Two Cents on NFTs
People love their collectibles. Digital items are just as good as the physical ones these days and the explosive popularity of NFTs has astounded me. I first learned about crypto art during the Atlanta Blockchain conference in February 2019. In my mind the only use for a blockchain was as a component of a proof-of-work currency. At the conference I saw a video piece that was divided and sold in multiple pieces. The pieces were to be played at a later date as a full piece, provided all of the owners showed up to unlock their portion of the video. At that moment I realized the legitimate use case for non-fungible tokens in the art world.
The NFT gives an artist the opportunity to sell ownership of their digital art in a way that wasn’t available to them before. Seth Godin made the mistake of weighing in before doing his due diligence by saying, “Buyers of NFTs may be blind to the fact that there’s no limit on the supply”, when the exact reason the collectors purchase NFTs is to have the exclusive right to proclaim ownership of that artwork (non fungible). Seth says, “NFTs are going to be more like Kindle books and YouTube videos.” He is confused. NFTs are better visualized as tiny scrap of paper (a unique string of characters) tied to the essence of a particular YouTube video. He is dead on when he says, “It’s an unregulated, non-transparent hustle with ‘bubble’ written all over it.” The maximalists will say everything in cryptocurrency is a scam and the game is ultimately to get more Bitcoin. If I am selling digital art to an eccentric billionaire is that not a legitimate hustle? It’s not like I’m selling CryptoKitties, I’m selling my blood, sweat and soul.
Personally, I would prefer to mint my first NFT as an artist on a principled cryptocurrency like Monero rather than Ethereum. For myself and other Monero enthusiasts, that would be a more valuable NFT. I would love to comment on the postmodern era here and how it influences the value of digital goods vs physical goods, but I don’t think I understand it all enough yet lol.
As much as there is to criticize about Ethereum, I must give their community credit for the radical Web 3.0 vision which they have manifested (to a certain extent). I can realistically see NFTs being used extensively in brand experiences like NBA Top Shot. Interaction designers should consider utilizing non-fungible tokens in ways that follow with the functions of their designs.
