Jan 6, 2022

Lady Sells Fart Jars NFT After A Health Scare, Proving Almost Anything Can Be Minted

Stephanie Matto of 90 Day Fiance fame made headlines in December last year when she claimed that she sold her “fart jars”, generating over USD200K in a week.

After a health scare, Matto mentioned that she was retiring the physical fart jars and going to start selling them as NFTs instead.

Source: Instagram, stepankamatto

NFT stands for non fungible tokens, it is unique and can’t be replaced with anything else. It is a unit of data that is stored on a blockchain and buyers will own the certificate of ownership. While the digital asset can be shared, it cannot be sold by anyone except the owner of the blockchain ledger.

In her Instagram post, she mentioned that the NFTs can be exchanged for physical fart jars. 100 jars have been exchanged since the launch of her NFT in early January.

Netizens were of two minds, leaning towards the crazy over innovative.

You cash in on fetishes, you get the weird and depraved asking for more.

Some even egged-her on, giving her ideas that she didn’t need.

Others questioned if people really bought her jars.

And there are those who called her out on cashing in on mental illness.

Matto’s lucrative business was halted when her diet proved to be detrimental to her health as all the proteins and fibre she consumed caused excess gas in her body.

While she isn’t the first one to sell fetish items on platforms like Unfiltrd, OnlyFans and eBay, Matto definitely takes the cake for being well publicized over exploiting a niche in the world of the weird and bizzare.

Many have questioned where the lines should be drawn when it comes to NFTs and the exorbitant price tags. Artists like Eminem, Logan Paul and Snoop Dogg recently bought NFTs that cost over USD400K which are basic designs to say the very least.

The term non fungible means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with anything else. While some NFT artworks are worth the money, almost everything can be minted into one and sold to the highest bidder. Some NFTs have been made from memes easily found on the internet, while others are a little more unique, like Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet on Twitter.

The Bored Ape NFT craze is one such phenomenon. The whole Bored Ape series is just pictures of apes looking bored. Eminem bought a Bored Ape NFT that bears resemblance to him for USD452K.

Jonathan Jones of The Guardian said that The Bored Ape NFT craze is all about ego and money.

“Someone was going to monetise digital culture eventually. And theoretically, from an artist’s point of view, that has to be a good thing – right? Rags to riches stories have helped to make the NFT art market the sentimental bag of air it is. Struggling unknowns find themselves selling NFTs for wildly escalating prices, outsiders who never got near success in the established art world suddenly leap to fame, and the art world,” – Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

Researchers are concerned about the NFT market, citing that the sudden boom may not be sustainable in the long run as more money changes hands.

“NFT trading volume grew 38,000% year-over-year to hit $10.7 billion during the third quarter, for example, according to an analysis by DappRadar, a company that helps people track NFTs and other decentralized assets.” – Quoted from CNBC article

However, minting a jar of fart as an NFT is where one may draw the line. NFTs are fun but it is ultimately cashing in on the hype and people’s FOMO(fear of missing out). If one is serious in investing in an NFT, do it because you want to own something that’s unique, don’t be misled by the hype and lose your money in something that has an uncertain future . Buying a jar of fart is weird enough but to spend money on the NFT is a tad insane.

Reporter’s Opinions: I understand there’s a market for the weird and the bizarre but farts in a jar? Do you really get your nuts off smelling someone’s fart?

But then again, scents are very powerful. If it can trigger the blocked memories of people, it can do much more than that.

Human beings are weird and fucked up in many ways. I guess that’s what makes us ultimately human, the interesting characters make life worth living.

I learn a lot more from observing humans and there are times I shudder. Like in this case.

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