Those who have never heard of NFT raise your arms! In any case, statistics estimate that non-fungible tokens have been on the lip for at least a year. Big fashion houses like Gucci and Givenchy or sports players like the NBA have already decided to take the plunge. And to top it all off, the Collins Dictionary has elevated the term to “Word of the Year 2021”.
The court of the “big” NFT
Certainly, the term NFT was able to go around the world last year, but that does not prevent the existence of unbelievers. Because for a generalized conversion, it is necessary to approach the successes encountered by projects like Cryptopunk or Bored Apes.
And regarding these two kings of NFTs, it should be noted that 90% of the first sales of the last 30 days were either CryptoPunk or BAYC. Already, from this observation, we can deduce that the large NFT market has enough to capture the attention of the public.
Want more proof? Well, know that most of the press articles dealing with NFTs have been illustrated by the two collections mentioned above.
It should be noted that in 2021, money flowed freely among the promoters of these two collections. At Bored Ape Yacht Club, a batch of 101 NFTs sold for $24 million. For its part, CryptoPunk saw a unit of the digital certificate of authenticity granted to 12 million dollars at Sotheby’s.
The media blunder around NFTs
The press has largely contributed to the popularity of NFT, but at the same time to the degradation of its image. Indeed, some media have treated them as speculative assets reserved for the rich and for icons of digital trends such as Post Malone, Jimmy Fallon or Eminem. This only worsened the situation undermined by a public opinion giving less interest to this kind of token.
Do you think many people can explain the term “non-fungible”? The non-cryptography press may struggle to unravel this mystery. However, behind this term hides an innovative technology that allows in particular:
– for players, to acquire goods in the games they play and resell them afterwards;
– for collectors, to prove the (co)ownership of physical assets such as houses;
– for musical actors, to contribute to a fairer sharing of musical royalties ;
– etc.
Additionally, you are required to know the existence of code capable of proving the uniqueness of an NFT. This device will also make it possible to demonstrate the authenticity and origin of a house, for example, of a character’s skin, of a song… And this will be done according to principles linked to decentralization, openness and property security.
But you might come across companies wanting to associate tokens with real, tradable benefits. At that time, tokens will enjoy other statuses apart from being a digital asset.
The issue of NFT efficiency
In this brand new sector, there is no need to rely on an application boosted by high technology for the contribution in value. The case of ThetaDrop can illustrate this. Indeed, the company has developed partnerships with several global companies and celebrities (Katy Perry, The Price Is Right, Samsung, Dionne Warwick…) based on real-world rewards or token utility.
Far from Mitch Liu, CEO of Theta Labs, the idea of minimizing these tokens. For him, one should not underestimate the value of art for art’s sake, let alone have a bad impression on the community formed around this digital asset.
Diminishing the value of NFTs, as PFP projects, would also be pointless.
Non-fungible tokens are comparable to fiat currencies, especially when they gain in value based on their rarity. However, it could be that a community of collectors supports any project to achieve shared values or bet on the aesthetics of the tokens themselves. Thus propelled, the project becomes interesting.
However, other factors hinder the progress of NFTs, to name only climate change. Several companies are currently interested in this component, among others Theta, in order to achieve a level close to carbon neutrality. The company in question is proud to show a result approaching the consumption of 1% of the energy necessary for transactions on Proof-of-Work protocols since it has already switched to Proof-of-Stake.
To conclude, we will say that in the future, the word NFT will become so common as to be thrown into oblivion. It could be that at this time, the world is simply putting forward the notion of property or technology boosting this concept.
