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Exists because of the existence of IP
This term took off in the first quarter of 2021, and became a hot search topic that continued to dominate the list after DeFi, and the transaction volume also rose crazily at a rate of 2627% month-on-month.
Q1 2021 Google Search Trends for "NFT" vs. "DeFi"
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Buy digital videos of NBA Top Shot highlights for US$600, and then sell them after a period of time. The price has doubled by 15,000 times, exceeding US$9 million. Or adopt a CryptoKitties, which can't be sucked or touched, just a card that exists on the Internet.
Artworks and various assets no longer only exist in exhibition halls and real life, but are stored on blockchain smart contracts, digitized and tokenized, and can be bought and sold. This is the manifestation of NFT—everything All can be turned into NFT.
The concept of NFT (Non-fungible Token) actually refers to a unique and indivisible token, which is a standard technical term. All NFT artworks have their own independent number, just like there will not be two identical leaves in the world, nor will there be two artworks with the same number in the world, so it is called indivisible, and its ownership independently verifiable. On the other hand, for homogeneous tokens (FT, Fungible Token) such as Bitcoin and other tokens, there is no difference between the two tokens.
In addition to artists, many celebrities and famous brands have boarded this singing train: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey made his first tweet into an NFT public auction; Japanese actress Hatano Yui announced that it will be released on BSC Own NFT photobook; luxury brand Gucci will launch virtual shoe NFT based on AR technology...
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For example, the NBA naturally has a strong IP attribute and has a super-sticky crowd all over the world. It seems to be a matter of course to turn the wonderful moments of the stars into NFT and sell them. It can even be said that the value of NBA Top Shot actually comes from the NBA's own brand. and the rarity of the video, not the token itself.
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"Viral" Crazy Spread
Another 10-second video work "Crossroads" by Beeple was also sold at Nifty Gateway for US$6.6 million. After he learned the news, he even expressed on Twitter: "Shocked to speechless."
The 10-second NFT video work "Crossroads" sold for $6.6 million
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In this video, the bloated former U.S. President Trump is lying face down on the lawn, and the people around him turn a blind eye to him. Trump has "loser (loser)" and "poor boy ( Poor boy)" and other adjectives, insinuating Trump's defeat in the 2020 US election.
This painting just hit the "cool point" of digital currency supporters, because Trump publicly opposed it during his tenure: "Digital currency is not currency, its value is highly unstable, and it is fabricated out of thin air." This may be The reason for the high price of this work is that the right to speak about digital currency has been transferred from the mouth of authoritative opponents.
And NFT is naturally the technical carrier that carries such a story. Any artist, work of art, IP, etc. can use its form to fill in suitable stories, tell and spread, and then add value. After selling at high prices frequently, with the blessing of many IPs and stars, from the initial speculation, reproduction and speculation, to adding more stories and value.
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Cryptokitties 'Keeping Cats' Online
A series of works such as Cryptokitties originally had a "viral" spread on Ethereum in 2017. Each token represents a unique cat that can be bought, collected, raised and sold. It represents a more entertaining and gaming world. Blockchain use cases that are not currencies.
The public's rising emotions have contributed to the popularity of NFT. When more and more people study and invest time in it, when their emotions are mobilized uniformly, such as facing higher and higher transaction prices When "why" is asked one after another, this exclamation mark mentality will form a "viral spread" and magnify the power level of radiation through social media.
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Another reason for the rapid growth of NFT is also related to DeFi.
It can be seen that the popularity and out of the circle of NFT is not accidental, because one of the promises of blockchain technology is democratization, decentralization, and the ability to support all innovations in the form of tokens. As life transitions to digitization in the future, tokens are our digital identities. Once we try it and experience it, we will become its recipients. NFT is bound to become an important way to exchange value.
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NFT = information + owner + creator = value
This is what many people think: In addition to speculating and reselling to make money, I don’t have a single NFT, and I don’t have any losses in real life. This is also the most questioned point of NFT, because digital artworks cannot be touched or used, and even having "ownership" is meaningless, it just satisfies the psychological FOMO and a sense of showing off.
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Elon Musk reposted the meme: "It seems that everyone doesn't know that I actually have the NFT ownership of this song"
But in fact, the value of NFT does not exist and act in the real world. Rather than saying that NFT is a digital artwork, it is better to say that it is a medium or a way to chain real objects and values, a proof of authenticity.
Things that are scarce and valuable in real life are also scarce and valuable in the virtual world. This is not a further mapping from the real world to the virtual world. Just like we are willing to buy expensive skins when playing games, we can also accept monthly fees to purchase copyrights of music apps. They also cannot be directly touched and used in real life, but it does not prevent us from indulging in them.
The overall value of NFT is co-cast by information, owners and creators. From the perspective of information, the serial code on the chain records all the real information of the value formation over time, including author information, creation background and transaction history, etc., but it is difficult to guarantee this in real works of art, and various fakes will appear.
From the perspective of the owner, the scarcity of quantity can be artificially created, and the scarcity of content is the place that should be paid the most attention. Only when the scarcity of content has passed the test of time can it guarantee subsequent value-added.
Finally, from the perspective of the creator, after the creator releases the work, the subsequent value-added requires users to continuously build a story to continue.
CryptoPunks has already cooperated with NBA Top Shot and OpenSea, contributing 73% of the total NFT transaction volume in the first quarter of 2021.
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Decentralized technology, like Internet technology, is subliminal to its recipients, that is to say, we "passively" accept technological innovation, and then think about how to better deal with it. If Web 2.0 is driven by social, mobile and cloud technologies, then Web 3.0 is driven by decentralized data networks.
As a new carrier of cultural expression, digital tokens can enable us to express our values and choices more faithfully. NFT is one of our best ways to deal with it.
Whether new content creators can be discovered in the vast crowd is no longer determined by platforms such as Facebook and Weibo, nor by the distribution algorithms of Youtube and Douyin. This is the important difference between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. Content demanders can see more works that really move them, breaking through the information cocoon of Web 2.0.
