In what sounds like a parody, but isn't, economist, gold advocate, and crypto skeptic Peter Schiff recently put up for auction a peer-to-peer token (NFT) on the Bitcoin network.
Reaction in the crypto community has been mixed, with people generally confused, surprised, or amused — especially by casual fans — wanting to point out some outright hypocrisy.
For years, Schiff has been critical of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin (BTC), at every opportunity, and his arguments have revolved around whether BTC is a Ponzi scheme with no intrinsic value.
However, on May 27th, Schiff revealed a collection of Golden Triumph NFTs on Twitter in collaboration with one of his "favorite artists" who goes by the name "Market Value".
"This collaboration includes the first golden victory drawing, as well as a series of prints and serial numbers engraved on the Bitcoin blockchain," he wrote.
Golden Victory on canvas of a human hand holding a golden rod, 50 archival paper copies of the same image and 50 digital copies engraved in bitcoin standard NFT.
The collection will be sold in a two-part auction from June 2-9. For consecutive numbers, the highest bidder will receive #1 in the lot, and the highest 49 bidders will receive #2 through #50 in order.
However, Schiff seems to have not fully converted to BTC, but has recognized a use case for blockchain technology: verified ownership of assets such as works of art via NFTs.
Commenting on Schiff's Twitter, Twitter user LoneStartBitcoin asked, “So... your gold letters on Bitcoin have value, but Bitcoin [BTC] itself has no value?
"That's right," Schiff replied.
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In addition to liking cryptocurrencies, Schiff has criticized NFTs several times in the past .
In a March 2021 blog post, Schiff described NFTs as "pseudo-assets" that offer nothing more than ownership of a digital image that can be played "indefinitely" online.
But as the owner of the photo, you can't control access to it. The file has been copied thousands of times, so anyone with an internet connection can see it just like you can.
The dramatic shift in thinking comes in the same vein as former US President Donald Trump, who aggressively criticized cryptocurrencies several times before getting involved in NFTs.
In the year In December 2022, Trump teased a "big announcement" that his supporters thought was political, ahead of the introduction of digital trading cards.
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