Eminem, Madonna going ape! What in the world?
Earlier this month, the rap impresario Eminem spent 123.45 units of Ether cryptocurrency — worth over $450,000 at the time — on an image of an ape that looks kind of like him. Earlier this week, Madonna signaled that she, too, might be interested in splurging on an ape cartoon. Sure, celebrities often crave the notoriety that comes with head-scratching spending sprees, but it’s still fair to ask: Ape caricatures? What on earth are they thinking? The likely answer might help address the widespread puzzlement about the popularity of NFTs — those emblems of digital cachet whose collectors are often likened to connoisseurs of fine art or collectibles like baseball cards. And while there are indeed similarities between the worlds of art, collectibles and NFTs, there are also important differences that are crucial to understanding both the appeal and the risks. Strange as they may seem at first glance, NFTs provide owners with psychic and practical benefits that aren’t obvious to others.
The apes are part of a 10,000-piece cartoon series called the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and the whole series is available on the internet for anyone to access. What Eminem really bought is a non-fungible token, a database entry connected to his image that’s stored on the Ethereum blockchain — effectively, a cryptographic record declaring him the owner, a kind of digital deed.
Eminem could presumably get many artists to make ape images for less money, and in a form that would give him more control over how the image is used. After all, there’s nothing to stop anybody from downloading Eminem’s Bored Ape.
So why buy one? These particular images are having a moment in the cultural zeitgeist, with writeups in The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. But there’s
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