Jay Chou's stolen NFT, what is it

You can grasp everything big and small in the venture capital circle

Tencent Venture | ID：qqchuangye

"As long as you don't get in, you'll never lose."

The source of this article is "New Weekly" (ID: new-weekly), which is reprinted by Tencent Venture with permission.

Text/Brother Kai

This year's April Fool's Day "joke", Jay Chou is afraid that he can't laugh out:

On April 1, Jay Chou posted on INS that he had received an urgent call from a friend, saying that the "monkey" NFT that Huang Licheng had previously given to him had been stolen by a phishing website. At first, he thought it was an April Fool's joke, but after checking it out in person, he found that it was really gone.

It is understood that Jay Chou's stolen NFT is a digital avatar produced by BAYC (Boring Ape), and the value of the NFT is more than 3 million yuan according to the turnover of the thief's subsequent turnover on the trading platform.

As a result, the NFT, which is expensive, has once again entered the public eye because of this April Fool's Day event.

For people, NFT is not an unfamiliar term, after all, as early as a few months ago, NFT became the Collins Dictionary's 2021 hot word TOP1, and the popularity index even exceeded the "metaverse". But most passers-by are still confused about it:

NFT, what the hell is it?

Incidentally, 2 NFTs appear in this screenshot. Found it?

1

Anything is NFT

What is an NFT?

To review again, NFT (Non-Fungible Token), aka "non-homogeneous token/credential", is a unit of data stored on the blockchain and the only cryptocurrency token for digital assets with unique characteristic attributes.

The above is a professional academic explanation. We can also understand NFTs in a simple way:

Imagine that buying an NFT with Bitcoin is equivalent to buying a painting in RMB, buying a character skin with game currency, or the kind that comes with its own anti-counterfeiting logo.

Of course, such a metaphor is not entirely accurate. In fact, the NFT does not represent the digital work itself, but rather a proof of ownership of the work by the purchaser. Using the metaphor of buying a house, the NFT is not the house, but the real estate certificate - through the NFT " real estate certificate", people can clearly know who created the work, who owns it now, and what the transaction price of buying it is.

Of course, like buying a house, you will also get the house (goods) that you "come with" when you spend money on the property deed (NFT).

At present, the hottest application of NFT is the field of digital art, including digital paintings, digital avatars, GIFs, classic memes and so on.

Take Jay Chou's stolen "monkey" NFT, for example, this digital series avatar produced by BAYC (Boring Ape) is a hot and popular food in the NFT market today:

BAYC draws a total of 170 different features according to skin color, expression, jewelry and other elements, and the skin color alone has multiple versions such as brown leather, leopard print skin, metal skin, etc., and finally the algorithm program automatically combines and arranges them, generating 10,000 monkey heads with different shapes.jpg, and put them on the official website for sale.

And Jay Chou's (once) owned BAYC #3738号NFT is a cartoon ape with pink skin, angry eyes and cold teeth – the NFT makes the world know, but the real owner of this monkey is Jay Chou.

Like real-life artworks, everyone can have a Mona Lisa's 1:1 copy of the print, a collector's poster, but the real original is in the hands of only one person.

For the first time, the NFT has made the copyright and ownership of digital works clear, and the "monkey" NFTs that only distribute 10,000 in the world are also popular because of the scarcity of goods, and they are more valuable for art collection. In addition, BAYC also allows buyers to use NFTs to create T-shirts and other peripherals and use them for commercial purposes, which is also a value that is visible to the naked eye.

The application areas involved in NFTs are not just digital art.

In fact, the most ideal application of NFTs is the unformed metaverse - although the metacosm is far away, major manufacturers can't wait to launch related VR equipment, and NFTs are no exception.

From digital art to digital music, from game props to virtual real estate, the field of NFTs has also expanded to all aspects:

Taking the entertainment industry as an example, in September 2021, the latest film "Zero Contact" starring "Hannibal" Anthony Hopkins gave up the traditional theater and streaming media operations and "premiered" in the form of NFTs.

It is understood that the filmmakers have released a total of 11 NFTs, each of which not only contains a complete movie video, but also adds only this one, which is different from other NFTs, which can be said to be the fan economy "fiercely pinched".

Talking about the game industry, as gamers, we usually recharge to buy character skins and game props, but only obtain the right to use it, in fact, the ownership of the items still belongs to the game manufacturer;

The existing NFT games on the market have created a "Play to Earn" business model, players can get NFTs in the game, and then sell it to make money - under the conditions allowed by future technology, the NFT game props purchased by players in one game can also be brought to another game to achieve a real "meta-universe".

In March 2022, even Estée Lauder in the beauty industry began to test the waters of NFT - at the first virtual fashion week held by the 3D virtual world platform Decentraland, Estée Lauder launched a small brown bottle NFT, claiming that after users buy NFT, their avatar on the platform will be "radiant".

Does spending money on skincare products you can't apply sound like an IQ tax? But if you believe in the metaverse, you won't think so:

In the future, there will be something in the real world, and there will be something NFT in the metaverse. If people can really be as addicted to the metaverse as Ready Player One, soaking in the virtual world for longer than the real world, then spending money on NFTs will naturally become a common thing.

2

Are those who buy NFTs at high prices all big wrongs?

How hot are NFTs?

According to CNBC, the annual report released by data agency Nonfungible shows that in the past 2021, the NFT market traded more than $17 billion, an increase of 21,000% year-on-year. More than 2.5 million users have logged into openSea, Rarible, Mintbase and other trading platforms to buy NFTs and put them into their virtual wallets.

So how profitable is NFTs?

At present, the most popular digital avatar series NFT, in addition to Jay Chou's BAYC, there is also CryptoPunks (cryptopunk) - the same limited edition of 10,000 "unremarkable" digital avatars, CryptoPunks average selling for more than $100,000, the most expensive of which is CryptoPunks #5822, a picture sold for $22.8 million.

The digital avatar market is hot, and digital paintings are no exception:

American digital artist Beeple, who has been drawing a sketch a day since 2007, after painting for 5,000 days, merged them into the NFT painting Everydays: The First 5000 Days, which set a staggering record of $69.3 million at Christie's auction, $15 million more than Monet's famous painting "Water Lilies".

Seeing this, you may have another question -

I can understand why NFT exists, but does it have to sell so expensive?! People who spend sky-high prices on it don't feel like a leek?

In fact, for those who buy NFTs, NFTs have two major values: one is the value of collections and investments, as we mentioned earlier, each NFT is a unique digital asset certificate.

In 2021, Ryu Sakamoto first ventured into the NFT field, and he sold the well-known song "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" into 595 notes, each selling 10,000 yen – these note NFTs were sold in three rounds, the first round was sold out in less than half an hour, and it sold up to 20 times the price on the same day.

As collectors, the single note we buy cannot constitute a complete musical work, and the significance of buying it is to commemorate the work and support the master; and as an investor, people undoubtedly understand the strength of Ryuichi Sakamoto, believing that this note NFT has room for value preservation and investment potential.

Another big value of NFTs is social value.

As we all know, NFTs of more than 100,000 yuan are not affordable for everyone. Therefore, having an NFT is undoubtedly a special identity certification for the purchaser, just like getting the "admission ticket" of the celebrity circle, which can achieve social needs.

Back to Jay Chou's stolen "monkey" NFT -

BAYC is clearly deeply social and offers exclusive membership benefits to everyone who buys an NFT here:

Here, users not only have a special chat community, arcade game experience qualifications, you can contact celebrities from all walks of life, but also with the purchase record, on the online community graffiti wall to participate in the creation, every 15 minutes to draw a pixel, to complete a collective creation of art.

Celebrities who currently own BAYC, known as Rapper Eminem, talk show host Jimmy Fallon, NBA star Steven Curry and we know Jay Chou, many of whom use their purchased "monkeys" as social avatars.

But you must not think that "copying Dafa is good", changing the same avatar can be mixed into the celebrity circle - a new feature launched by social software Twitter this year makes the "pirated" avatar nowhere to go:

People who have purchased NFTs, after official certification, will generate a hexagonal border on their avatars on Twitter, while those who copy the pictures are still an ordinary round avatar. While no one may care, his privilege is already on display for the real holder.

The obvious collection value and social value have made many celebrities plunge into the circle of NFTs; and the celebrity effect has further ignited the NFT market, making ordinary people eager to try and be curious about this new thing.

Of course, rather than bringing goods to other products, celebrities are more willing to launch their own NFTs:

William Chardtner, the "Captain Kirk" who "soared into the sky" some time ago, although he is already a 91-year-old man, has always been at the forefront of the times:

He partnered with WAX Blockchain to launch 10,000 exclusive digital collection cards, which sold out in less than 10 minutes, and those who bought this NFT can get tidbits and life photos that he has never exposed.

On January 1, 2022, trend art platform Ezek and Jay Chou's brand PHANTACi released the first digital avatar NFT, a limited edition of 10,000 Phanta Bears .000 bears.

Although it was not launched by Jay Chou himself, he himself happily changed into the Phanta Bear avatar given by his own brand. The remaining NFTs, which were snapped up in just 40 minutes, were worth more than 62 million yuan, topping the global NFT trading volume of the day.

The NFT market seems to be bright.

3

It's all bubbles?

Nowadays, everyone has an NFT dream:

Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to design an NFT to sell yourself instead of buying an NFT to invest in? This kind of assumption sounds very reasonable, and the successful cases that have been there so far are also itchy to watch:

The 12-year-old Japanese elementary school student, alias "Zombie Zoo Keeper" (zombie animal administrator), drew several digital animal heads during the summer vacation, and made 3.7 million yuan (about 200,000 yuan), of which the most expensive NFT sold for 800,000 yen, and the buyer said that he was deeply impressed by the "sense of innocence" in the painting;

The owner of the B station, @Big Ears TV, said that he took his wife as the prototype and casually drew a "scrawled" digital avatar, and the result was actually bought by someone for 6500 yuan: "This buyer, I clicked into your homepage, looked at your collection of other works, and then looked at my own works, and suddenly there was a deep guilt." ”

However, this is only "survivor bias" - the Alan Turing Institute in the United States, after analyzing OpenSea, the largest trading platform for NFTs, found that 75% of NFTs on the platform are sold for less than $15, and most of them cannot be sold. Only 1% of NFTs trade above $1500.

Nowadays's hot CryptoPunks (cryptopunk), 5 years ago, no one wanted to send it for free, so whether the NFT can be sold, itself is a metaphysics - plus the major trading platforms have added regulations, to sell NFT works, you have to pay the website tens to hundreds of dollars in fees, if no one buys, then you are really a big loss.

At first, people ignored CryptoPunks, but now they can't climb high.

At the same time, whether it is for creators or buyers, there are still a series of problems that need to be solved in the current mixed NFT market.

For creators, the NFT's constant emphasis on digital copyright has once become their most distressing issue:

If you want to sell NFTs on the trading platform, you only need to register an account, create an e-wallet, and then upload pictures/audios and other works to the platform, fill in the relevant original information, and you can sit and wait for the account.

But the problem is that the trading platform can't judge whether this is your original work, so as long as you steal not a world famous painting, you can theoretically upload other people's works to the platform to sell -

According to the analysis report of the trading platform OpenSea, more than 80% of NFTs on the market are plagiarized artwork and spam. Another trading platform, DeviantArt, tried to send alerts to infringed artists through ai's automatic scanning comparison, but this also required the artists themselves to have an account with DeviantArt to receive them, with little effect.

For buyers, in addition to worrying about being scammed by phishing websites and the NFTs they buy are transferred to scam accounts, the inflated price of NFTs is also a problem worth vigilance.

Due to the lack of effective laws and regulations and market supervision, some NFTs are also caught in the turmoil of money laundering: the trading platform LooksRare has been exposed to more than 8 billion US dollars of money laundering transactions, which makes people think about it.

The pit exposed by the NFT has made many hot people return to rationality:

In 2022, data released by cryptocurrency market website Coin Market Cap showed that the trading volume of foreign NFT markets has declined, the average transaction price of NFTs has fallen from $6800 in January to $2,000 in February, and the volume of secondary sales has also dropped from 38,000 pieces per day to 7,900 pieces.

While the foreign NFT market is pouring cold water, the domestic NFT market has also begun to develop and explore:

Tencent, Ali and other major manufacturers have successively launched related trading platforms, and at the end of 2021, Xinhua News Agency also issued China's first set of "news digital collection" NFTs. Different from foreign NFTs, we call it "digital collections", most of the "digital collections" can not be sold twice, can only be bought for collection, so as to avoid the financial attributes with risk, more emphasis on the collection value of works.

How NFTs will develop in the future is still an unknown variable. But in any case, for those who are still on the sidelines, it is not the best time for NFTs to start.

After all, as long as you don't enter the game, you will never become a loser.

Resources:

[1] What Is An NFT? Non-Fungible Tokens Explained｜Forbes

[2] What are NFTs?｜The New York Times

[3] NFTs, explained｜The Verge

[4] The first year of the "NFT": How did "digital tokens" sweep the cultural sphere? | Beijing News Book Review Weekly

[5] "Sky-high" NFTs appear frequently, can ordinary players get the script of getting rich? | 21st Century Business Herald

[6] You can't understand NFTs now, just like your parents couldn't understand online shopping| City Pictorial

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