There’s a palpable shift going on in the NFT world. I wake up to tweets saying people wish things would go back to the way they were in 2020. They’re obviously referring to the 10x gains typical for a PFP project.
And the time when you didn’t have to keep your guard up so high when everyone could be trusted. These days, opportunities to flip a digital asset for such returns are few and far in between.
As Karafuru, Co-Founder, Jeffry Jouw, puts it, “80 per cent of NFTs are pretty much a cash grab, where they build and sell, and don’t care about what happens after.”
Could the supply of the remaining 20 per cent diamonds in the rough be dwindling? Are we witnessing a bubble about to burst? Is this the end of the NFT golden era? I say no.
Pun intended
To date, the majority of NFT drops are centred around digital art and its collectible nature. It seems that after two years of that, we’re all craving more. In microeconomics, it’s called diminishing marginal utility.
After repeated exposure to a product or service, we derive less and less satisfaction from it. Even with the best marketing, maintaining the mint hype is no longer sustainable unless projects begin to introduce something new.
Web2 business leaders breaking into the Web3 space couldn’t have come at a better time. They’re introducing innovation that NFTs need through what’s known in the industry as Utility, the add-ons you receive with the purchase of your token.
Commonplace Utility that PFP projects provide is access to a community and events, merchandise, voting rights, and use in a future game. What these battle-hardened business leaders are bringing to the table is their experience in recognising what a market wants and delivering it.
Beyond digital
In Indonesia, three formidable startups have banded together to bring the Karafuru project to life. Urban Sneaker Society (USS), The Museum of Toys (MoT), and NFT launchpad, Artivak, successfully sold out their 5,555 NFTs that go way beyond the standard jpeg.
Also Read: How are NFTs contributing in creating a social impact?
USS, with its wildly successful, almost cult-like following has the ability to bring out sneakerheads to its annual IRL convention that averaged 50k attendees pre-pandemic, 35k in 2021. Their online event boasted even more visitors with 120k unique attendees. Clearly, USS knows how to mount meaningful events both online and offline.
As for Museum of Toys founder, Win Satya, purveyor of everything hip-hop, skateboarding, surreal creations, street art and comics as expressed in toys, he brings his expertise in street culture to the aesthetics of the Karufuru project.
Then there’s Brandon Salim of Artivak, that has guided the launch of at least three Indonesian NFTs. The team leverages such skills and experiences in their wheelhouse when they created Karafuru’s Roadmap which includes the creation of 3D toys, a real-life carnival, complete with partnerships, and much more.
In another corner of the globe, in Australia, the Meta Trees team is creating a project that seeks to reforest a plot of land in New South Wales. Leading this project is a farmer and agriculturist Teale Simmons and soil educator Ray Milidoni, where one NFT minted means one tree planted.
With a supply of 25,000 NFTs and regenerative agricultural practises, they aim to sequester carbon and reverse the effects of climate change en masse. As part of the GreenChipNFT movement, their aim is to create a viable model where Web3 is used for good IRL and scaled globally.
Pinky swear
It’s one thing to promise the moon, it’s another thing to deliver it. That’s why in considering a Utility NFT to invest in, you need to look at the founders.
They need to have a consistent track record of accomplished projects, a deep understanding of their space, and a network of references that you can confirm the results. After all, an NFT mint is essentially a fundraising activity.
For this reason, I’m particularly interested in the work being done at Zoofrenz. Again, this project is backed by a company, Zombot Studios, and not individuals.
Zombot Studios has decades of experience in developing skins for games such as Destiny, Spell Break, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and many others. Many of their team members have been in the gaming industry even before NFTs were invented. When they say that they’re developing a game, they know their stuff.
We’re not just talking about theoretical knowledge that you get from reading a book or a few blogs. Zombot Studios in collaboration with Kosuke Kawamura, and Teahouse Finance, under the guidance of multi-awarded CheYuWu, have come together to create the Zombie Club NFT.
Their goal is to bring more people into Web3 through education that they earned the hard way: by making mistakes and learning from them.
Through workshops, seminars, and social events, Zombie Club aims to raise the proficiency of Asian holders in all things crypto from general blockchain to security in a decentralised space, cold wallets to tokenomics.
Also Read: The art of blockchain: What is the NFT craze all about?
By developing a think tank for the space then connecting the equipped talent with partner retail brands, major players in the industry, and creating an in-house publication unit, the project hopes to be the breeding ground for solutions that make the NFT ecosystem more equitable. With the team behind it, it’s likely to succeed.
Final thoughts
I think we’re way past derivative projects that have difficulty in finding a way to leave their unique mark on the world. Especially with business owners coming into the space and collaborating with others, we’re seeing endless permutations of Utility and Web3 technology neatly packaged into an NFT project. Those are the ones I’m particularly excited about this year.
The trend may have begun with tech and artists leading the way but as we see more people with diverse backgrounds enter the space, we’ll be witnessing even more use cases emerge.
What could happen when those from healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance come in? I can only begin to imagine.
–
Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic
Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page
Image Credit: galitskaya via Canva Pro
The post Beyond the token and the law of diminishing marginal (NFT) utility appeared first on e27.