The author | Xiaoman
The title image | statement comes from the Network. Sting Institute original article, if you need to reprint, please leave a message to apply for a confession.
Not long after Jay Chou entered the "Rashomon" of the meta-universe NFT Phantom Bear (Phanta Bear), Chen Guanxi also joined the camp of promoting the NFT.
On January 8, Chen Guanxi posted the same series of NFT avatars of the phantom bear on his personal social media account and interacted with Jay Chou. On January 10, news came out that it may be possible to release some NFT projects with Jay Chou before the end of the year.
When the metacosm is still just a popular concept that is sought after by capital and forcibly rubbed by enterprises, most ordinary people can still remain indifferent. But when the idol stars of fame and fortune begin to enter the game, people can no longer calm down. And behind the matter, it is not as simple as fans see.
1, star drainage, NFT turned red
In fact, NFTs have appeared as early as 2017. However, compared with the "big event" of Bitcoin setting a new record price of $20,000 in December of this year, the emergence of NFTs naturally did not attract much attention.
At that time, Ethereum, as a high-profile star project, attracted many project teams to try to develop specific applications on its network, and blockchain games represented by CryptoKitties set off a wave of NFT popularity.
Crypto cats are similar to a blockchain-based "electronic pet" where players can buy and sell their own crypto cats, or have them breed to spawn new crypto cats. The uniqueness of the crypto cat is that the appearance of each cat's eyes, fur, etc. is different, and the encrypted cat has different "values" as a result.
As for the phantom bear that Jay Chou and Chen Guanxi have "supported" one after another, it belongs to another type - cryptopunk. On the surface, the NFT avatar used by Jay Chou and other stars is only a JPG picture, but in fact, each JPG corresponds to a unique address on the blockchain network, and can verify the authenticity of the NFT.
In terms of value, although cryptopunk does not have the same game function as crypto cat, it can have certain social value as an avatar. Especially in recent years, the NFT has successfully attracted the attention of sports and entertainment stars, and NBA star Curry spent about $180,000 in September 2021 to buy a blue "Boring Ape" JPG avatar, which also completely ignited the "Boring Ape" series of NFT works.
In the eyes of many celebrities, having an NFT work as an avatar is a very trendy and cool thing, and their identity-based behavior has also formed an idol call for the fan group. Therefore, when the meta-universe platform Ezek announced the launch of a limited NFT phantom bear in conjunction with Jay Chou's brand, there will be a frenzy of 62 million yuan sold out in 40 minutes.
2. Art or speculation?
In the eyes of many people, the NFT fire is just another star-chasing behavior that fans pay for for the stars, but the NFT itself is not only a commercial act, it is also hailed by cryptocurrency enthusiasts as an artistic experiment.
In the field of traditional collection, because ordinary users cannot distinguish the authenticity of artworks, they often need to be identified by third-party institutions before they dare to obtain the works of artists. However, NFTs are based on the uniqueness of the blockchain network, so that ordinary users only need to check the encrypted address of the NFT to verify the authenticity of the collection, thus excluding the existence of third parties and allowing artists to face with users.
In March 2021, British auction house Christie's debuted an NFT work. American digital painting artist Beeple's NFT work "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" started at $100, climbed to $1 million within an hour of listing, and after 353 bidding, lasted 15 days, and finally sold for $69.35 million, about 450 million yuan, and the work became the third most valuable artwork in the history of auctions by living artists.
Proponents of the NFT believe that the fact that NFT works are auctioned as works of art by world-renowned auction houses means that the artistic value of the NFT has been recognized by the mainstream art community. But in the eyes of some ordinary investors who have experienced the bursting of the cryptocurrency bubble, this is nothing more than a new way of hype.
"Christie's itself is just an auction platform, and the auction of NFT products does not explain anything by itself." And the final buyer of that auction, who is also the founder of an NFT fund, is to give himself a show, not so much that the NFT has been recognized by the mainstream art world, but rather self-congratulatory. ”
Xiao Yuan, who has been concerned about cryptocurrencies since 2017, told the Sting Institute, "The stars themselves bring their own traffic, plus some of the NFTs they launch are actually not expensive, so it can be seen as an act of fan support." And those who really snapped up NFTs are mostly cryptocurrency enthusiasts who enter the market with speculative purposes. Perhaps in their eyes, these stars are not much different from the so-called KOLs who previously gave the capital disk project platform, the only difference is that Jay Chou's traffic is greater, and the price of NFT can be speculated higher. ”
3, NFT specializes in cutting young leeks?
It is worth mentioning that in the final stage of Christie's march auction, 22 million visitors logged on to the auction website to witness bids from buyers from 11 countries, more than 50% of buyers were millennials born in 1981-1996, and 6% of buyers were "Generation Z" born between 1997 and 2012. In a QQ group with more than 1,000 people joined by the Sting Institute, the proportion of group users after 90 and 00 has accounted for 63% of the total number of people in the group.
NFTs seem to be particularly susceptible to interest among young users, and in the eyes of some young people, buying NFTs may be a simple consumer behavior, unrelated to investment or speculation.
In the view of Liu Chang, the head of operations of the domestic NFT distribution platform "Taopai", it is almost natural for young people to buy NFT products. "As Internet natives, young people are more likely to accept native NFT products, just like some young people like Han Han more than some traditional writers."
Liu Chang said that many young people will buy NFT products based on their own love, or for the purpose of collection, and under the leadership of some public figures, NFT products have become cool and novel representatives in the eyes of young people, and the purpose of their purchase of NFTs is sometimes as direct and simple as buying skins in games.
Kobayashi, a 26-year-old blockchain technology enthusiast and cryptocurrency investor, told the Sting Institute that although some speculative cryptocurrency enthusiasts regard NFT as another crypto bubble, from the perspective of the development process of blockchain technology, the value of NFT is not just used for speculation.
Kobayashi believes that the innovation and real value of NFTs is that it provides a way to label ownership of native digital assets, and that ownership can exist outside of centralized services or centralized libraries. This means that you have full ownership of your assets and can dispose of your digital assets at will, no matter wherever they are, and for the hottest metaversy, it is equivalent to building an infrastructure for the flow of value in the virtual world.
"Now many large companies are rubbing the hot spots of the metacosm, but in fact, the metacosm cannot be achieved by two or three companies." Taking the mobile Internet as an example, Kobayashi told the Sting Institute that the metaverse, as an idealized digital world, not only needs to have the underlying technology, but also needs to match the application of various different scenarios. The NFT's ability to label ownership of native digital assets has given people a glimpse of its value in the world of the metaverse.
"Probably a lot of big companies see NFTs as a ticket into the metaverse. And the threshold for issuing NFT products is also very low, so it is good to rub hot spots, grab users in advance, and how to see large companies issuing NFTs is a low-cost and high-yield thing. ”
4, the risk behind the NFT can not be ignored
According to a report by market research agency Chainalysis, the size of the NFT market in 2021 has reached at least $26.9 billion, about 170 billion yuan, corresponding to the market prospect of a blue ocean, and the risk behind NFTs cannot be ignored.
First of all, since most NFT products are directly related to cryptocurrencies, and the business related to cryptocurrency trading is an illegal financial activity in China, there are certain legal risks in purchasing NFT products for investment purposes and trading other NFT products in China. In addition, due to the uncertainty of the origin of cryptocurrencies, there is also a possibility that money laundering may be used in NFT product transactions.
Secondly, after taking the meta-universe hotspot and being brought on by the stars again, some NFT products have shown hype, and for users who buy NFTs for investment purposes, there is an investment risk of no return behind the high price.
Therefore, unlike the phenomenon of foreign speculation on NFTs in the secondary market, the domestic platform for issuing NFTs will lay out its layout in the primary market, and the products are mostly based on the alliance chain rather than the decentralized public chain, and restrict or prohibit secondary market transactions.
Previously, salted fish also blocked the "NFT" keyword, Alipay's NFT platform "Whale Detective" is also informing users of a page, clearly stating that NFT is to meet the user's collection needs, does not support resale, and for the user's free gift there is a certain threshold, must meet the holding of NFT 180 days later.
In addition, as a collection issued on blockchain technology, many ordinary users who are attracted by public opinion only stay at the level of "a JPG image" and are neither aware nor interested in the technical risks faced by NFTs. But in fact, NFT products also face the risk of being hacked and stolen.
All in all, whether from the perspective of value or technology, the current stage of NFT products has indeed received the support of a considerable number of people. There is no doubt that fans buy peripherals and respond to idols, but the hype that follows in the cryptocurrency industry cannot be ignored.
At present, although the metaverse is still far away from us, the NFT seems to have become an entry ticket into the metaverse, allowing Internet companies to find a way to link the future world, and also allowing ordinary people to feel the wonderful magic from the digital world.
*In order to protect the privacy of the respondents, the above names are pseudonyms except "Liu Chang".