NFT's are a complex problem at the moment. Nonfungible tokens are, in theory, a way to monetise digital art in a way that prevents artists from having their work stolen. But behind those transitions is a huge cost to the environment. Small artists aren't the ones reaping the benefits of the NFT system either, it's companies, or rich individuals that are benefiting the most in the grand scheme of things, however, for one young lady whose face has been everywhere for years, it been a way to monetise her internet fame.
21-year-old college student Zoë Roth is pretty unrecognisable now, but see her as a four-year-old and you'll instantly realise she is the little girl featured in the "Disaster Girl" meme. You know the one - the picture of the raging fire behind a kid who looks suspiciously like she's the one who started the blaze. That meme is a recognisable part of internet culture, and as the individual featured in the meme it fell on Zoë and her family to sell the NFT of the photo - for $500k.
Speaking of disasters, you might not have seen Call of Duty: Warzone's Verdansk map get nuked recently. We miss it a lot so here's a video of our favourite moments on Warzone's first battle royale map:
That's right, that meme is worth over $495,000 according to the New York Times. When sold, the Roth family received about 180 Ether as payment which translates to about $495,000. The Roth family will continue to own the copyright for the image, as Zoë's father is the one who took the photo, and when the NFT is sold in future, the Roth's will receive 10% of future sales. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
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Buzzfeed did a video on how Roth became the centre of a huge amount of internet attention, and yeah - if I saw her walking down the street today I wouldn't know she's the kid in the photo. That's probably for the best as she might be the one to take the blame for accidents around her if anyone knew of her former self's devilish smile.
So what is Zoë going to do with her new-found fortune? Well as we mentioned, she's in college so it's going to go towards paying off her student loan - a very sensible use of the money for a 21-year-old with half a million in the bank.
Topics: News