NFT’s are just getting started
Digital, programable, and verifiable asset on the blockchain. Welcome to the Metaverse beginnings.
NFT’s are taking over the digital world. We have all heard of them by now, but let’s breakdown what they are and why they are here to stay. An NFT is a non-fungible token or digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, videos, etc.. because they are programable the possibilities are endless. They work by creating unique, on-chain tokens representing ownership of an off-chain asset. By assigning a unique token to a thing, its ownership (not the thing itself) becomes programmable, verifiable, divisible, durable, universally addressable, composable, digitally secured, and easy to transfer. Thanks to blockchain protocols and networks. These assets are bought and sold using crytocurrencies. Enforced by code and distributed consensus. Because they are decentralized, the community helps by participating in a creative collective and in so doing, allows anyone participating to help shape and influence that community. The first NFT was minted on the Ethereum network 2017, since then others have followed suite, such as Solana Network. Both are decentralized blockchain networks/ecosystems built to enable the development of scalable, user-friendly apps for the world (Defi, NFTs, Web3).
So why do NFTs have any value? In simple answer; human nature. Humans are memetic creatures, it’s how we learn, evolve, and survive. A meme is a mental belief or behavior learned or copied from others. Another definition is a “unit of cultural information.” As a baby we learn to walk and talk simply by copying the actions of our parents. We see others doing things, buying things and in return desire to do the same or better. Think of the saying “keeping up with the Jones”. It’s how we are programed to work and evolve. When someone buys a fancy watch, they don’t spend six figures because of the watch’s utility value. A simple $15 watch could perform the same utility. It is a statues flex. A visual que. Remember perception often times dictates the culture and in return outcome. Where there’s limited supply and global access, when popularity arrises and only X amount can participate, things can happen really fast. This is just the exterior shell of why someone might think an NFT has value. Hidden beneath lies programability layer, allowing for NFTs to create their own token, gameplay, staking yield rates, and so much more.
Myths rule the world. Myths are the keys to understanding and explaining the whole of human experience. Myths are the ongoing search for the experience of life. They are Intersubjective/mutual/invisible or “Imaginary” things, that groups of people mutually believe in. Gods of Mt Olypus, Religions, democracy, values, wealth. Myths help breed culture. Playing an important factor in human development, because they allow large numbers of people to cooperate. Its how humans were first able to break out of small tribes to come to rule the world. Used through out the ages to control, lead, and gather people through like-mindedness and shared beliefs. “Myths” Abstract stories, that progressively larger groups of people can believe in. Think of myths as scaling technology for the human brain. Thanks to the internet myths can now be transferred globally and live. Which leads us back to the new tech advancement of NFTs. Which are the fastest, most scalable, and most potent layer ever built, to finance and transport “art” and “memes”. Which art and memes are respectively fancy and fun ways to say myths. Our NFT myths are currently under, broadly, decentralized control. There is an opportunity to take them, shape them, refine them and use them to change the world. We have gotten lucky. This is a tool that can go global, go retail, all at viral speeds. Don’t underestimate the power of culture.
The migration to digital world is happening. More and more value is being transferred to digital holdings. Think of the paradigm shift Bitcoin caused. Concepts of provable scarcity, tokenized communities, monetized memes, fractionalized ownership are all becoming things of reality. Goods can now be “digitalized” and ownership/authenticity can be quickly verified, online without a central authority. Twitter just recently announced: NFTs used as profile pictures, will soon be verified and authenticated. Only users who own NFT can use it(mDAU for Twitter is 206 million). All those people saying, “i’ll just copy and paste your JPEG” are going to be left behind and missing the bigger picture here. NFT tokens are programable, so the possibilities are endless and we are just scratching the surface of what can do done. It’s not simply just a .jpeg. Community, networking, exclusive access, passive income producing defi asset, gaming, Metaverse, philanthropy, AR, and VR are being intertwined within.
Because everything is opensourced and viewable on public ledger, data on all transactions are easy to view and work with. Secondary marketplaces allow for sales and transfers. Price, daily volume, ownership, history, distribution, supply, etc.. People from around the world can now all view the same scarce asset with the ability to buy, sell, or transfer within seconds. FTX a large cryptocurrency exchange and owner of Miami Heat arena. Whose users went from 74,000 in June of 2020 to 1.2 million a year later (That’s a 1521% increase). Just recently announced a new NFT trading platform coming to their exchange.
NFTs gain value when displayed, used, and promoted within vibrant and growing communities. Some of the smartest minds are currently working on projects to further develop infrastructure, building and expanding non-stop to better networks and use cases. To over simplify the process; Essentially a group of developers and artists collaborate to create a website and product; where anyone can then “mint” (purchase from their website on blockchain network like Solana) their NFT which has a fixed supply. Once minted you own it, buying/selling then becomes available through verified secondary markets. Perk of ownership, royalties, community, statues, airdrops, games, breading, mixing, or whatever the NFT is programed to do. Growing and morphing by the community (with the help of actual developers, often paid and focusing on project full time). Creating different communities and cultures. As hype/use becomes more and more visible and social statues and speculation climbs, demand and price action follows through open market. Think Pokemon or other collectables, but with 10X capabilities and uses because now we can program on top of these assets digitally. Cream of the crop projects rise to the top. Some projects distribute fees and earnings back to holders, some give perks, some airdrop new NFTs, collaborations, charity donations, games built on top are all different things being incorporated into new projects. Trading similar to stocks in some aspects. Soon major corporations and companies will begin to enter the space.
Utility NFTs, draw upon code based smart contracts — a song token can provide a royalty stream, a ticket token can provide access to concert, a metaverse token can grant land titles, an item token can have in-game powers, staking for yield tokens, real estate ownership fractionalized. NFT’s help capture the imagination, ideas and creativity that shape a digital collective that is born through human achievement. New features like wormhorm will allow for cross chain compatibility. Allowing for Solana and Ethereum NFTs to be interchangeable. NFT’s are coming to eat the worlds different physical markets: $50B art, $74B music, $167B gaming, $373B collectibles, $6,682B intellectual property, $10,539B real estate. Remember the first NFT was only in 2017 and the first NFT on Solana was 2021. There is already hundreds of millions in daily trading volume and single NFT’s being sold for USD value of $69 million. Christies/Southebys art auction houses, celebrities and atheletes like Jimmy Fallen, Seth Curry, Post Malone and many others major players are starting to embrace the movement. Still very early technology, the end product may look a lot different than the simple NFT’s we see today. Companies are now starting to embrace the Metaverse and see the marketing/branding potential. Like Facebook and Square changing their names. Or Adidas buying and using BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) NFT as their profile picture.
How to get started in NFTs?
Solana:
Download Phantom wallet https://phantom.app/ (desktop only not mobile app yet)
Send Sol cryptocurrency to Phantom wallet from onramp purchase wallet like Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/
Shop secondary market: https://magiceden.io/
Or find new upcoming projects to mint through Twitter or Discord apps. https://twitter.com/Decentraleyezd
Ethereum:
Download Metamask wallet https://metamask.io/
Send Eth cryptocurrency to Phantom wallet from onramp purchase wallet like Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/
Shop secondary markets https://opensea.io/ / https://rarible.com/
Or find new upcoming projects to mint through Twitter or Discord apps. https://twitter.com/Decentraleyezd
As of writting this here’s some further NFT stats.
Top projects (10/02/21) across Ethereum (black), Solana (blue), Cardano (yellow):
Solana
Ethereum
