quit and nobody would be none the wiser (literally how many people do you see being angry about this? Almost nobody!) but I am doing my best to explain these technologies because you are a user too.

Blockchain and crypto is simply a technology, and just like any other technology, they can be abused by bad faith actors. I hope that answers your concerns.

Sincerely, David

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Dabido#0001