The emerging structure of the creator’s economy based on the NFT boom is a stunning development. If an artist can reach the biggest possible audience without dealing with middle men or the possibility of their work being falsified, it’s a crazy fantasy that has come true.
With the likes of Twitter, Meta, and Reddit all vying for a piece of the Non-Fungible token pie, the future does seem bright.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, took hold of the market in 2021 with billions traded worldwide over crypto-technology. The strong global community backing the concept is seeing NFTs see adoptions not only within gaming but in sectors such as finance, art, and medicine.
Investors are placing their bet on NFTs with many promising startups coming up in the field. From inspiring an art gallery revamp to turning the art world on its head, non-fungible tokens are set to disrupt new industries in the years to come. What trends will define these breakthroughs? Let’s discuss:
NFT Gaming
Although video games allowing the ability to “collect, breed, and sell” NFT (non-fungible tokens) appear rather new, they may not be. The game CryptoKitties has captured the attention of users in Canada in 2017 by allowing them to buy, sell, sell this virtual asset that is able to create more by mating their cats. Recently these transactions have become too much for the upper limit on the Ethereum network limiting it all to just buying virtual things.
NFT Ticketing
Digital collectibles verge on the future of ticketing. GET Protocol and Centaurify are just two companies, ushering NFTs into the ticketing scene. With an NFT, more control is given over reselling tickets on secondary markets; tickets are more secure in their storage; and tickets can be seen as something of digital worth.
NFT streaming and community-owned entertainment
With NFT streaming, communities can come together to create their own entertainment. These web-based digital artworks are interactive and transferable. Anyone who is involved in their production or consumption can share them across the web with ease.
NFT Fine Arts
Anyone who knows anything about NFTs will tell you that they’ve revolutionized the concept of digital art. We’ve already looked at Picasso pieces and art produced through AI, but when it comes to NFTs, there are a few other factors that show potential for disrupting traditional art markets.
Everydays: The First 5000 Days: A Christie’s auction in March by the American artist Mike Winkelmann aka Beeple sold 5,000 pieces of digital art for a whooping $69 million. This sale set the standard for the potential that NFTs can offer.
Fractionalize pieces of NFTs: One of the most promising decentralised projects, Fractional, will enable the creation and minting of tokenized fractional ownership in the NFT. Furthermore, fractionalizing enables NFT owners to leverage their asset without having to sell the whole thing.
The platform will also allow users to fractionalize whole collections of NFTs and distribute them under a single shared ownership token, enabling individuals with less understanding of the industry to invest in NFTs collected by more recognised collectors of the scene.
$30 million power purchase: When Justin Sun, the founder of crypto platform TRON, purchased $30 million in art last year, he turned them into “NFTs”—a sure-fire way to capture the attention of the art world.
NFTs and Health
Data is the most valuable asset in the digital economy. But most people have few ways to actually monetize their personal data. NFT Medical, an Israeli startup company seeking to provide patients with profit sharing in their own data, can help achieve this goal. The right tool will allow patients to control how their digitized healthcare system assets are used in order to change different processes in patient’s lives—not just treatments.
Spores NFT Marketplace
The Spores multichain NFT marketplace is now live with Defi functionalities, with plans for interoperability in the future. Selling your rare, strange, whatever-you-want-to-describe-it token will be easier, with less limitations on where potential buyers can buy them.
NFT in Finance
Investing in NFTs is an attractive option, with NFT sales volume reaching $10.7bn in the third quarter of 2021. This does not go unnoticed by the financial world, who will also be investing in NFTs themselves.
The NFT market is valued at billions of dollars. Unlike real estate, however, you can’t make money off NFTs just by buying and holding onto them.
Twitter releases NFT
Twitter releases NFTs for users on its platform through rare-form marketplace Rarible. The new offer is an opportunity for Twitter to give its users little taste of what it’s like to have some of its treasured memories, while simultaneously showing the trend of customizing memorabilia with 3D scanned data.
NFT Marketplace Opensea becomes unicorn
Opensea recently raised $100 million in its round led by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz to keep up with NFT marketplace giants. The company is now valued at $1.5 billion.
NFTs will soon enter the mainstream world, with markets around them developing. Opensea is an example of this evolution- they recently raised $52.5 million in Series B funding to break into NFTs for good for a long and bright future.
NFTs and the Metaverse
NFTs and the metaverse are becoming more similar. The proliferation of NFTs in blockchain games is one of the causes behind this. Highly integrated games are a natural medium for bringing the metaverse to life for many people. The NFTs facilitate access into the metaverse by tying real-world identities to virtual avatars.
Similar to a deed and a key, NFTs may enable the owner of a ‘virtual’ property to get access to that area inside the metaverse and provide permission to others. NFT deed/key deeds and keys may be easily transferred to another metaverse dweller, granting them possession of the property with all of its privileges. Crazy right?!
Record-Breaking Sale of Cryptopunk
A new development is in the crypto fever world of blockchain fever with Cryptopunks. The record-breaking sale has increased the demand for yet another resource on the Ethereum Blockchain. These 10,000, unique Cryptopunks with a capped supply are scarce and make it so special.
It’s just the beginning
The NFT space is changing and expanding as projects pop up more and more. Such projects include new ones by Busan Mayor Oh Keo-Dae, the International Cricket Council, and CoinRunners.
Trends in NFTs over the past year have demonstrated their steady growth, high interest, and broad field of application. Through these three trends, it’s possible that NFTs will soon be just as influential as crypto-assets.
With the craze for NFTs growing across platforms and simultaneously attracting new fronts, the explosion of this technology, with strong support from the architectural beauty of blockchain, is still just a beginning. So for all the naysayers out there, the future will only get tougher in engulfing the incredible growth of digital art. Watch out!
