a16z Podcast: Linda Xie and Jesse Walden Discuss NFTs in Depth
NFT is an innovation that is "permissionless."Interviewees: Linda Xie and Jesse Walden, co-founders of Scalar Capital and Variant Fund respectively
Compiled by: Amber/Foresight News, Interviewed by: Sonal Chokshi
Google Trends data shows that the popularity of "NFT" has surpassed that of "crypto," becoming the hottest concept in the crypto world. To explore this "trending" concept, a16z podcast editor Sonal Chokshi interviewed former Coinbase product manager and Scalar Capital co-founder Linda Xie, as well as Variant Fund founder and former co-founder of Mediachain Labs Jesse Walden, delving deep into the topic of NFTs.
Foresight News has translated and organized the content of this podcast episode, and this article will comprehensively reintroduce NFTs from the following six aspects:
- What is an NFT?
- What are the general forms of NFTs, what is and what is not an NFT? And the application of NFTs in social tokens and the creator economy.
- Common overinterpretations and misunderstandings of NFTs.
- How NFTs work and how to build a broader ecosystem around them.
- What ecological participants are included in the NFT market, and the position of DAOs within it.
- From application scenarios to future imaginative spaces, how should NFTs be viewed from the perspectives of artists, developers, or investment institutions?
What is an NFT?
NFT stands for "non-fungible token," which is just a term used to describe unique digital assets whose ownership is tracked on the blockchain.
This can be a very broad concept, ranging from digital goods, such as virtual land and artwork, to representations of ownership of physical assets, such as real estate or clothing items.
NFTs are a way to own digital files, not just as financial assets; you can now own digital media assets on the internet, you can own a JPEG, you can own an MP3. Moreover, when you create an NFT, what you are essentially doing is "uploading" that file to the blockchain, so anyone can trace its origin and ownership.
Simply put, "NFTs are blockchain-based records that uniquely represent fragments of media," or just a file.
Another term to pay attention to is "fungible" in non-fungible tokens, meaning you can uniquely represent these items ------ I just want to emphasize that "because when you think of a dollar again, it is fungible (you could even say a single Bitcoin is fungible) ------ but fungible things are interchangeable; it doesn't matter what dollars I have, as long as I have one dollar.
But in this case, something that is "non-fungible" means it is super unique.
In the real world, "authentication" is a cumbersome process that involves notarization, some very specialized people, credible certificates or institutions, and so on. You rely on banks to maintain ledgers; or the property rights of the real estate you purchase, which are maintained by some state or city property registries. So you always rely on third parties to track ownership: how property rights change hands, how bank statements are updated.
Bitcoin changed the game because it achieved a public, decentralized ledger that no one party can control, but every individual owner of a Bitcoin can cryptographically verify their ownership. Therefore, you do not need to rely on a third party to verify ownership.
Intermediaries track the ownership of all these different assets and charge service fees; they prevent some people from using the platform, and the real power of cryptocurrencies lies in the fact that in all these open protocols, you can call and use them freely.
Thus, when you have an NFT, you can put it into a decentralized system and be able to trade these NFTs with anyone in the world, and it is instantaneous. You can also imagine staking your NFT as collateral; therefore, suppose you have a highly valuable in-game item, you can also use it as collateral to obtain a loan.
Thus, NFTs on the blockchain allow anyone to own, issue, and trade them without permission.
Another attribute of NFTs is traceability, which is essentially a built-in secondary market; you can not only trace the origin but also track the economic benefits generated due to the built-in secondary market.
This is particularly valuable in cases like digital artworks. In other words, the secondary resale of an asset can be recorded programmatically, so no matter how many times the NFT changes hands, a portion of the resale value will return to the original creator.
Smart contracts can ensure that this setup is executed efficiently and reliably. The blockchain excels at tracking the history of things, with the history of every transaction on-chain permanently recorded on the blockchain.
Non-fungible tokens are the same; when they are accepted or "minted," they are signed by the creator using their cryptographic key, and now anyone can see that this file was signed by this creator or that person, and the way this information is constructed is the same as any other cryptocurrency transaction.
After that, the NFT exists on the blockchain along with all other transactions, and everyone can see it. Right now, think about an image you see on Instagram. You can take a screenshot; you know, crop it; and then paste it onto another platform, say, repost it on Facebook.
Once you do that, you break the entire history of the original image; you no longer know who made this image, what it is about, where it originated from… and NFTs can change all of that, allowing value to flow through this channel of information.
From the artist's perspective, today's artists may have created a piece 20 years ago, and that piece has appreciated significantly, but the final owner is the only one who benefits from it. If the programmatic arrangement allows the artist to continue to gain value, the artist can still receive compensation in this built-in secondary market.
The history of ownership is something truly unique on the blockchain because everyone can see it, so some items may hold more significance for certain people.
From an artistic perspective, just imagine your favorite musician or creator owning a piece of art. And now, ownership is only tracked on the blockchain, that piece of art may become more valuable to you because of who owned it in the past.
We also have many projects researching the fragmentation of NFT art. So, breaking these NFTs into multiple pieces; and these individual pieces are also tracked on the blockchain, allowing you to trade them through decentralized exchanges.
When you can put these NFTs into all these different crypto protocols, it is really powerful because this is not possible in a traditional system. You can freely do what you want with these NFTs.
It is important to compare how NFTs work with how traditional networks work; so, on today's social media, when you share a file or share media, you upload the file to the platform. And what actually happens is that you are copying the "ownership" of the file onto the platform.
Somewhere, you signed the terms of service, allowing the platform to monetize that content in whatever way they see fit, maybe they give you a revenue share, maybe not, but the platform has the final say. And they can also decide how to consume that content, where there is not a lot of innovation because any developer trying to innovate in the past has been shut out.
Now, if you upload a file to the blockchain, and then these files become NFTs, they behave like other crypto assets, which means they can be accessed without permission by anyone, anywhere with an internet connection. The significance is that any third-party developer can innovate on how the media is consumed. For example, how audiences view it, how people interact with it, or program it.
Thus, one way to think about what is happening with NFTs is that we are building this universal, open media library ------ on which any developer can build the next Spotify, or build the next Instagram, or build the next Facebook ------ when there is more competition, it will be very beneficial for consumers… and possibly for creators ------ because as Linda mentioned, all of this can happen without traditional intermediaries extracting value flowing between creators and consumers.
What are NFTs? And what are they not?
In simple terms, NFTs can be any media file, or even any item, digital or physical, specifically, things like: artwork, in-game items, music, blog posts, research reports, and so on.
In a sense, anything in the world can become an NFT… just like anything created by anyone is unique and can be owned.
The issue with physical goods is that you need someone to store them, so there is a process behind it that must ensure you can audit it in the real world. Maybe many people own it, and it cannot just be moved by one person; so, there are some parts - but aside from that, I find it to be a very broad category.
We have seen some really cool things, we already have the communication between tokens you mentioned ------ basically requiring a certain number of tokens to access this communication. People are doing things like token-gated chats, where these tokens need to enter the chat room and start talking, so, you know, everyone has a skin like a level in a game.
You must own a certain number of tokens to enter these groups: this proves your ownership of some sort in this community, which can be adjusted over time. (Our idea is that one day it could even form a DAO, where token holders can vote to decide how many tokens are needed to enter this communication or chat group or whatever.)
And this area is somewhat related to NFTs ------ I don't necessarily think social tokens themselves are NFTs, because sometimes people are creating these tokens, and they have minted like a million tokens; but if the creator of this community is issuing individual badges or unique projects within it, then that can be an NFT.
Social tokens are just a really broad category of tokens issued by individuals or communities. Therefore, sometimes other terms are used, such as personal tokens, community tokens, creator tokens, but social tokens are the term that encompasses all of these.
In this space, there are a bunch of different experiments happening. So we have seen people tokenizing their time; so one of these tokens equals one hour of their time and can be freely traded.
We have also seen someone like R.A.C (a Grammy-winning recording artist) tokenizing his social token, where his token holders can enter this private Discord group, and then they get all these extra benefits… he can directly reach out to his supporter base, so this is a way for creators to interact with and reward their early supporters.
So, this is a very broad category, and it can really be anything related to individuals or communities.
Sometimes social tokens can be NFTs, that is, creators directly issue some unique artworks to their fans, but in many cases, social tokens can also be fungible tokens. So like R.A.C. tokens, they are all fungible, so you can basically hold a certain number of tokens and can trade and buy back at any time, it doesn't matter which R.A.C. token you purchased. So these are relatively adjacent.
I think the reason social tokens and NFTs are often conflated is simply because it realizes the creator economy, allowing creators to connect directly with their fans… Therefore, these are often closely linked.
And the bottom line is, if it is fungible, it is not an NFT; of course, if it is non-fungible (thus a non-fungible token), then it is an NFT.
Of course, the blurred line between fungible and non-fungible tokens is for a reason, as the interplay between the two is significant. You can take a non-fungible token and fractionalize it into fungible tokens. Then you can also make those fungible tokens ------ representing a part of the original NFT ------ you can turn those into social tokens.
Thus, there is a token called B.20, which is a fungible token. It represents a claim on some NFTs by Beeple, where investors purchased these NFTs and essentially fractionalized their ownership.
Now, the B.20 token exists, and it can be programmed for various other values. So besides owning a part of Beeple, you can imagine some third party launching a Discord server and saying you need a B.20 token to come here and play.
This is an example that starts with a non-fungible token; Beeple created it; then a collector bought Beeple's non-fungible token; fractionalized it into fungible ERC-20 tokens (which is the B.20 token) ------ third-party developers can remix and add new experiences.
So far, we are talking about the digital version of things that have already happened in the real world, being able to do things differently. But if you think about it, what is impossible in the real world, the idea of fractional ownership is super important and is something that cryptocurrencies can uniquely do. Because you can achieve fragmented ownership through this.
I am still amazed by the concept of NBA Top Shot, where you can buy and own a "moment," one of the most exciting highlights in competitive sports. What if people could bid on and own moments from their favorite TV shows? Just the idea that you can own it, and it truly belongs to you. NFTs can spark people's imagination, and that is really exciting.
Common Overinterpretations and Misunderstandings of NFTs
Starting with the common phrase: "It's just a JPEG." On the internet, files are very cheap and can be copied infinitely. In fact, the number of times a file is copied on the internet is directly related to the value of that file's NFT. The more a media is shared online, the greater its social value.
To make this issue concrete, let's think about a very famous traditional artwork, like the "Mona Lisa." The Mona Lisa has been copied countless times ------ it appears on every T-shirt, on postcards sold at the Louvre; you can see it anywhere on the internet ------ yet there is only one Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum, and the ownership of this artwork is incredibly coveted and incredibly valuable.
Generally speaking, as the online world becomes richer and scarcer ------ you know, the long tail means you can have infinite choices online ------ it is really appealing when they transcend the limitations of Blockbuster shelves in the physical goods world. Interestingly, Netflix does things like binge seasons and take-downs, which somewhat creates this digital scarcity ------ like a limited edition effect. It's like this thing lasts for three months, and then it disappears.
Thus, this is another analogy about this interesting relationship, where something is not necessarily rare or scarce ------ in fact, in the case of files and JPEGs, they can even be copied infinitely ------ but you can enforce ownership of this digital, even a part of it.
In fact, you do not want to be the only person who can access a specific JPEG or file, but you want to own valuable material that others can see.
CryptoPunks is just one of the earliest NFT projects. We saw two CryptoPunks sell for $7.5 million each ------ one of the sellers was Dylan Field, the CEO and co-founder of Figma ------ and what is really interesting is, yes, anyone can copy this image…
That's right. So anyone can copy this; but if you really look at the CryptoPunk NFT itself, you will see who owns it.
In fact, someone owned this thing very early on… it almost became a status symbol, and people want to prove they can demonstrate their ownership early in this space.
Thus, the history of ownership is also very important. Being able to discover an artist or creator early on and be one of the first supporters, and having that tracked on the blockchain. In the future, when these things are sold, you can prove you are this early adopter, which is very valuable to people.
Developers tend to lean towards this. Because compared to who owns it, where it comes from is more important. And now, it is difficult for developers to find all this information on web-2 platforms because the history of media is not architecturally tracked in a blockchain way.
Another statement is, "NFTs are a new form of tradable bragging rights, not a new form of tradable ownership."
Of course, bragging is one reason people might collect NFTs… but it is not just speculative value, or showing off being an owner. Over time, I think NFT owners will begin to realize more and more compound utility as developers build new spaces for you to better showcase your digital property.
For example, today, you can purchase a digital artwork as an NFT, and you can take it to a virtual world (like Cryptovoxels or Decentraland) and display it there. Additionally, any third-party developer can build on top of Cryptovoxels because it is also open-source and permissionless.
Thus, what you start to see is this Lego-like method of building new experiences, where developers can build more with less money, and innovation will happen faster. Therefore, this statement underestimates the possible utilitarian nature of being an owner.
If we even talk about more traditional things ------ like NFTs representing tickets or financial assets or real estate ------ these are just more efficient ways of transferring ownership, without so much paperwork and intermediaries involved. Therefore, this is a net gain for society, rather than people trying to showcase their wealth.
Comparing NFTs to the former ICO craze, are NFTs another form of ICO frenzy?
In 2017, many people entered the crypto space, and ICOs clearly formed a strong "boost" in the process.
However, it is undeniable that ICOs did bring many truly incredible projects. And many who joined this space ended up staying because they saw it was not just about getting rich quick; there was community and a truly unique way to create value in this world.
So, the NFT craze and ICOs actually have similarities, and the good thing is that this time, it is artists working so hard and being rewarded for this type of work. People like Beeple, who have been working on this craft for so many years, are things people value.
In this process, works that the market deems valuable can become valuable NFTs. That is why I think you will see such a wide range of experiments on what can be traded as NFTs, from blog posts, you know, to digital art.
There are many niche groups wanting to own items related to their culture, for various reasons ------ whether for speculation, their thought is that it might be resold in the future; or, you know, because they just want you to know their name appears next to the item, saying "I support this creator," just like I want you to know I support their work.
Thus, there are many different reasons people might value NFTs, and many different subcultures and value systems that constitute this market, which is why it is expanding in all directions.
In simple terms, "hype" is not necessarily a bad thing.
In the early history of NFTs, starting with CryptoKitties, one thing that often came up was the scalability issue, and Ethereum was not ready to handle that level of stimulus ------ it pushed a lot of solutions to think about scalability. Therefore, some of the hype cycles in 2017 actually led to good infrastructure improvements.
And many of the ideas being realized around NFTs are ideas we were exploring at that time. The ecosystem at that time was missing two key things. One was the ability to easily create tokens ------ which is uniquely realized by smart contracts and smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Flow, and others. The other missing piece was a market for these digital assets.
Thus, we now live in a world where about 10% of Americans own cryptocurrency. Therefore, the idea that digital assets have value is a prerequisite for digital media assets, like NFTs, to have value.
Regarding Linda's earlier point, the 2017 market was a prerequisite for today's NFT market. Therefore, the market must first emerge; market-driven ------ you know, they are volatile, they drive these speculative frenzies ------ but they also drive infrastructure building and the formation of persistent cognition.
On the "Abuse" of Resources/Energy by NFTs
For a long time, the questioning of virtual currency mining as resource abuse has never ceased, which is clearly a false proposition people think from the perspective of Bitcoin. We acknowledge that blockchains represented by Bitcoin, which adopt the PoW model, are energy-intensive industries, but not every blockchain relies on this.
Ethereum is migrating from PoW to PoS, where instead of spending $1,000 on mining equipment, you lock that $1,000 in the system and are randomly selected to validate based on the capital you put in. So, this is just a virtual aspect of mining; you do not need to have physical energy expansion.
Secondly, we also have more actions being moved to layer two networks, such as protocols built on Ethereum. Because people do want to be less energy-consuming when verifying ownership on the blockchain. Therefore, I think there will be less of this narrative in the future.
Even PoW mining itself has taken on more negative evaluations than it deserves; of course, it does consume a lot of energy. However, many PoW miners are located in areas where renewable energy has not been effectively developed, such as hydroelectric power having excess capacity, which can be used for mining. For example, natural gas emissions from oil fields; these gases would have entered the atmosphere, but can be burned to produce PoW and earn Bitcoin.
This is not to defend this practice, just to clarify that a large portion of the energy mix for PoW mining comes from renewable energy.
The misunderstanding about the energy consumption of NFTs does not take into account the relative measures of broader energy consumption.
So, if you think about things like the Basel Art Fair, there are many very wealthy collectors who fly in private jets to the Basel Art Fair every year to collect works. I do not know what the emissions from all these private jets are, but it is clearly not a small number. Therefore, this is a very nuanced topic, and I think it is unfair to those creators who are just starting to use these new tools.
In fact, these digital artworks are really environmentally friendly because you do not need to purchase all these physical items, like the cotton for the canvas, the wood for the easel, and oil… and you also save all these transportation costs.
How NFTs Work
The first step is to decide to represent your work on the blockchain. Therefore, "minting" involves real interaction with smart contracts and submission. Of course, some marketplace platforms simplify this process, essentially allowing for "one-click minting." During the minting process, you can choose different attributes, such as what the name of the work is, how royalties are collected if there is a secondary sale, and so on.
Since this step has already been optimized by the project parties, the most difficult part right now may actually be setting up a wallet and getting yourself to accept cryptocurrencies and this area.
Some marketplaces may also require identity verification, such as conducting some due diligence on artists and ensuring that it is a genuine artwork and not copied from other artists; and ensuring it is a truly high-quality piece.
As mentioned above, the most difficult part right now may actually be establishing a wallet, so let’s elaborate a bit on that. The concept of a cryptocurrency wallet can be summarized as a public key and private key pair ------ so, basically, you have a public address on the blockchain, which is where your assets/your things are associated.
Then there is the private key ------ the private key is what unlocks the transfer of assets in your wallet. So you need the private key to unlock what is in your public address; this is the concept of a cryptocurrency wallet. MetaMask is the most popular wallet for Ethereum; it is a browser extension; and basically what it does is set you up with a public address on the Ethereum blockchain and a private address.
It is worth noting: that cryptographic key pair does not belong to MetaMask; it belongs to you; MetaMask has never seen this key pair, they have no information about it, it is yours. And this comes with a lot of responsibility because if you lose your private key, you lose everything ------ it is a bit like cash in your wallet.
That is why it is called a "wallet," but I think the reason this name has stuck is that your crypto wallet behaves like a physical wallet; if you lose it… all your cash is gone.
After you mint, you can do different things depending on what you want to do with your NFT. Therefore, once you have established a presence on these marketplaces, you can list it and try to share this link with others to let them bid on this artwork. You can set a price; you can let people bid and then accept different bids.
Or, you can just create this for yourself. And suppose you want to create a world on virtual land, displaying your artwork in a virtual art gallery, you can just place your artwork there…
If you think this piece is really valuable, you can do various different things with it. In fact, I have seen people talk about swapping NFTs; therefore, different artists are like exchanging with each other. I have also seen people use artworks as collateral and then take out loans for them.
So, you can really do anything you want with this. But the most common and basic thing I have seen is people selling their artworks, someone buys it, and then possibly stores it on their virtual land or displays it on their profile. There is a social element to this.
People often talk about it, like saying I just bought this artwork, and they will talk about it on Twitter. So you can have a social element, who is buying what, who owns what, and let people form communities around it.
NFTs are "Permissionless" Innovations
"Permissionless," people can easily be misled by the first impression of this term; in fact, the permissionless here does not mean that the innovation of NFTs can ignore regulation or even violate the law.
We can draw an analogy; just like cash is permissionless, if you lose your wallet, your cash is gone. And this cash can still be used to purchase various goods; in fact, cryptocurrencies and NFTs also have similar attributes.
There will be bad actors trying to infringe on others' intellectual property for profit, however, the benefits far outweigh any negative or evil uses of the technology. When you compare it to developers today who can only experiment while working at Facebook or only at Twitter, and innovate on the information we see on these platforms…
I believe if every developer in the world could innovate freely in an open manner without having to seek permission from these big platforms, we would be in a healthier state. The "permissionless" here is actually another expression of decentralization.
In a sense, you could say that blockchain actually makes the work of evidence collection easier because all the information is public, and anyone can access it.
That being said, NFTs actually make it harder for bad actors to hide while also incentivizing creators to innovate more autonomously. This is actually a better balance.
Participants in the NFT Ecosystem
Now the types of participants in the NFT ecosystem are becoming clearer, such as websites showcasing online collectibles, trading markets, data analysis websites, and tools that statistically analyze NFT rarity and other attributes.
In addition to online virtual galleries, trading markets represented by OpenSea play an essential role in the entire ecosystem, as you can find almost all NFTs in leading trading markets like OpenSea.
Therefore, this can also be seen as a "search engine" or "Wikipedia" for a vertical field. These types of markets often also allow creators to mint NFTs directly on the platform, which essentially provides a one-stop supply + demand platform.
A very interesting phenomenon happening on the demand side of the market is that you are starting to see these very interesting collectors or organizations emerge. Therefore, cryptocurrencies make it very easy to send value.
As a result, people are pooling value in interesting ways to participate in this market. A very cool experiment is something called Flamingo DAO, whose core idea is that you can pool resources with anyone who has a cryptocurrency wallet; send money into this smart contract, it acts like a bank account, and then this bank account can buy NFTs. The group can purchase NFTs.
So, this looks like a fund, or you could call it a "gallery," acquiring works. By joining this collection, creators gain an audience allocated to the collectors/investors who pooled resources first. In the creator economy, the "power of the collective" is very strong.
Additionally, media platforms represented by Mirror are also an important part of the ecosystem, where anyone can turn their blog posts into NFTs.
If you are an investigative journalist, there are not many good tools for you to monetize as an independent person; subscriptions may not be very favorable for long-form journalism. What is cool about Mirror is that it allows the audience of writers to pool resources in a crowdfunding manner.
And as a participant in the crowdfunding, you are not just a patron of the creator or writer. You become an owner of the NFT generated when they publish their blog post, a partial owner.
And you can analyze the psychology of these supporters, but I think it can be boiled down to two things. First, you are a patron of this creator, helping them complete their work; and in the future, if this article becomes very valuable, you will also enjoy the increase in its value. Just recently, you saw Twitter founder Jack sell his first tweet as an NFT for millions of dollars.
So, you can see this idea going further. New, big ideas enter the world in the form of blog posts, and people crowdfund for these ideas they want to see happen in the world, becoming partial owners of the blog posts ------ this becomes a kind of typical representation of that idea.
A few days ago, Dylan Field posted about "fan proof" ------ we have jargon in the cryptocurrency world like "proof of stake," "PoW"; the idea of "fan proof" is great ------ it also relates to the idea of monetizing moments.
How to truly disrupt traditional payment models, where it is not the creators selling, but buyers and fans monetizing their attention.
We have not really seen too many people doing this work yet, but the idea of allowing so many DAO members to vote on what the work looks like and making it a collective artwork is exciting. You can imagine anyone can join these DAOs ------ it could even be anonymous people from all over the world. Therefore, you can collectively create or co-invest in things, which is very exciting.
Many people believe that the golden age of art ------ like the Italian Renaissance, the Medici family, etc. ------ is why people think patronage is the first unlock. Therefore, NFTs provide us with a more democratized form of patronage.
And "add-ons" are a way to truly create this chain reaction over time ------ this is indeed investment and democratization ------ in a way that everyone can access. Because it is not just wealthy Renaissance families who can do art patronage.
There is a DAO called Yield Guild Games, where people in the Philippines have been playing to earn a living. They are a gamer DAO: gamers from around the world participating in these blockchain games.
There is a very popular game called Axie Infinity ------ you have these creatures like Pokémon that battle each other, and each one is an NFT ------ you can battle in this game and earn currency. Sometimes these Pokémon creatures can be too expensive because they are too valuable.
Therefore, what we are actually seeing in this DAO is that players within the DAO are renting NFTs to other players. This is a very cool collective, where people can join this gaming community.
What they are doing now is that this DAO is investing in virtual land within the games they play because they are experts in these games themselves. They are actually developing land within these games, just like… like developing real estate in the physical world to make it better.
A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization; people often talk about how over time, the crypto economy can realize such organizations because the history of companies is largely rooted in the physical world rather than the digital world ------ but why must these things exist in the form of DAOs; what does it mean?
What is really interesting about DAOs is that there is much more transparency ------ therefore, funds managed by DAOs are completely transparent, where the funds are transferred to, where they come from, anyone can view the balance at any point in time. You can imagine a traditional company; you cannot possibly see the balance sheet at all times; and many times, they may only release it on a quarterly or annual basis.
Thus, DAOs level the playing field, creating more transparency; in many cases, the barriers to entry are lower. You do not even need to disclose your identity; it is really hard to join a company where no one knows who you are. This aligns very well with the spirit of cryptocurrency: global, open, and natural.
Of course, we do not mean complete anonymity, because technically your ID is public; for example, people can actually trace you but do not know who you are.
From Application Scenarios to Future Imaginative Spaces, Some Advice for Practitioners/Enthusiasts
The crypto space is still in a very early stage, and people are trying to figure everything out. Therefore, no one is a complete expert on what is happening with NFTs, and everyone is very willing to discuss and collaborate. So, never be afraid to ask questions.
At the same time, traditional institutions can consider how NFTs can make their operations more efficient ------ therefore, for tracking financial assets owned by everyone, traditional solutions may be very inefficient or expensive.
NFTs will make this process smoother for them. The intersection of these institutions with NFTs is not necessarily limited to digital art; it could also involve some asset management or process optimization in their own business.
Large companies and others are participating in the market for creative works through various channels, and many companies collaborate with creators and influencers for marketing and distribution. NFTs provide a new channel for both of these.
Additionally, becoming an owner of creators/influencers' works will be another way to gain their attention and potentially gain exposure from a marketing perspective.
Another very striking new definition of modern employees is that employees can become creators while working for the company and have more ownership of their ideas. This is actually what is called the ownership economy ------ in Silicon Valley, employees of startups receive equity in the startups, aligning their incentives with the success of the company.
This model is very effective in attracting top talent to work for startups. However, not everyone can obtain equity, and cryptocurrencies have changed the game, making ownership value more flexible, allowing you to make anyone an "owner" at any time.
NFTs may change how people work because they do not have to become full-time employees to earn some ownership value for the value they contribute to the platforms or services they are building or consuming.
NFTs can make everyone feel more involved in the development, not just technical experts, but also consumers and creators.
Some Outlooks on the Future of NFTs
From the perspective of media practitioners, every piece of writing, video, and audio, etc., can be customized into an NFT, and we can build a universal media library that is programmable. This will drive a renaissance of online creativity, and creators will receive fairer compensation than in the Web2 era.
Nowadays, many exciting things have happened in the NFT art space, with many creative individuals entering the field, which will make cryptocurrencies overall more refined. In the future, NFTs will also be applicable to more industries, where you can better track ownership, thereby replacing centralized intermediaries. It is foreseeable that fields like gaming, finance, healthcare, and many others will have a place for NFTs.
The trend of NFTs is unfolding, and as we release the "shackles" of human ingenuity through better tools, the future will become very interesting.
