Why will NFT become the "entrance" of all Internet media?

Before getting into tech, I was an artist manager in the music industry. When I started my company, I was a big believer in one of the indisputable truths of the music industry: ownership empowers. Typically, the label owns the music and therefore has the power to "hold" the artist.

Our goal is to use technology to connect directly with fans to help artists retain ownership of their work and run their own businesses independently. But now that each of us can be an online creator, ownership continues to matter. However, the role of ownership on technology platforms is often overlooked.

Every day we share billions of images, videos, songs and other works of various media on social media. When these files are published, people can grab a copy of the media from the creator's device and paste it on the servers of the platforms that distribute it, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, etc.

This might seem like a lightweight interaction, but creators aren't just simply copying files when uploading them - they're copy-pasting "file ownership" into the platform itself.

I'm not talking about copyright, but the "terms of service" set by content platforms. These terms often specify that when a creator uploads a file, the platform will share ownership of the work so they can monetize it as they see fit. These "terms" have some advantages: the platform can bring creators sustainable optimization of advertising revenue, and economies of scale as the number of fans grows. But it’s no secret that the monetization models offered by platforms today don’t always align with creators’ best interests—and that, in fact, is the real problem: For a long time, The platform side can always get most of the benefits and value from the content provided by the creators.

Crypto is blazing a different path (what I call the “ownership economy”), a broader narrative that the next generation of internet platforms will be built, operated and owned directly by users.

In the media industry, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) allow creators to "retain" content ownership without restricting the distribution of their files on the Internet. This means that NFT is likely to subvert the ownership model of media content and provide services to creators, content audiences, and related developers. This is also a viable alternative based on platform-driven monetization.

One easy way to think about NFTs is to store data on the blockchain, which means the content cannot be copy-pasted, edited, deleted or otherwise manipulated. The blockchain is able to provide these guarantees mainly because of its own technical properties (which in fact also make cryptocurrencies valuable): like Bitcoin, NFT is a digital token that is bought, sold, and traded. Coins, whose ownership and provenance are always immutably tracked by the blockchain. Your asset is your asset and can be verified without any third party acting as an "intermediary" for that ownership.

With NFT, the way of owning digital media assets becomes exactly the same as the way of owning digital financial assets.

For many people, NFT looks like a brand new high-tech "toy", and of course some people think that NFT is a bubble that is about to burst. It is true that money spent on digital art and encrypted collectibles is growing rapidly, but NFT utility allows creators to profit more without being "exploited" by the platform.

So, I believe that we are working hard to make NFT a "port of entry" for all media on the Internet, including 2D audio/video and text-based Web works, as well as emerging 3D works, and even cover future ones. Games and virtual worlds.

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How do NFTs work?

This means that any instance of a creative idea can eventually be registered on the blockchain, and the original and unalterable historical records can also be queried. Images on the Internet no longer need to be a "two-dimensional box" with only "X-axis" and "Y-axis", instead, it can have a "Z-axis" (Z-Axis), and third parties can Find out all the history and context of a work, adding to its cultural and financial value.

Are digital artworks valuable?

There is indeed a common criticism in the market today, that is: since digital art and digital collectibles can be copied, they will not have much value. But NFT introduces a new possibility, that is, when works of art continue to circulate freely online, they can also have true ownership.

For a document, the more times it is shared and browsed on the Internet, the higher its content value. For example, we can see that many posters and T-shirts with Andy Warhol images are mass-produced. (CryptoC Note: Andy Warhol is known as one of the most famous figures in the art world of the 20th century. He is the advocate and leader of Pop Art, and the artist who has the greatest influence on Pop Art. He boldly tried letterpress printing, Various reproduction techniques such as rubber or wood rubbing, gold leaf technique, photo projection, etc.)

In fact, NFT can not only provide support in the field of art. With more and more cryptocurrency collectibles, game assets, digital fashion, skins and more, you will find that the line between artwork and programmatic utility is becoming more and more blurred. Next, let us continue the analysis.

Why collect NFTs?

You may have discovered an opportunity to resell your work for a profit.

For example, the reflexive nature of the Bitcoin market began when Bitcoin became more and more "popular". At first, Bitcoin was just a memecoin that could buy pizza, but now it has become the most important reserve asset in the world. , and this momentum is growing. Likewise, NFTs may seem like entertainment, or a game of crypto whales at first, but as more money flows into these markets — and more content creators mint tokens and get involved , people outside the circle will see that the circulation of this value is getting better and better, and the market's perceived value is also rising. This reflexivity creates positive feedback loops that, in many cases, help drive the inevitable uptick in market activity over time.

In the long run, what is the direction of NFT development?

Tokens and smart contracts have been dubbed "monetary Lego" because they allow programmers to write and remix DeFi applications. Likewise, NFTs could become “medium Lego” for developers and creators to remix and build new experiences, even without permission. As a result, users will be able to look forward to a richer experience and added utility around the items they own.

Is NFT adoption inevitable?

I think NFT will become the "port of entry" of all Internet mediums, because everyone involved in this field can make more money from the market it supports:

for creators

By selling directly to fans and charging a royalty each time an NFT is resold, they can make more money. It’s a whole new revenue stream that’s only possible when you take true digital ownership of the work—that is, have “loyalty logic” encoded in the medium itself.

for consumers

Compound Utility and Profit Conversion Possibilities

Or today, on the web, consumers rent many goods and services, including some content creators. There is one main tenet of the new ownership economy platform, namely: "put skin in the game", and there will be incentives. If you want to support creators, there’s a whole new model now — I call it Patronage+, where the “+” is the possibility to get value with the creators you support. Of course, this is a strong, untapped incentive mechanism, but I think this mechanism may drive the demand for creative works in the market, so that more people will participate and give back.

for developers

In the NFT market, even building on permissionless infrastructure, developers have the opportunity to step into a growing market economy of ownership, and in many ways, this ownership economy functions similarly to the function in the physical world. similar.

Where are we in the NFT adoption cycle?

In 2021, the cryptocurrency market (including many other markets) began to enter a bull market, coupled with the Internet began to wake up and carry out a collective investment movement (WallStreetBets) - in this context, created suitable conditions for the NFT market to enter a frenzy stage, this Emerging markets are starting to capture mainstream attention and attract a lot of money.

At this stage, most NFTs still mainly occur in the field of digital art, but some emerging niche markets have also begun to explore NFTs, including game world assets (such as Axie Infinity), other encrypted collectibles (such as Hashmasks and CryptoPunks), or through programs. Generative artworks created on-chain.

We’ve also seen a number of brand new NFT trading platforms spring up where creators can create NFTs and connect with collectors. Foundation raked in more than $150,000 in sales in its first week, including the first-ever Vine video, which sold for $14,000. VCs are also starting to buy AI-generated art for their portfolios (myself included). It’s worth mentioning that I recently raised more than $13,000 in crowdfunding for my dissertation on the decentralized blogging platform Mirror, and then auctioned off my work as an NFT, allowing those who donated to get A lot in return.

However, it should be noted that interacting with NFTs on Ethereum is still quite clumsy and expensive at present, but as with every new thing, everything is difficult at the beginning. It currently costs about $100 in ETH to mint an NFT, and buying and trading NFTs also incurs high transaction fees.

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Summarize

In 2014, I founded a company called MediachainLabs, when we were developing an open protocol called Mediachain. Our goal is to build a "universal media library" that handles digital media assets in the same way that Bitcoin handles digital financial assets.

Now six years later, in a world where the majority of the world owns digital currency (more than 10% of Americans own digital assets), digital currency infrastructure and markets have become ubiquitous.