X2Y2 Space: ETH price rebounds, can the NFT market rise accordingly?

Author: X2Y2

Alex: Hello everyone, I am Alex. Let's have our guests introduce themselves.

Bernie Kong: Welcome everyone to X2Y2 this Saturday night. I am the Marketing Lead at Footprint Analytics. Footprint Analytics is an aggregated on-chain analytics data platform. We will mainly conduct some analyses on the NFT and GameFi sectors in Q2 and Q3. Recently, we also launched our own API service, which presents a very good offering for the enterprise version.

I personally entered this industry at the end of 2017. Before that, I was at one of the major exchanges. Later, due to a twist of fate, we started to build an on-chain data analytics platform. We found that other competitors at the time could not provide complete and user-friendly data report analyses and market trends. So, I am very fortunate to be here today with the host and speakers to discuss the NFT market situation with the audience.

Alex: Thank you very much, Bernie. I have also visited Footprint Analytics before.

Joejoe Chen: Let me briefly introduce myself. Currently, I am helping a DAO organization establish and operate a translation guild. This DAO is called Web2 DAO3, and it is working on an NFT project called 996 Fortune. This project reflects a previously hot social topic, where many employees in large and small internet companies face the issue of excessive overtime. We have created many different types of NFTs based on the concept of fortune. The first phase of the sale of 996 NFTs has been completely sold out, and we are also launching the second phase soon. The translation guild I am responsible for translates one article every week, which will then be published and promoted on our public account. Currently, most of our activities are in WeChat groups, and we operate Discord less frequently. If you are interested in learning about our community, you can follow our public account or contact me to join our community.

Alex: Thank you very much, Joe. The last one is Lucas.

Lucas: Hello everyone, our NFT project is based on IP licensing. The main concept of our upcoming new book is our NFT project called Dyson Sphere. Each Dyson Sphere has its own independent ecosystem, which may include human civilization or other biological civilizations, and there are specific astronomical numbers that can be referenced in the future cosmic space.

Currently, our project is establishing its own DAO organization, where members can vote to determine the future plot direction of the novel. This is somewhat similar to previous games like Detroit: Become Human, or the popular Invisible Guardian from a few years ago, where key plot points can be decided based on votes. We want to create more connections between Web 3.0 and the real world. For example, the rights to the profits from the novel's adaptation into film and games will belong to the DAO organization, and every NFT holder can enjoy the copyright profits from the novel in the future.

Alex: I understand. It sounds a bit like content creation, helping creators solve copyright issues.

Lucas: Yes.

Alex: Today's topic is quite simple, which is about the correlation between Ethereum prices and the NFT market. The first question goes directly to Bernie. Ethereum has risen a lot this week, actually due to a rebound from the merge. Do you think this trend can continue? Will Ethereum continue to rise, or might it not?

Bernie Kong: Are we discussing Ethereum first? Not NFTs?

Alex: You can directly discuss whether NFTs will follow the trend of Ethereum. No need to be too constrained, feel free.

Bernie Kong: Back in 2020, many so-called experts and scholars began to say that Ethereum would surpass Bitcoin in market value at some point, and some enthusiastic fans even believed it would exceed Bitcoin's price in this bull market. There were all kinds of statements. I personally hold Ethereum and Bitcoin long-term. I occasionally trade in the spot market, but I focus on the big trends and don’t have much time for small fluctuations; I don’t have the time to monitor the market every day.

We have seen various discussions about Ethereum 2.0 recently, whether ZK or something else can emerge. I think having such speculations during a bear market is a good thing. Recently, various institutional failures have greatly impacted everyone's confidence. The entire market, from whales and institutions to retail investors, can be simply divided into three categories, and there is clearly a bearish sentiment, with overall market morale being low. People saw that starting in April, the NFT sector had some interactions in the first quarter, but in the second quarter, everyone felt it might be another two or three years of stagnation, or even longer, according to the four-year secondary market cycle.

If we analyze and capture data on-chain, it is highly unlikely that we would consider this a moment for a dramatic rebound; it may just be a phase of recovery, not a definitive reversal. First of all, 75% of the interest rate hikes in the US stock market have already been implemented. Next week, including in September, there may be expectations for further rate hikes, and the reduction of the balance sheet is also a significant test. The amount of capital in the market is likely to shrink. In this market situation, we see that the US employment rate is rising, and the CPI has reached a high of 9.1%, as recorded in the last statistics.

From a macro perspective, this rhythm is abnormal. Everyone is discussing when inflation will end, so the overall sentiment remains. Therefore, under the current fundamental conditions, Ethereum has driven this week’s rebound from the lowest point. Many projects, if analyzed through K-line analysis, seem to show a phase of a W-bottom, but if it ends, the bear market would be too easy to get through. Because I remember during the BCH and BSV forks in 2018, miners in Huaqiangbei were selling their machines as scrap metal; the whole market was in a state of desolation.

Alex: Was that during the 2018 bear market?

Bernie Kong: At that time, it dropped to over 3000 points.

Alex: I exited then because I didn’t want to look at it anymore after the drop at the end of 2018. I just laid flat and deleted my app with one click.

Bernie Kong: If you had sold your house, car, or kidney to go all-in on Bitcoin back then, you could retire now. At that time, everyone really had no concept of what we have now. Where was the metaverse? Where were NFTs and GameFi? Everyone was wondering if it was all going to end, with no consensus or faith. Old miners left, and after experiencing that time, it feels like the current sentiment is still okay. At least from May to June, when I talked with my team and some friends, it felt fine; it didn’t reach the point of panic where all retail investors were about to collapse.

Let’s not predict the specific market. Many people see Bitcoin dropping to 12,000-15,000, or even further down by about 50%. Looking at it now, there should be a wave of positive news in the short term, so I am still optimistic. During this process, some NFT projects may emerge. Today's topic is actually quite interesting; the NFT market does not completely follow the secondary market or Ethereum. There are some highlights in phases. Recently, regardless of Goblin, it’s very interesting; there’s really no trend. You could clarify what it is in 200 words, but in 100 words, you can’t tell others what it is, and in 50 words, you know the essence of the project, yet such projects can still emerge.

What we are talking about more now is PFP avatars, but in the long run, we will find that there are many NFT sectors to discuss. Looking back, the development of NFTs has gone through stages like CryptoKitties, last year’s $69 million transaction for a 5000-day NFT, and then the tweets from the former CEO of Twitter, the true sports brands and public brands of the NBA, the emergence of SandBox NFT and the embryonic form of the metaverse, and later the derivation of BAYC and monkey coins. Everyone knows that GameFi Play to Earn can derive such fun NFTs.

Bernie Kong: You must get involved, and then look at ConstitutionDAO to People. Really, the history of NFTs is very interesting and has many out-of-the-box projects. Compared to the Ethereum secondary market prices in the second half of the year, I am more optimistic about the NFT market.

First of all, it has already gone beyond the box. We can no longer call ourselves new retail investors. Many strong players entered the market later than us, and their understanding is not inferior. However, I find that these friends who enter the market are very bold and dedicated to what they are doing. They may just be a mod, just a participant, or just someone who checks X2Y2 for new NFT items after working eight hours a day. I think I am more optimistic about NFTs than Ethereum, and I firmly believe that some good NFT projects will emerge. We can also do some advertising for both sides: lock in Footprint Analytics and X2Y2 to find your ideal blue-chip.

Alex: I think Bernie is very focused on the secondary market. He talked a lot about how ETH prices and NFT prices are not completely matching because ETH was in a free fall at that time, and a series of operations led to ETH being sold off as collateral, causing the price to hit a low. In fact, the NFT market did not experience such collateral sell-offs, so whether from a trend or a real price perspective, the matching is not that high. I wonder if other guests have different views? Joe, what do you think about this?

Joejoe Chen: Actually, I entered this circle relatively late. Let me briefly explain my situation. I happened to be in Shanghai, and this year Shanghai was under lockdown for nearly two months due to the pandemic. I remember clearly that during the lockdown, I had more time at home, and a friend who trades cryptocurrencies mentioned to me that even if you don’t trade cryptocurrencies, there’s something called NFTs that is very popular, and you might want to look into it.

After two months, I was hooked. Since I studied English, I read a lot of English and Chinese materials and became fascinated with it, repeatedly learning and exploring this topic. Returning to the main topic, I personally agree that there is no strong correlation or positive correlation between Ethereum's development and NFTs. Just because ETH is thriving doesn’t mean NFTs will rise, or they may even have an inverse correlation.

I personally think that ETH, as an infrastructure and a foundation, has the successful merge and upgrade as very favorable news for the next bull market of NFTs. Because when ETH upgrades to 2.0, there are three phases. The first phase, the beacon chain, has already been launched, and we are currently waiting for the merge. The recent price rebound of ETH is also due to the developers having postponed the merge multiple times, but at the last developer conference, they set a date for September 19. Of course, this merge date is not final and may change, so we need to keep an eye on their official information.

This roughly set date gives the market a good message, as the long-delayed transition from POW to POS, from proof of work to proof of stake, seems to be on track. Because after the merge, one of the things they need to do in the second phase is to implement sharding, which addresses the previous issues of slow transactions and high gas fees that have been criticized.

When people purchase NFTs, they may find that sometimes the market offers free mints, but if you are on the whitelist, you still have to pay gas fees. I entered the market in March-April, and gas fees were not too high, around $20. Even if gas is relatively low, depending on certain contracts, it may still cost $7-8 to mint something. So for users who are just entering this circle, they might initially be confused as to why they have to pay gas fees for something that is free. This is because the previous ETH had not been upgraded, which was a single-threaded computation. 1000 transactions would mean slowly queuing one by one, and everyone had to pay gas fees to miners. Once the merge is successful and sharding is implemented, it would be equivalent to transforming from a single-threaded machine to a multi-threaded processing machine, allowing 1000 transactions to be processed simultaneously without queuing, thus speeding up transaction speeds and significantly reducing gas fees. This benefits both new and old players; old players find gas fees cheaper and transaction speeds faster, making it more enjoyable, while new players find the entry barrier lower.

As an infrastructure, the successful upgrade of ETH is certainly a positive thing for NFTs, but does that mean NFTs will definitely enter a bull market after the successful upgrade of ETH? I don’t necessarily think it will turn around immediately. I haven’t been in contact with NFTs for a long time, but this circle and market change very quickly, so I personally feel that the current actions of NFTs, such as blue chips, have not particularly excited me with new features.

For example, the recent action of Bored Ape Yacht Club is to make a preliminary division of the land game they previously sold. In August, they may also launch the staking function for Ape Coin. Previously, NYC Doodle raised funds and is also launching a second-generation NFT, while also selling a hardware founder box, which means they will also move towards some wearable hardware.

I personally haven’t seen anything particularly exciting that makes me want to go all-in or invest heavily in new features. There are still many aspects or directions for new NFT features, and I believe there is still room for exploration. For example, NFT leasing: if a new user discovers a good NFT but cannot buy it outright, could they lease it to participate in community activities and experience the benefits of holding that NFT? Or perhaps people could crowdfund a project to buy an NFT, or purchase an NFT to fragment it and then airdrop it, allowing more people to own and hold that NFT.

Previously, Li Ning purchased a Bored Ape, and other Chinese companies also explored new ways to use NFT IP, turning NFTs from a small image into an IP that can be combined with offline physical commerce, while also selling offline physical products. We want to hear them talk about their collaboration with Liu Cixin, where holding the NFT allows you to choose the story direction and share copyright profits. I find that quite interesting and am eager to hear the next guest's speech.

Alex: Thank you very much. I think you covered it comprehensively. To summarize, Joe's viewpoint is that the correlation between ETH and NFTs may not be as strong as we think. Why was there a strong correlation before? Perhaps it was because they were both in a bull cycle, leading to everything rising together. Just because everything is rising doesn’t mean they are necessarily correlated, so I find that perspective quite interesting. Lucas, what do you think about this issue? Since you are also a project party and your project targets creators, the correlation with the NFT market is quite high.

Lucas: Our project aims to explore what different gameplay can emerge. The initial gameplay is inspired by narrative games like Invisible Guardian, where players can determine different plot and character fates through their choices, discovering various values along the way. For example, in this process, where you go on an adventure and what you obtain, the items mentioned in the plot will have greater value.

Currently, we have 2000 Dyson Spheres being released and sold, each with its own unique code and astronomical number. Liu Cixin's novel has already been partially written, but this part has not been released to the public. Many Dyson Spheres are mentioned in the content, and these Dyson Spheres will be sold at a higher price in the future, as they are mentioned in the novel, where the protagonist may have experienced adventures or obtained stories.

Looking at the current situation, what we want to do is to connect these NFT concepts with some real-world elements. After we release the NFTs, we may also launch a chain game and issue tokens based on the NFTs, bringing actual benefits to users. As users gaze at the stars at night, they might see a particular star that represents the holder of that star NFT. In the future, this star or Dyson Sphere could be singled out, with each Dyson Sphere having different ecological civilizations, possibly leading to adaptations in film and novels. How to apply Dyson Sphere civilization? The copyright of this Dyson Sphere belongs to you, and any adaptations you want to make must pay you in USDT.

We hope to build NFTs into a series of influential IPs, not just traditional, ethereal NFT projects that can be seen by people.

I also want to advertise a bit; our official website is currently selling a batch of NFTs. If anyone is interested, you can check our official website. Currently, you can also feel that the awareness of NFTs among people around you is continuously increasing. A few years ago, when NFTs were mentioned, people around would not know what it was. Now, you might see them in your social circles, possibly without a VPN, but they might buy similar NFTs, like purchasing NFTs on Alipay and saying in their social circles that they have entered this circle, or joining the NFT purchasing army on XBOX. This is the current environment.

Not only in our country, but recently, during the South Korean presidential election, the public's demand was to support cryptocurrencies, support NFTs, and support these forms of accounts. In Korea, some small companies are competing fiercely, and for many young people, NFT 3.0 may be a new workspace for them, as well as a spiritual support. So as a leader, if you do not support NFTs or cryptocurrencies, I would not want you to be our leader.

Overall, in terms of the market, the number of users is continuously increasing, but the current market situation may not be good, as many projects are still waiting for a more suitable moment to launch. Therefore, I remain optimistic about the future of NFTs because I am a project party myself. Although our project is not about spreading Liu Cixin's work, Liu Cixin is a Hugo Award winner, and he has a certain appeal in China and within the science fiction community. We know that value will certainly be transmitted with the birth of this work. For us, we are also waiting for an opportunity for the environment to recognize us.

Alex: I want to follow up with Lucas. Since you are a project party, do you think now is a suitable time to build? In the current NFT market, including the entire cryptocurrency market, as a project party, do you think there is hope for a transition from bear to bull? Given that both NFTs and ETH have shown signs of recovery recently, I mint NFTs quite frequently every week, and I haven’t lost much money recently, so I feel it should be warming up.

Lucas: Right now, we are in a wait-and-see state, but for us, we feel that the entire market is gradually improving because people have not lost interest in Ethereum. Currently, the number of validators on the Ethereum beacon chain has surpassed 410,000, with each validator needing to validate 32 ETH. This shows that although people may be affected by the bear market, aside from those primarily investing in cryptocurrencies, others have not been severely impacted, so they still maintain a certain expectation for this market. If there is a good project with novel gameplay and unique content that wins everyone’s recognition, it could become a hot project.

Alex: So it still depends on the degree of innovation. I remember the Potato project had some innovations that led to a sudden surge in popularity. I wonder if the guests have noticed that? Earlier, everyone talked about their views on correlation. Bernie, you are from a data platform; have you seen any interesting NFT trends or hot NFTs? I know that many NFTs, when they are hot, will have data dashboards established on Footprint, showing the project’s value, etc. Have you seen any interesting projects? Could you share?

Bernie Kong: Serious discussion, not investment advice. If you decide to buy, please be cautious. I think there are some interesting things happening in NFTs recently. Especially in May and June, there were only a few thousand or tens of thousands of people coming and going, which means in the secondary market, you take my plate, and I take the old plate, lacking liquidity. As mentioned earlier, in the secondary market, although Ethereum is rising now, the liquidity of funds is still insufficient. Many of those who made money in this batch, whether in GameFi, earning money from DeFi by providing liquidity, or through NFT small images.

Now it’s quite interesting; everyone calls each other the image circle and the coin circle, as if they are very divided. That said, we can see many players leaving the market, so we are now making some reports or communities to discuss whether we can find some incremental growth. If there is incremental growth, it would be very interesting. We see Yi Nengjing and her team working on a project called Theirverse. Can we find some collaborations with other projects? We can see many co-branded activities. Looking at the audience now, those with Mimic avatars, Black Cats, Pandas, I actually bought these, and I haven’t sold them yet.

These communities are very interesting. The Black Cat community often posts an avatar on the left and a Black Cat on the right, which are very similar, and everyone goes to build such groups. I have seen WeChat groups popping up everywhere. There was a very interesting NFT that greeted people with the not-so-nice term "Motherfucker." If I were to tell another friend, like Jack, to go do something to expand our community, Jack might say, "Why don’t you do it?" and the Motherfucker would reply, "Go back."

If it were strangers greeting each other, it would definitely not work, but that’s one of the interesting aspects of NFTs; this is our common language within the community. Just like the previous text and images, once you enter, such voices begin to emerge. Everyone’s background doesn’t matter; where they come from, when they entered Web3, their passion and trust in Web3, all these things are not important. What matters is that at this moment, we have this NFT; we are holders, and we have this belief.

Your and my perceptions of the floor price and psychology are different, but at this moment, we are in such a group, continuously reaching new understandings of this project. We have our own ways of chatting and communicating, and then there is movement within this community, with some people coming in and some going out. This is what makes NFTs very interesting because it gathers all the popularity. Such projects, in our view, can develop sustainably. We can see that from a data perspective and other aspects, there is short-term growth because this image circle is very fast, starting from white lists to everyone saying to do white lists, then to minting and secondary market circulation happening quickly, even faster than the coin circle.

What can really run down is not just the project party itself needing to do something; the project party must do things, which is inevitable, but these communities are truly the main force. Today, I also saw a picture of a bunch of people competing to be mods. It’s very competitive, with their backgrounds and qualifications being very diverse, and many newcomers are pouring in.

They could be someone who trades images or a community enthusiast, and everyone gathers around this project. The charm of NFTs is that it’s more tangible than what was previously discussed. For example, above 1000 ETH, we pulled a group together, and there’s a group for two-digit Bitcoin holders. It’s all more concrete. We see listeners here with Black Cats; perhaps the Black Cat is such a culture. You like my culture, and you have to start by buying at least one NFT, then hold it and integrate into our culture.

We can add new blood, and we welcome that, but we are always this kind of group, which is actually very interesting. If we look at it more macroscopically, we will find that NFTs will expand more into the metaverse and games in the future. In fact, NFTs will form the core part of any imagined game economy. Everyone knows this is a carrier of tangible value. We can see the existence of New Parcel, which is different from before, first granting you such rights, and then saying what you can do with this in the future. I will airdrop or provide you with various benefits. This behavior allows people to accumulate cash and deploy it into various value-storing assets, and the real world is actually parallel.

For example, game development has already become the cornerstone of the game economy compared to NFTs, creating a supply-demand mentality. In this dynamic process, NFTs are scarce and popular because of the games. Whether it’s weapons, cars, or land, there will be new incentives in the game. Moving forward, the content of this discussion is very grand; the entry point for the metaverse GameFi is in NFTs. Therefore, I am very much looking forward to the fact that there may not be so much capital in the secondary market. Ethereum may not be in a complete reversal, but what trends will NFTs have in the future? It’s not just about everyone charging for a small image today, but what else can be done next.

To give another example, a composable NFT game like Loot incentivizes the community to build an entire world around a set of NFTs. Without the ownership and portability granted by Web3, this would not be possible. Therefore, NFTs are not related to these; in the end, they are just a string of code sitting there. This string of code is very simple, and everyone can understand it, but whether the future trend can be realized is very interesting. This is what I believe, whether from a data analysis platform or other analysis platforms, we need to see the data and also dig into the reasons behind the activities of this data.

Alex: I think you’ve covered it comprehensively. Why do we need to pay attention to NFTs, how NFTs can create FOMO, and whether the current state of NFTs can meet expectations. We should consider how to view the future development direction of NFTs. This is a very comprehensive speech from Bernie, and it seems well-prepared.

Bernie Kong: No, it was completely spontaneous; I spoke wherever my thoughts led me.

Alex: This puts a lot of pressure on Lucas.

Bernie Kong: No, I’m looking forward to their projects. Footprint is also preparing its own NFTs recently, rewarding early community participants, including those core analysts who make reports and other contributors. We will reward them, and we can discuss this later. I won’t take up too much time advertising, but we are also making such attempts and hope to have a lot of cooperation space with X2Y2 in the future.

Alex: We can discuss cooperation later; that’s fine. Next, I want to ask Joe. I wonder if the pressure will increase. Joe, have you been paying attention to any popular NFT projects and gameplay recently? You represent the project party; do you think your project will learn some new gameplay? Or do you feel that NFTs are still relatively cold, and you are more inclined towards operational perspectives?

Joejoe Chen: It’s a lot of pressure to speak after you. I resonated with what Bernie said earlier. Although I’ve only been in this for a few months, this time has indeed shown me something. Compared to the past, where people gathered around a particular coin because they believed it would rise, I personally find that many people separate the coin circle from the image circle. A big reason is that NFTs, as non-fungible tokens, have a stronger cultural attribute than previous cryptocurrencies.

As Bernie mentioned, a single image can connect to a group of people behind it. This group exists in a community where they have their own specific language and culture. Many times, they do not expect the project party to do much; they will maintain the community atmosphere themselves and even raise the value of the NFTs they hold.

NFTs have transformed from a string of code into a tool or carrier that connects people. I’ve heard people say before that if you want to make money from NFTs, it’s best not to get too emotionally attached to these small images. Personally, when I dive into some projects, I see the images of Soda and Black Cat, and I feel these images have artistic value, are well-drawn, and express individuality. For me, after buying, I would hold them long-term, feeling that my purchase has some emotional attachment. In fact, the fans of these two projects have a very strong emotional attachment to the NFTs they hold. I previously followed many people on Twitter, and for a period, I was frequently bombarded by fans of these two projects.

Two weeks ago, I heard a group of people from Black Cat sharing on Twitter. One guest mentioned that the reason he bought this image was that he heard there were many beautiful women in the community. When fans were sharing images, I also saw many handsome guys showing off their images. They mentioned that the Black Cat project has many female holders. We know that if NFT projects do not specifically label themselves as female communities, there may not be many female players entering. Previously, the Witch community and World of Framing, which ranks high on OpenSea, are communities specifically highlighting women, and it’s completely understandable that there are many female participants. If there isn’t a specific NFT for women, but there are many female players, it shows that NFTs can be accepted as consumer goods by women, which I feel is a great point for consumer goods.

There has been analysis that if you hold a Black Cat image, people often say in the blockchain that it’s proof of work. If you want to hold a Black Cat, it’s proof of Cat Number, which is proof of being a cat lover.

This entire community culture, I personally think is very cool. Turning back to your question, as a project party, what kind of work are we doing in this bear market? Are we loyal to ourselves or learning new gameplay from other projects? Currently, the community is continuously building. We have been consistently sending out daily reports on the project.

Everyone knows that Web3 has many sources of information. With so much information, people wonder how to filter it or if there’s a briefing that can summarize it. I can see what’s hot in the recent projects, and I can check it before bed. Most members are still working part-time, so the original daily report has turned into an evening report, which we send out in the community every night. The evening report’s characteristic is that it doesn’t contain too much information, but we actually divide it into several sections, including blockchain information. Fomo Today introduces two to three hot projects in the market daily that everyone can pay attention to. Previously, we had some success with Golden Dogs, but this does not constitute any investment advice. Our community members research thoroughly.

Joejoe Chen: Because the market changes rapidly, many hotspots keep emerging, constantly stimulating everyone’s neurons. Sometimes, when everyone calms down to look at some filtered information, they can make better judgments. What we are doing now has corresponding projects abroad. Recently, a project shared in the community is called Techie Club, formed by many employees from major internet companies in Silicon Valley. It’s equivalent to many tech personnel forming a DAO and issuing their own NFTs as NFT passes, which will provide more rights within the DAO in the future. They also want to help those still working in Web2, especially foreign internet communities. If your English is okay, you can join their community, and they will help you understand the knowledge and information needed for Web3 from scratch.

Now, if you enter their Discord, you can see they are updating the latest Web3 job opportunities in real-time, making it a very practical DAO organization. We are also working towards this Web2 to Web3 educational goal. Later, we will launch a product on how to go from zero to being a project party for NFTs. If anyone is interested, please contact me, and I can bring you into the community, and we will also launch it in our community first.

Are there any unique projects in the market recently? I have been looking at many projects without white papers, communities, or roadmaps, specifically operated on Twitter. The previously mentioned Goblin is a big Golden Dog, and then there’s a project called Poo, which is a project about poop. This project is also very unique. It started around the end of May, and it took about half a month to create a blue-chip like Yoga Labs. In half a year, they completed the blue-chip tasks and are now in the token issuance phase. Such a project, which has rapidly evolved from nothing to something, is currently very popular among players in this bear market.

Bernie Kong: I think you’ve said it well. You’re promoting project parties to issue NFTs again. I heard that. How to go from zero to one in issuing projects, and the audience here will be the biggest players. At that time, I’ll be asking for guidance.

Joejoe Chen: Currently, I’m mainly doing activities in WeChat groups, so you can add me directly.

Bernie Kong: We can follow each other and play together later. NFTs will be launched soon, but it may not be so quick to reach the secondary market. We still want to give early contributors some rights, which is to give back to the community. In my view, NFT projects really need to give the community more rights and space, rather than being too centralized. Many community partners have very good ideas and thoughts, and through collision, they can refine a project’s development process, which may even be better than the original roadmap of the founding team. That’s a very appealing aspect.

Joejoe Chen: Because I also came from the community, I actively told the project party that I could help them with translations, and they directly let me be responsible for their translation guild, which means I gathered community members to do translations together. Although we are not large, after everyone in the translation guild becomes familiar, there will be four or five partners who will respond quickly to articles we publish every week, and cooperation is quite smooth. Currently, some new partners have joined.

In our guild organization, there are currently five to six guilds, and everyone is drawn from the community. Anyone who wants to participate can do so voluntarily.

Lucas: As an NFT holder myself, why do I hold NFTs? For many domestic players, the purpose of holding NFTs is to make money. They buy an NFT on Alipay, waiting for the policy to open up so that NFTs can be traded on-chain, and then they can make a profit. If they buy NFTs elsewhere, it might be a big profit driven by speculators.

You can see how many friends in your social circle have changed their avatars to NFTs they purchased on domestic platforms. It’s basically very few. However, if they buy NFTs on OpenSea or other overseas platforms, it may be more about recognition of identity beyond investment.

Among the host, speakers, and listeners present, you can see that everyone’s avatars are significantly related to NFTs. However, regarding the NFT projects themselves, the speed of their updates and iterations is still very fast. An NFT that is particularly hot this quarter may have countless people buying it, competing to bid. After a while, there might be other NFTs with new gameplay and new connotations that attract more attention, while previous NFT projects may lose their popularity.

Whether on Twitter or YouTube, these introductions may be replaced by new NFT introductions, and your avatar may change very quickly.

For me personally, I have changed my Twitter avatar to five different NFT projects. I simply think they look good and change them. For us NFT holders, the value of NFTs is recognition of our identity. As players who buy NFTs on overseas platforms, they also hope to gain recognition. Recently, I came across a project that makes NFT frames, which are square frames designed to display the NFTs you own. This project has already launched, but the effect isn’t great because it’s hard to prove what the NFT displayed means to outsiders. For insiders, the difference in their Twitter avatars isn’t significant, while on Twitter, you can divide your avatar into a hexagon to prove that it’s yours. However, for this NFT frame project, there’s no way to prove that this NFT is yours, so the recognition of identity isn’t very helpful.

Finally, returning to our project, we hope to create an NFT that can be passed down for a long time. Given the current market environment, NFT projects keep emerging, overshadowing past NFTs, which won’t attract attention. Our NFT project has a literary work background. When the Dyson Sphere novel is published, more people will read it. If it’s a good work, it may continue to be read and recognized by more people over the next three, five, ten years, or even longer. As the holder of this work’s NFT, your identity can be continuously recognized in this process. Therefore, we want to create something that can last longer and better showcase one’s identity, not just something purely virtual. We are trying to make some connections with reality.

Our project differs from others because the control of the project’s nodes cannot be in our hands but is more in Liu Cixin’s hands. The progress and plot development of this book need him to decide. At certain points, we will vote on how the plot should develop, and Liu Cixin will then push the novel to the next step. Currently, our project may only have a rough outline of the story in its initial stages, with the first part beginning, and we are in the process of making choices for the next part. Therefore, we are just starting to acquire our own NFTs, and NFT holders can enter our community.

Alex: Thank you all. That concludes our Space session today. See you next time!