TL,DR: a blogpost about my thoughts and opinions about why NFTs are viewed incorrectly by some people, and about the NFT news cycle, both ups and down. A 'rah-rah' rallycry for NFTs in general, positive vibes for the technology and theory-crafying its future. These are just my opinions and views about a topic I'm excited about.
NFT's were all over the headlines... for like a month.
So what's the dang deal with this news retraction over NFTs? Crypto newsites, even mainstream conventional sites wouldn't shut up about NFTs a month ago, and now? What killed the walloping massive attention stealing headlines that we were seeing daily when NFTs were mentioned in the news? And a fun question, what does the average person think an NFT really is? Do they understand what fungibility even is? Or that the T in NFT stands for token? What percentage of people are highly interested in the concept and technology of NFTs vs those big shiny wealth/dollar bills numbers?
Maybe it was the bullrun of $ETH, or perhaps it was $DOGE capturing the attention of investors, and in turn, changing the course of the news sites to fit their readers. Crypto-traders are a quick eclectic and diverse bunch of people with numerous interests, after all, the conventional legacy mainstream news sources have to play catch up to them most of the time. Maybe it was Elon Musk doing what Elon Musk does, drawing everyone's attention away, and of course the market correction in May took the wind out of many sails. But this left a problem I think, and that is the normal person was shown what an NFT can earn you but they still have zero clue what they are and what they hold for the future.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that most people in normieland view NFTs as "computer pictures" which...isn't what they are at all. Even on a fundamental level, the NFT artwork we've all been loving and collecting isn't a collection of the art, its the tokenized representation of the non-fungibility of it, and whom the art was created by. It's not surprising that people can't really understand it that well.
Oooh! Shiny!
We humans are a fun bunch. We have some very odd quirks that seem to affect us, such as shiny sparkling things grabbing our attention. The artists, creatives, musicians tap into these things all the time (it is one of our secrets) which is why I made a few of my NFT pieces shiny, techno-colored and rainbow. It is why many recommend to have catchy, snazzy graphics for your blog posts, to grab attention. So what else shines? Money. Oh yeah.
For about a month, financial market news sites were filled with headlines about NFTs and their insane pricing. My personal conversations between musician friends were alight with stories about watching the live auction stream of 3LAU's last album or everyone talking about Kings of Leon's NFT album. Oh, and who can forget Beeple selling an NFT for $69m USD worth of $ETH. Within that time frame of telling people about this new space, I was promptly ignored by many, fervently contacted by a few who wanted to know more, and called a clout chaser by one in a rather humorous exchange.
But now? Dreary news about NFT bust cycles. Some of the news stories lately about NFTs aren't that great with the latest downtrend in the overall crypto markets. With $ETH plunging down a bit, we notice the same downtrends with NFTs. Something I've noticed is these stories seem to focus solely or heavily on digital artistic creations as NFTs. I believe is still tied to the wrong idea some people have that NFTs are just 'digital pictures'. The idea its self exudes an aura, as if NFTs were bound to the creative niche cultures of society, only relevant for the musicians and painters and graphics design artists. Which misses the point entirely.
Why is this? My guess is specifically the headlines about artists making millions of dollars are sticking out the most in these people's minds. Those shiny shiny dollar bills floating through their brains like hypnotic specters of desire. The impulse from normieville to actually strap in and DYOR on wtf NFTs really are just isn't there. The impulse of "being lazy" and "drawing pictures" to sell for "millions of dollars" appeals to a vast majority of them. In a funny way, NFT news about people getting shiny crypto coins for their shiny NFT pictures is shiny to the people reading the articles themselves. Somewhat meta in a way.
That's my take on why some people have an off kilter view on Non-Fungible Tokens. A combination of a lack of ability of or effort into understanding what they actually are, combined with a deluge of articles about NFTs being sold for ridiculous prices. The shiny car gets the most looks, and the wowie articles about crazy dollar numbers is like reading lucky lotto numbers for some people. And to clarify, when I say insane prices for NFTs, I'm not talking about a set of Splinterlands or RisingStarGame cards costing a couple bucks, or buying a really cool NFT painting from @NFTShowroom for the same. I'm speaking about the ludicrous idea of spending $2.9m USD worth of $ETH on an NFT of Jack Dorsey's first tweet.
The impact of NFTs on other markets is only just beginning.
I'm not the first person to think these thoughts and certainly not the last. But I really do believe that NFTs are going to really disrupt a lot of industries. Fungible/Non-Fungible is a fun word and a wild topic to conceptually discuss, especially when you toss encryption into the mix. Digital artwork is merely the bare beginnings of an entirely new constructed systematic approach to intrinsic digital wealth transference. There are many, many things with which non-fungibility can be applied to outside of digital art, which is basically why I'm writing this blog post in the first place. For example:
Education System Overhaul, an NFT Primer
A huge market that I think will be forever affected by NFT mainstreaming will be education. I have written about it before while pondering ways to bring new users into Hacker/Hammerspace like communities. I absolutely believe this is a giant market that will be tapped soon, if it isn't already being actively developed.
The general principle in my mind is simple in a nutshell: record all audio/video/notes/q&a data from every educational lab/class/lecture, package the data into an NFT, and give a copy to anyone attending the class as "proof-of-acquired-knowledge". Now the student, armed with a list of NFT keys, can cryptographically prove to employers they not only attended specific classes but were active in the Q&A because look, there they are right there in the class.
The organizational structure can mint a set number of additional Educational NFTs to additionally sell on market to fund its self. An external student can still acquire the knowledge without attending the physical class on the market, with the class data intact. Professors can teach to a decentralized wider audience, and this could be a form of censor resistant education.
Imagine a scenario where someone is looking for a Java developer. They have two CVs in front of them, one from a traditional education University system with ok grades and marks, with some professor who might have a clue about Java, hopefully. The other CV has a list of NFT keys cryptographically proving the owner of said keys acquired the knowledge the employer seeks through audio/video information accessible to anyone.
Which does the employer pick? Which would you pick? For me the correct answer isn't actually above, the answer is in the details. The Uni student could be a whiz. However the NFT CV prospect can prove his educational experience, allowing the removal a lot of guesswork. Understandably acquiring knowledge is one thing, and retention is a different story. (which is why I dubbed it 'Proof of Acquired Knowledge' and not 'Proof of Learned Knowledge')
Educational experience is non-fungible, transferrable wealth between two or more parties.
Market Size of the US Educational system in 2021: $1.6T USD
Education is just one example of an entire industry and cultural part of life that could be fundamentally reshaped by NFTs. I really do believe that. I like to entertain other ideas of how this tech could affect our lives in different ways. I'd love to hear any that any readers of this post might have.
I'm a fan of NFT Art
This is one of those tags I'm putting at the end to let people know to not be offended. I'm a fan of NFT artwork, both creating it as well as owning it. Along with digitized ownership of digital art, I'm a fan of NFTs representing other creative and/or fun endeavors. That being said, the point of this post is to talk about how I see others/the majority currently viewing NFT, and my utilization ideas outside of a creative domain. I still fully believe in NFTs helping creatives tokenize their creations fairly. I take part in purchasing NFT artwork as well as staking for NFT music on different HIVE platforms. Much love yall!
| # | Track | Length | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cryptonomeconomics | 3:11 | Crypto-Groove |
| 2 | Flyover Soul | 5:57 | Flytuned Chipstep |
| 3 | Minimal | 3:28 | Dreamscape |
| 4 | In The Minds Of Those Around You | 4:54 | Electro Breakline |
| 5 | Mercenary | 6:22 | Aggrostep |
| 6 | Quadtone | 2:44 | Synth Quartet |
| 7 | Moot Trio | 4:40 | Post Industrial |
| 8 | Endgame | 4:44 | VGM Bosstime |
| 9 | Crisis | 5:22 | Arppegiod Chipestra |