The incredible enthusiasm for NFTs led to tremendous growth of the NFT industry in 2021. The early days of 2022 mark a new era for NFTs, with many changes to the market.
Are we facing a bubble on the verge of bursting? Are the NFTs markets holding up despite the tense geopolitical situation surrounding the war in Ukraine?
The Q1 Quarterly Report 2022 presents the first detailed figures on the reality of NFTs markets.
This quarter, we had the chance to interview Shaban Shaame, a pioneer of Blockchain Gaming since 2014, who shares his vision and thoughts on the state of the industry.

Collectibles are the predominant segment in the industry, far ahead of Art or even the Metaverses.

The general public seems to be losing interest in NFTs, if the search volume on Google is to be believed.

For the first time, some segments show a negative balance: Gaming shows a total loss of almost $50 million on the segment, which makes it the least profitable segment of the industry from a trading point of view.

The resale profit volume is down 3% while the total loss volume is up nearly 50% compared to the previous quarter.

Q1 Report 2022

With nearly $8 billion traded in the first quarter of 2022, the market cannot really be considered to have collapsed. We are seeing more of a form of stabilization, in line with the last quarter of 2021.
Conversely, the volume of sales fell by nearly 50%, with a very marked slowdown in the volume of buyers and sellers.
The great novelty of this quarter is undoubtedly the evolution of profitability in the markets. Making a profit in NFTs is no longer so easy in 2022...

Quarterly NFT Market Report

Every year since 2018, NonFungible.com publishes “Yearly NFT Market Report” which remains to date the most in-depth and comprehensive piece of research about the NFT Industry.

These reports are designed for curious newcomers as well as experienced investors.

Collectibles is probably the segment that is running out of steam in favor of Metaverses and Blockchain Gaming.

With over $5 billion in profit recorded in NFT trading, speculation is an integral part of this market. But this is a more complex activity than it seems...

Markets gradually became saturated with the issuance of millions of new NFTs. How have the markets reacted to this unbridled multiplication of assets?

The market boomed to over $15 billion for nearly 2 million active wallets.

Yearly Report 2021

"NFT" was declared word of the year 2021. This is not surprising given the exponential growth of the industry. Between unprecedented opportunities, excessive speculation and new economic models: where are we?

The 200 pages, 70 metrics and 15 interviews of this report have been designed to give you the most complete and up-to-date overview of the different facets of the NFT industry.



Yearly NFT Market Report

Data doesn’t lie, at NonFungible we analyze it and make the complex simple and freely accessible for everyone.

Our Q3 Report looks into Non-Fungible Token trends on the Ethereum chain. We use our data to provide an in depth analysis of the market backed with charts and analytics.

Q3 of 2021 broke the $billion threshold by a long way, with almost $6 billion traded on the Ethereum blockchain alone. All indicators continue to show an upwards trend, with the number of wallets in use of both buyers and sellers increasing significantly.

Record USD volume for NFT sales

Unsurprisingly, the collectibles segment generated the most USD volume this quarter, undoubtedly stemming from PFP hype but also from the continual increase in the price of CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Market Distribution

Q3 Report 2021

The recent growth of the NFT industry has been almost unbelievable. In just a few short months, the $billion-dollar mark has been crossed in traded NFTs, followed by $billion per quarter and only then to be surpassed by $billion per month.

The market we see evolving today is a market that is growing at an exponential rate, with unprecedented liquidity but it is also even more of a speculative and volatile market than ever before.

The current market growth dictates that all investors and NFT stakeholders should pay extra attention as Triple-digit growth goes hand in hand with market instability, unrealistic expectations and potential disappointments.

Data doesn’t lie. At NonFungible we analyze it and make the complex simple and freely accessible for everyone.

The NFT Market has been in full craze mode since the start of the year. We have witnessed multi-million-dollar sales almost every week with new projects announced each day, copycats are being created from copycats.

There are numerous NFT projects, with dozens of new promising ones popping up everyday. Sometimes, because of misleading marketing campaigns or inflated market volumes, it may be complicated to truly identify what is a promising project and what is not.

You have probably read on a lot of related websites that you should “DYOR” or “Do Your Own Research” before purchasing any asset, but where should you start and what is the right criteria? This section is intended to help you drive forward your own due diligence before investing into any NFT project or purchasing an asset.

As the NFT ecosystem is already extremely broad, from Art to Gaming and Metaverses, the due diligence process is necessarily different depending on the particular asset type.

What to check before buying an NFT?

As mentioned earlier, the objective of our work in this report is to help everyone gain autonomy in their analysis of the NFT Markets, with the right tools and the necessary knowledge.

Before going into further detail in this section, we must return to the assumption which is at the origin of our research work: "There is Wash Trading in the NFT Market". In order to validate this hypothesis and to succeed in quantifying Wash Trading, it is first necessary to identify in what form this Wash Trading takes place, how to recognize it and what reasonable doubts lead us to consider this or that transaction is an illegitimate one.

Is there wash trading in NFT markets?

Good Practices guide

We have always done our best to help the NFT industry remain as healthy and transparent as possible. In recent years, we have published several articles* on the risks and abuses within the ecosystem** in an effort to raise awareness among the various stakeholders. This year, we have decided to go even further and publish a comprehensive report which covers the good practices of Due Diligence in Wash Trading.

The purpose behind this report can be divided into five objectives:<ol><li>To make the NFT world a healthier place for everyone.</li><li>Bring further transparency and honesty to the booming NFT Markets.</li><li>Reduce the volume of suspicious transactions.</li><li>Ensure the long-term sustainability of this market.</li><li>Promote individual responsibility, i.e: Do Your Own Research “DYOR”, Due Diligence, community whistleblowing etc...</li></ol>

Data doesn’t lie. At NonFungible we analyze it and make the complex simple and freely accessible for everyone.

Our Q2 Report looks into Non-Fungible Token trends on the Ethereum chain. We use our data to provide an in depth analysis of the market backed with charts and analytics.

Whether compared to last year or the previous quarter, more dollars have been traded, the number of buyers and sellers have increased, and the number of active weekly wallets has increased. This trend is part of a strong growth for both the NFTs sector and the crypto sector since September 2020.

All indicators are green

Despite the USD volume being lower than at the beginning of the quarter, the sales volume saw a sharp increase. The collectible segment largely dominates the market in this quarter. The explosion in USD volume in May was mainly due to the launch of larvalabs’ Meebits project.

Out of all the sectors, the utility sector is the one that has evolved the most over the last three months. As these NFT use cases are not very widespread, we carefully consider this signal could become a trend.

Q2 Report 2021

During this turbulent quarter, the NFTs sector experienced a massive activity spike as new users joined the NFT community for the first time. These last three months, we have seen the mainstream media place NFTs on a pedestal, giving the industry excellent visibility, but also encouraging ink to flow, giving rise to new artists and projects.

Free Quarterly NFT Market Report

I had the chance to discuss NFT bartering regularly these last couple weeks with cryptocurrency experts, start-ups, curious, passionate and NFT token holders, through Meetups in France or more recently, at the<a href="https://delta-summit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Delta Summit in Malta</a>.



It was extremely motivating and exciting to see the positivity around these new digital assets, to discuss the possibilities, and to measure the almost infinite potential they offer.



Moreover, it was extremely pleasant to feel the support of all these people for the<a href="https://nonfungible.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> NonFungible.com</a> project!



During these various discussions, a rather recurring question popped up, and I think it deserves to be addressed in depth:



“Will it be possible to exchange a NFT for another NFT without going through cryptocurrencies?”



<h2>Why this question?</h2>



First of all, we have to look at the foundation of this question. NFTs are still very young assets, which is why their use, their pitfalls, and opportunities are still, not yet completely obvious.



NFTs inherit many properties and ideas that are associated with their older brothers, cryptocurrencies. The issue we are discussing today is a shining example. In the cryptosphere, the exchanges play a key role that promotes token circulation. It is therefore quite predictable that some users implicitly expect comparable tools for these new digital assets.



Seen from afar, NFTs are nothing more than new tokens on the blockchain, so why not trade them like any other token?



<h2>Why is it more complicated than it seems?</h2>



Simply because non-fungible tokens are not like the other tokens:



<ul><li>They are not cryptocurrencies</li><li>By design, they do not have the same liquidity</li><li>The use-cases are not comparable</li></ul>



Thus, NFTs can be more easily compared to objects of everyday life (a house, a cat, a Pokemon card, …) than a currency.



Setting up a non-fungible token exchange system without going through a (crypto) currency would be nothing less than barter.



<h2>Is it technically possible to do it?</h2>



Yes. Technically, mathematically and functionally speaking it is obviously possible to set up a system to exchange two<a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/cryptokitties" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CryptoKitties</a> against a<a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/decentraland" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> LAND</a>, or an<a href="https://embersword.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Ember Sword</a> asset against an<a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/axieinfinity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Axie Infinity</a> creature, depending on the value of the asset.



From a purely financial point of view, we are able to define the value of each asset according to its value system, for example, it’s native cryptocurrency (knowing that not all NFTs are based on the same cryptocurrency).



Let’s imagine that a <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/cryptokitties" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CryptoKitties </a>player is tired of the game and decides to start a business in Decentraland. He knows that his Kitties have value and wants to get rid of them to purchase a parcel of LAND in Decentraland.



Firstly, Cryptokitties are traded and valued based on Ethereum, whereas LAND is traded using MANA. This does not make conversion impossible but simply requires an extra step. The transaction today would look like this.



<ul><li>CryptoKitties &gt; Ethereum &gt; MANA &gt; LAND</li></ul>



So, if a system allows one day to convert directly



<ul><li>CryptoKitties &gt; LAND</li></ul>



This will simply mean that the two intermediate steps have been automatically handled by the system without any possible check by the buyer or seller upon those conversions.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="800" height="449" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bartering-nonfungible-nfts.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-1360" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bartering-nonfungible-nfts.jpeg 800w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bartering-nonfungible-nfts-300x168.jpeg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bartering-nonfungible-nfts-768x431.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure></div>



<h2>Should we do it?</h2>



THIS is the real core question. Being able to do it doesn’t necessarily imply that we should do it, or that it makes sense to do it.



To get back to our earlier example, a CryptoKitties player wishing to exchange his collection for a LAND without going through any (crypto)currency. I’m not convinced personally that it is a real use case for several reasons.



1) Bartering is no longer practiced today for good reasons. You do not buy an apartment for a piece of art, and you do not go to the supermarket with your own tomatoes to exchange for peppers. The monetary system, in spite of all its flaws, makes it possible to structure a coherent and global value system. This refers to two of the 3 roles of currency in our civilization:



“Unit of account — Currency makes it possible to be aware of the relative value of goods, and to make choices accordingly. It thus makes possible the economic calculation, that is to say the allocation of resources where they are most useful, their optimal use. It thus avoids shortages, and, more generally, makes a prosperous society possible by allowing the decisions of millions of individuals to be coordinated on the market. Without currency as a unit of account, no mechanism of prices, no economic calculation, no prosperity, no civilization.



Intermediate exchange — The currency makes possible exchanges that would be much too complex, and therefore impossible, with the simple barter. It makes possible any division of labor beyond the level of mere survival, so civilization.”



Translated from:<a href="http://laissez-faire.ch/fr/articles/les-trois-fonctions-de-la-monnaie-et-leur-sabotage/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> http://laissez-faire.ch/fr/articles/les-trois-fonctions-de-la-monnaie-et-leur-sabotage/</a>



2) The question of the monetary role of the asset also arises. CryptoKitties, just like LAND are not (and have not been designed to be) reference units of value.



3) For myself, the non-divisibility of the NFT represents the last reason why NFT barter is not a use that will become dominant in the ecosystem. 1 € = 0.66 CAD. Ok. Now imagine that a LAND = 10.762 Cryptokitties. What do we do with the remaining 0.762 Kitties? Should we have partial ownership of this Kitty? Should we consider selling only the body and not the head of the Kitty? These assets cannot be deconstructed and sold for pieces, which makes the valuation and exchange of NFTs for other NFTs without an intermediate value system too complicated.



<h2>In conclusion…</h2>



As you cannot imagine valuing a Lamborghini in yogurts, I do not think it makes sense to value/trade an NFT for another NFT.



Finally, we must acknowledge that barter has always existed in the digital universe as well as in the real world and that it will obviously not disappear. But it is and will remain unconventional.



We are very interested to discuss this subject with you. Do you think the NFT exchange is a real use case? Is it required? Will it be popular?

I had the chance to discuss NFT bartering regularly these last couple weeks with cryptocurrency experts, start-ups, curious, passionate…

Should we barter NFTs?

“  Are dollars or Bitcoin fungible assets?” &#8211; Yes… And no.”



Before diving into this strange conversation, we must return to the definition of non-fungible. Only then can we understand why most assumptions of “non-fungible” are incorrect, or at least incomplete.



I had several passionate debates during Meetups around the definition of non-fungibility. And I must confess… most of these debates turned out to be sterile but, they helped me understand something important: the definition of non-fungibility is everything but obvious.



Let’s go back to the basic definition of non-fungible.



<h2>Non-fungible definition</h2>



The definition of a fungible asset is as follows:



“(especially of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.”



Source:<a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/non-fungible"> </a><a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fungible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fungible</a>



“Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asset.asp">assets</a> simplify the exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between the assets.”



Source: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fungibility.asp</a>



A non-fungible asset therefore has the opposite characteristics to this definition. Those elements are:



<ul><li>Unique</li><li>Irreplaceable</li><li>Non-interchangeable</li></ul>



Excellent articles have been written on this topic, explaining what is a non fungible token.



<h3>By the <a href="https://decentraland.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Decentraland</a> team:</h3>



<a href="https://decentraland.org/blog/technology/what-are-nfts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What are NFTs?</a>



<h3>By our friends and NFT experts from <a href="https://0xcert.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">0xCert</a>:</h3>



“The potential of the blockchain technology is much more than cryptocurrencies. It will enable people, companies to put…”



<a href="https://medium.com/0xcert/fungible-vs-non-fungible-tokens-on-the-blockchain-ab4b12e0181a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fungible vs non-fungible tokens on the blockchain</a>



<h2>The most frequently use-cases</h2>



<ul><li>Fungible: Dollars, Bitcoin, Post-it, Sheets of paper, …</li><li>Non-fungible: Art, People, Game Character, Snowflakes, Real Estate, …</li><li>Unfortunately this is not so simple.</li></ul>



<h2>Why Bitcoin and Dollars are both fungible AND non-fungible.</h2>



Technically speaking each Bitcoin is definitely unique. This is why it is possible to trace the origin of a Bitcoin, and whether or not it participated in transactions in the “darknet” and subject to censorship.



In the same way, each Bitcoin has a unique transaction history that makes it irreplaceable. But we still consider Bitcoin as commonly fungible. Strange… Indeed, it is exchanged as a coin, each Bitcoin has (potentially) the same value as the others, and no one is wronged if two people exchange Bitcoins simultaneously…



Coins are the historical example of fungible assets in the real world. Traders accept a dollar bill without question (as long as it isn’t counterfeit of course). We could certainly replace all the coins in your wallet with others of the same value without you realizing it, and without having lost any value.



However, a numismatist can tell you that the coins are not identical. Replace the pieces in his collection with yours and the impact will not be the same. However, these are the same coins we talked about earlier. But for him, and with his training, he can tell you that this coin in your wallet had a unique feature that gives it an incredible value, and that each coin is different due to its date of issue, the pattern on it , the small defect or the scratch that it can have on an edge, …



In other words, these coins were fungible for you, but not fungible for him. So … what’s the answer?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="561" height="315" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/fungible-money.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-1362" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/fungible-money.jpeg 561w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/fungible-money-300x168.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 561px) 100vw, 561px" /><figcaption>Fungible or not?</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2>What do we mean with “non-fungible”?</h2>



The example of the piece analyzed by you or by a numismatist is quite evocative of this problem. Actually, NO item in this world is really fungible. Even two of the same pieces of furniture, apparently totally identical, have a different serial number, are composed of materials from different trees, …



We thus observe a fundamental difference between the technical value and the use value.



Technically speaking, Bitcoin is non-fungible. But its use value makes it fungible. For almost all actors today, owning one Bitcoin or another is irrelevant. Only an extremely small part of the community is concerned about the history of their Bitcoin.



Some people treat NFTs as fungible assets, totally ignoring the use behind them, considering only the financial value of the asset. Two parcels of LAND on the<a href="https://market.decentraland.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Decentraland Marketplace</a> worth 10,000 MANA may seem totally fungible to an unscrupulous speculator.



It is therefore the use value that defines the fungible or non-fungible character of the asset. And not its technical characteristics. The main use of an asset and the perception that one can have of it define fundamentally if the asset is fungible or not.



If tomorrow, everybody becomes a numismatist or is passionate about the traceability of his cryptocurrencies, these assets will instantly become non-fungible in use, without their technical characteristics having changed.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="800" height="449" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bitcoin-money.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-1363" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bitcoin-money.jpeg 800w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bitcoin-money-300x168.jpeg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/bitcoin-money-768x431.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption>Definitely both. Depending on what you’re checking.</figcaption></figure></div>

The definition of “non fungible tokens” is not as easy as it seems. Let’s have a deeper look at what “non fungible” really means.

Why most definitions of “non-fungible” are incorrect.

A few important remarks to begin with.



Over the last few months, I had the opportunity to attend a large number of MeetUps, blockchain events, conferences, and have been confronted with many ICO and blockchain startup pitches.



I have observed several very interesting things:



<ul><li>The difference between a good and bad blockchain startup pitch.</li><li>The four strongest values of the blockchain.</li><li>That the entire blockchain startup ecosystem is about to see a massive purge as more and more projects fail to deliver a product that capture users — bringing down with it the dream of “doing everything on the blockchain”.</li></ul>



<h2>What does a good blockchain startup pitch look like?</h2>



For me, what defines the quality of a startup pitch, lies in the promise of value. In most cases, a technological choice is not, in itself, a promise of value. A little reminder to arrive at this conclusion: taking an existing service, extremely profitable and solving a concrete problem, then simply putting it on a blockchain is NOT a promise of value.



Adding the terms “decentralized” or “transparency” to Uber is unfortunately, not enough of an incentive to disrupt the transportation industry. Similarly, building “AirBNB on the blockchain”, “Block-Facebook”, or any GAFA on the blockchain is not a project — it is a copycat with a buzz-word. These projects may provide real value but their target market is incredibly niche.



This startup pitch method is based on a recurring business model: Re-create a concept that weighs billions, add the blockchain keyword, and hope that at least a few crumbs will fall from this unnatural union.



Matt Lockyer sums up the current token ecosystem well in his article “Money for nothing and tokens for free” — <a href="https://hackernoon.com/money-for-nothing-and-tokens-for-free-1a280159e138" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://hackernoon.com/money-for-nothing-and-tokens-for-free-1a280159e138</a>



Thus, a “good” blockchain startup pitch does not rely on the fact that the project is based on blockchain technology, but on the value that the project provides itself.



You do not promote a best-seller by boasting about the quality of the paper it is printed on.



Blockchain is a medium. Users don’t care about the medium — they care about utility and experience.



Users care about the value of the service, not whether it has potential to be disruptive or not.



<h2>The values of blockchain</h2>



If we had to summarize the blockchain in a few words, I think we would use the following terms:



<ul><li>Unforgeable</li><li>Transparency</li><li>Decentralized</li><li>Traceability</li></ul>



These 4 ingredients are real technological and functional opportunities with the potential to deeply change the face of many sectors including finance, information, gaming, etc… However, for blockchain’s benefit, it is important to keep in mind that “blockchain” is not the answer to every question, and it is not going to “disrupt” every business model. Too many projects are still trying to simply stick some of those 4 values to any industry in order to disrupt it — it is not enough.



Bringing better traceability to Uber, more transparency to AirBnB, or decentralizing Amazon, does not provide enough value to users relative to the amount of additional complexities it introduces. These blockchain features alone are not solving existing problems or, providing enough value for users to actually use them over existing solutions.



And above all, let’s not forget that we are talking about companies that generate billions of revenue dollars in the year. I am extremely skeptical that these companies could be overthrown or disrupted by a third party player who is rebuilding their same model “on-chain”.



<h2>Where will the next Blockchain bubble come from?</h2>



The speculative bubble observed in December 2017 / January 2018 was a small bubble based only on financial speculation. It has undeniably hurt the crypto-financial markets, but at the same time has given tremendous visibility to the technology and the entire ecosystem.



The next bubble to come will not only be financial, it will be a deeper bubble — the blockchain-“disruption” bubble. That day, is when the entire ecosystem (entrepreneurs, investors, individuals, mainstream, …) will realize that YES, the blockchain has a huge potential, but NO, the blockchain is not the solution to every problem.



<h2>In the worst-case scenario</h2>



99% of blockchain startups will face their own limits and lack-of-value, and will eventually collapse. Let’s keep in mind that outside of blockchain, almost 90% of startups failed.



Source: <a href="https://www.failory.com/blog/startup-failure-rate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.failory.com/blog/startup-failure-rate</a>



Investors (Business Angels, Venture Companies, ICO participants, …) will assume significant financial losses, whose impact could be felt more widely on the economy. In any case, this collapse and awareness may throw doubt on the potential of the technology, and blockchain will once again be considered “dead” before returning from the ashes.



I believe blockchain will follow the adoption curve described by Gartner, and that we are fast approaching the “Peak of inflated expectations”, which will take us directly to the “Trough of disillusionment”.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="800" height="532" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/gartner-hype-cycle.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1365" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/gartner-hype-cycle.png 800w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/gartner-hype-cycle-300x200.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/gartner-hype-cycle-768x511.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle</a></figcaption></figure></div>



<h2>In the best-case scenario</h2>



Most of these blockchain startups are bought by others, and this phase of all-out entrepreneurship will have trained the population to these new technologies. A generation of entrepreneurs will have been sensitized to blockchain and it is a safe bet that this will boost the whole ecosystem.



With the solutions to fabricated problems removed, workforce trained, and the genuine entrepreneurs thriving, the ecosystem will benefit from healthy but exceptional growth as we observed in the years leading up to the tech bubble.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="800" height="290" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/total-us-vc-investments.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1366" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/total-us-vc-investments.png 800w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/total-us-vc-investments-300x109.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/total-us-vc-investments-768x278.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble#/media/File:US_VC_funding.png" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble#/media/File:US_VC_funding.png</a></figcaption></figure></div>



<h2>Some positive thoughts to conclude</h2>



Of course, this is only one future perspective for blockchain. With this evaluation we want to refocus the debate on how to create true utility and value using blockchain instead of hype and wishful thinking. We would like any new blockchain project to answer those two simple questions before launching:



What value will my product bring to my users?



How will blockchain help my project technologically, more than any other technology?

Exploring how poor startup pitches and practices bring us closer to the next major blockchain bubble.

The good and the bad about blockchain business pitches: where are we going?

You may have heard about “2001: A Space Odyssey”? You’ll notice there are some common points between the movie and the Enjin project.&nbsp;



Once upon a time, on Earth, a gigantic rectangular and smooth-shaped block appeared to humans. Still, in its early stages of evolution, this apparition has revolutionized our perception of things and environment. According to legend, this Monolith was the source of our intelligence and knowledge.



Later, on a planet not so far from ours, a group named Enjin will propose a mysterious treasure quest that seems directly inspired by these myths. This treasure, meant to bring glory but above all, wealth (1,155,777 ENJ / currently about $104 000 USD), to the one who finds it. The treasure will give place to a lot of mystery: to reach the end of this quest it will be necessary to &#8220;travel along the games of the multiverse, decipher clues, collect Easter Eggs, solve puzzles and discover the invisible”.



If you are looking for the Monolith by solving puzzles at all costs, you will be wasting your time because the solutions will only be found in the multiverse that Enjin wants created. And the multiverse that will contain these riddles, clues and Easter Eggs, it is not Enjin who will create it, it is us …



You can find the full story in this <a href="https://cdn.enjincoin.io/files/pdfs/thebullandbear.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">little comic book</a> published by the Enjin team.



<h2>The games</h2>



Before talking about the technical aspects of the project, let&#8217;s begin with the main use: the video game experience!



Many games have been announced over the past year, among them we can list: <a href="https://www.warofcrypto.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">War of Crypto</a>, <a href="https://www.cats-in-mechs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cats in Mech</a>, <a href="https://cryptofights.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cryptofights</a>, <a href="https://www.ageofrust.games/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Age of Rust</a>, <a href="https://www.forestknight.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forest Knight</a>,&#8230; The focus was then on the “Founder Tokens”, the cornerstones of Enjin&#8217;s universe that you were able to obtain through pre-sales or directly on OpenSea.



Subsequently, there have been other projects that have benefited from this craze: <a href="https://lostrelics.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lost Relics</a> (ex-Forgotten Artifact), <a href="https://www.bitcoin-hodler.info/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin Hodler</a>, <a href="https://www.playrebouncegame.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rebounce</a>, the studio of <a href="https://social.enigma-games.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enigma Games</a> or <a href="https://kepithorstudios.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kingdom Karnage</a> that have emerged and are already in the beta stage or demo. In terms of quality of the gaming experience, it is difficult to decide on the games because their stage of development is far too early to really form an opinion.



Recently, two other projects have generated some hype around Enjin:



<ul><li><a href="https://www.enjincraft.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enjincraft </a>for Minecraft players where it is possible to win objects by playing mini-games. Access is limited to those who have registered a few months ago.</li><li><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/920470/Dissolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dissolution</a>, an FPS already available on Steam that preferred to switch from standard ERC-721 to ERC-1155 recently.</li></ul>



To finish with, we have to evoke all the related projects: fanart, exchanges or virtual reality.&nbsp;



The question that arises is: Why did Enjin need a new technical standard (ERC-1155) to build its metaverse and cross-gaming experience?



<h2>ERC-1155</h2>



We’ll have to dive deeper into the technical aspects of Enjin projects to understand why the team decided to build its project on a brand new technical standard for their tokens.



The flow below describes roughly how the system works when you purchase a token on the Ethereum blockchain (cryptocurrency or non-fungible token):



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="640" height="194" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-trading.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1493" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-trading.png 640w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-trading-300x91.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption>Atomic swap of an ERC-20</figcaption></figure></div>



This action is called &#8220;Atomic Swap&#8221; and here is a simplified definition:



&#8220;Something is happening completely, or not at all&#8220;



Imagine that you go shopping and once at the checkout, the cashier tells you to pay all your items one by one. This will clog the cashier, which nobody wants. This is one of the major drawbacks of the current NFT standard (ERC-721), every transfer is a separate action. Although extensions to ERC-721 exist for batch transfers, the vanilla ERC-721 standard does not support this function. To answer this problem, the ERC-1155 differs from its cadets, here is a small diagram to simplify:



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="698" height="603" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-enjin-multi-asset-transfer.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1494" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-enjin-multi-asset-transfer.png 698w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/erc1155-enjin-multi-asset-transfer-300x259.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px" /><figcaption>How ERC-1155 is working</figcaption></figure></div>



Thanks to this standard, it is possible to send ERC-20 (tokens) and ERC-721 (non-fungible tokens) to several people under one globally shared contract! The Enjin team has therefore clearly identified the main need to be answered: being able to exchange and transfer multiple objects, tokens, virtual currencies in a very simple and especially massive way.



Another novelty is born thanks to this standard: the <a href="https://enjinx.io/eth/asset/26526" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Multiverse Founder Token</a>.



The MFT has one purpose: to thank its owner for his support for the project. Simply by keeping it warm in your wallet, the various projects of the multiverse will thank you through rewards and other benefits.



It is thanks to this system that we can receive assets by scanning (thanks to Enjin&#8217;s wallet) QR Codes that have appeared on <a href="https://trade.enjin.com/forum/m/50524658/viewforum/9372995" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">social networks</a> or in the <a href="https://egamers.io/ggfounders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">street</a> for a few months.



If you want to get more into the technical details of this standard, we recommend you to take a look at the <a href="https://github.com/enjin/erc-1155" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Github</a> which details all the features that can be used.



Sources :



<ul><li><a href="https://coincentral.com/what-are-atomic-swaps-a-beginners-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What are atomic swap ?</a></li><li><a href="https://blog.enjincoin.io/erc-1155-the-crypto-item-standard-ac9cf1c5a226" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What is ERC-1155 ?</a></li></ul>



<h2>Overhype or real trend?</h2>



Enjin have obviously generated some buzz this last year, with guerrilla marketing, great support from it’s users, investors and stakeholders, and more and more projects composing the universe. We’ll try to build a clearer vision between technical, functional and marketing aspects about this potentially huge project.



The main problem with the ERC-1155 standard is not from a technical point of view, but rather in the way it has been promoted as soon as the EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) was sent.



The team has done everything so that you use their tools to facilitate the use of this ERC, but especially for them: EnjinSpark, Unity SDK, dedicated portfolio, ENJ exclusively cited as an example for minting objects &#8230; many of these solutions arrive as a kind of kit for the project using 1155 necessarily pass by Enjin.



This made the hype go up around the Enjin projects and standard, while for the majority of them, we wonder if the ERC-721 standard with standard extensions would have been enough.



On the one hand, we have the Enjin team that aims to create a multiverse centered around one system of smart contracts, to promote blockchain gaming and propose a whole set of tools to developers to help them build this “cross-gaming” experience. On the other hand, we have that ENJ token, used mostly to speculate. If the games don’t live up to the hype, what will be the intrinsic value of the objects used in the games?



 It&#8217;s definitely a risk to launch such an ambitious and wide project based on not necessarily mature standards and technologies.



The Enjin team positions itself as the knowledge holders who created the worlds but they also like to keep some secret about their vision and “how it will actually work”.



The team has already repeatedly withheld information:



<ul><li>For clues about getting the Monolith or the Horn</li><li>The lack of any precise roadmap after 2018 despite the fact that they &#8220;know perfectly well where they are going”</li><li>The doubt about the native integration of the Enjin Wallet in the Samsung S10…</li></ul>



Enjin team obviously blow hot and cold on its community but it&#8217;s hard to determine their actual position toward the rest of the NFT community: are they competing or completing the current NFT ecosystem? The difference of standard, and the “exclusive side” of the cross-gaming experience definitely causes a kind of isolation. A lot of Enjin assets have been minted but how many will actually be used?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="614" height="355" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/enjin-marblecards.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1495" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/enjin-marblecards.png 614w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/enjin-marblecards-300x173.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px" /></figure></div>



Perhaps it would have been better to wait for the community to take advantage of this new batch token sending system other than deploying such an aggressive marketing strategy?



This would have allowed for example the <a href="https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/1412" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EIP-1412</a> to be a little more highlighted through The Sandbox to highlight the complementarity of the two standards. It would also have allowed the team expertise of <a href="https://blog.0xproject.com/vote-with-zrx-to-add-support-for-erc-1155-and-the-staticcallassetproxy-49a855807bcd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">0xproject</a> to be brought to this standard.



<h2>Let&#8217;s wait for the long-awaited Enjin games</h2>



This standard is only a technological step in the path of Non-Fungible Tokens, not a disruptive approach of the NFTs. Enjin has definitely pros and cons, but they managed to build a strong audience in the crypto-gaming ecosystem extremely quickly.



That said, if we think about the metaphor of comics, we are still at the stage of the battle between the bull and the bear. But if the story follows the planned path, we will soon be able to take part to the Horn’s quest and having a lot of fun playing all planned games.



So let’s wait for the release of these long-awaited games and we&#8217;ll see if the whole project is worth it!



One is purely speculator on the success of the project and the other only wants to build this famous multiverse, in search of &#8220;original&#8221; knowledge. This is reminiscent of the story I told you at first, which you can find the full story in this little comic that the team of Enjin has published in its infancy.

What about the Enjin phenomenon? Is this the future of blockchain gaming or an isolated and temporary event? What is the impact of this parallel standard (ERC-1155 vs. ERC-721) on the NFT ecosystem?

Is Enjin overhyped?

Once upon a time in the utopian universe of libertarianism, a new technology brought us a little closer to the ultimate goal of this philosophy.



As you probably already know, the blockchain allows you to check transactions thanks to different mining algorithms and to the wallet&#8217;s private keys storing your assets.



For fungible assets such as Bitcoin, this proves that you do have a number of them in your portfolio. Non-Fungible Token guarantee, in a forgery-proof way, a total right of ownership for more and more types of assets to its holder.&nbsp;



This way, there is no longer a trusted third party to manage your assets, you are supposed to be the sole master on board. By no longer delegating this trust to others, it belongs to you by right! And you are no longer a mere observer but a real actor in this system.



But do you have enough confidence in yourself? In your knowledge of the economy and this technology? Are your ethical principles strong enough to keep on track with the libertarian philosophy.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="750" height="750" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/josie-we-are-satoshi.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1778" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/josie-we-are-satoshi.png 750w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/josie-we-are-satoshi-300x300.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/josie-we-are-satoshi-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /><figcaption><a href="https://josie.io/shop/the-people" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">We are Satoshi</a> &#8211; by Josie</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2>What is Ethics?</h2>



To introduce this delicate subject, here is the definition of the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/fr/dictionnaire/anglais/ethic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cambrige dictionary</a>:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“a system of accepted beliefs that control behaviour, especially such a system based on morals”</blockquote>



Ethics is a concept that continually evolves according to morals, usages and regulations. In the absence of state regulation surrounding NFTs, only individual or community choices remain to define our conduct. This is why it is important to discuss and question one&#8217;s convictions in order to (re)define this notion. The goal is to find a balance so that everyone benefits from this ecosystem.



For a better comprehension, please consider that this article have been written based on the definition of libertarianism from the french version of <a href="https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wikipedia</a> :



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&nbsp;“a society whose institutions respect and protect the freedom of every individual to exercise the full right of ownership over himself or herself as well as the property rights he or she has legitimately acquired over external objects.”</blockquote>



If we take the example of Bitcoin, there is a track of political convictions in the Genesis Block but also a discussion forum for the community to exchange around the use of the project.



<h2>The Bitcoin ethic</h2>



When the Satoshi Nakamoto nickname ceased to be active, it allowed all those working on the project to take control of governance and de facto interpretation of its use. Without institution to rule, the only ones who were able to make decisions for the project was: Every individual involved, holders, builders, miners, content creators &#8211; every actor has a role and a say in the governance and future of Bitcoin.



When the &#8220;external objects&#8221; were only blocks containing Bitcoin to be shared between miners, no problem: Ownership issues revolved mainly around securing the blockchain to avoid purely technical hacks. However, when Bitcoin began to be used for something else than buying pizzas, the society&#8217;s codes began to be hacked and it did not appeal to everyone…



When Mark Karpelès was arrested for two things: the FBI thought he was linked somehow with the darknet marketplace Silk Road and the japan police thought he stole the 850 000 Bitcoin.



When Ross Ulbricht was arrested, a lot of people in the Bitcoin community tried to defend him in the name of freedom. Unethical and vicious techniques were used by the FBI to take him down, in the name of the war on drugs…



Without going into the sanctimonious judgment (is it &#8220;right&#8221; or &#8220;wrong&#8221;) of the arrest of Ross Ulbricht or Mark Karpelès, is it not ultimately the arbitrary intervention of States without consulting or listening to the various actors in the field that deserves further thinking?



Source :



<ul><li><a href="https://forkast.news/exclusive-excerpt-from-i-sold-my-soul-in-bitcoins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I Sold My Soul in Bitcoins</a> &#8211; Jake Adelstein</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="600" height="440" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/wasat-Theatre-Masks.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1779" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/wasat-Theatre-Masks.png 600w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/wasat-Theatre-Masks-300x220.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></figure></div>



<h2>Side Effects</h2>



The consequences of a prohibition are always the same: the multiplication in clandestinity of what was intended to be prohibited.



To prepare for this change and avoid ending up like Mark, the new trading platforms took the lead and started implementing KYCs in anticipation of regulation. The avarice and fear of these actors prevailed over the decentralized ideal to which Cypherpunk aspired, and the easy way out was imposed fairly quickly. Of course, some took advantage of this because not everyone shares the same ethics and many official user documents ended up on the Darkweb&#8230;



The climax of this avarice was reached at the end of 2017, but fortunately the very expensive price and the delay between transactions caused by the clogged Ethereum blockchain played a safeguard role to put an end to this speculative madness. Maybe people remembered that Bitcoin was mainly used on the Darkweb. Maybe this CryptoKitties wasn&#8217;t so pretty and you didn&#8217;t have to be in such a hurry to finally get one.



With the dry loss that everyone suffered, the state of affairs was catastrophic enough for a massive adoption of the blockchain :



<ul><li>The evangelists were preaching their churches.</li><li>The &#8220;general public&#8221; had locked itself into its conservative individualism.</li><li>The Whales held the markets in their hand.</li></ul>



So how, in this climate, have the NFT projects fared?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="394" height="272" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/play-to-earn.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1781" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/play-to-earn.png 394w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/play-to-earn-300x207.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px" /></figure></div>



<h2>Are NFTs a Win-Win?</h2>



At the beginning of 2018, a new dream appeared in the minds of the survivors of the bloodbath:



« What if it was possible to earn crypto-currencies other than by mining or trading? »



Knowing that it had become out of the question for users to pay another single cent for a Crypto project, the developers used a fairly simple method to gain the trust of users and that works very well in supermarkets: give a sample of the product.



Thanks to the ERC-721 standard that has become operational, the use of &#8220;Giveaways&#8221; had a double effect :



<ul><li>Create some buzz about the games and projects users&#8217; social networks</li><li>Develop FOMO as every class of assets are limited edition</li></ul>



Little by little, a new bond of trust was established, the one of an audience ready to play for rewards, and that it was going to be possible to exchange for cryptocurrencies. The compromise was the right one: while waiting for prices to recover, it is possible to obtain assets through entertainment. The « <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/game/play-to-earn-new-rules-new-players" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Play to Earn</a> » term was created and in essence, this function seems to complement a definition quoted above: Independent developers receive support from players, and players were rewarded with &#8220;outside items&#8221; that they own. But if the objective is a &#8220;fair&#8221; society in the long term, would one of the ideals be to find a form of shared governance to evolve serenely?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="750" height="430" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/nonfungible_alliance.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1782" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/nonfungible_alliance.png 750w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/05/nonfungible_alliance-300x172.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /></figure></div>



<h2>Ethical questions are here stay</h2>



NFTs do not currently have any state regulations, so once again the codes and moral principles of each apply.



What is notable about the current model is that for the moment the priority is to strengthen each community by project to ensure the presence of players in the medium-long term.



We asked ourselves the question when we looked at how the NFT <a href="https://nonfungible.com/blog/blockchain-gaming-player-distribution-s12019" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">community is constituted</a> in the first half of 2019. Some ethical questions arose when Enjin managed to stand out thanks to <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/enjin-over-hype" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ultra-aggressive, growth-hack marketing</a> to promote their project.



Let&#8217;s not forget that temptation can be quick and effective, except that unlike its big brother the &#8220;trading game&#8221;, there are new settings to take into account in the Play to Earn economy. In addition to do an evaluation of the project&#8217;s quality in which you are going to invest at least some time or even some money, you will have to evaluate the value of the goods you are going to acquire.



There are two initiatives gathering the different actors of the Non Fungible Token universe: The <a href="https://nonfungiblealliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Non Fungible Alliance</a> and the <a href="https://blockchaingamealliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockchain Game Alliance</a>. It might be worthwhile for it to be open to everyone so that everyone can choose our general policy freely, consciously and transparently. The rise of decentralized voting platforms like <a href="https://www.agora.vote/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Agora</a> propose interesting opportunities for the end-users to get heard.



Let&#8217;s not forget that there is no such thing as 0-risk, but with a good dose of pragmatism, it is always possible to reduce the risks associated with the use of the blockchain. And it is by pooling our dreams that it will be possible to create the ideal world in which we want this universe to evolve.



Inspiration sources:



<ul><li><a href="https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/as-some-companies-abandon-blockchain-ethical-questions-arise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arise of ethical questions</a></li><li><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614531/why-its-time-to-start-talking-about-blockchain-ethics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why it’s time to start talking about blockchain ethics</a></li></ul>

Have you ever thought about ethics in the NFT world? Without regulation, what are the predominant values in the promotion of Non-Fungible Tokens in the Cryptosphere?

What about Ethics in the NFT space?

There was once a world where all interactions were recorded in a decentralized distributed ledger system. In this futuristic world, every sale of an object is recorded in this register under the watchful eye of miners.



In this wonderful world, buying and selling things like cars or houses is a regular thing but, that&#8217;s not all! It is also possible to buy governance shares to be able to vote on the direction a project can take!



Then this idea evolved into a new stage, the “human governance”. Let the community vote on the life choices of the person who initiated the sale of these tokens. What does it mean today to &#8220;tokenize yourself&#8221; on the blockchain? What are the use cases and conditions related to these new types of tokens?



Let&#8217;s explore together what appears to be the next generation of tokens.



<h2>The first contract: Mike Merrill</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/mike_merrill.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2588" width="580" height="371" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/mike_merrill.jpg 842w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/mike_merrill-300x192.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/mike_merrill-768x493.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



In the beginning there was no cryptocurrency or blockchain. In 2008, Mike Merrill decided to sell the decisions of his life to Shareholders. Decisions that concern both his professional choices and his love, and each time he has obeyed his shareholders.



Today there are 600 of them who can decide on the next actions of his life and their latest idea isn’t not the <a href="https://playboy.co.za/2017/09/26/the-worlds-first-publicly-traded-human-goes-nsfw/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most ethical one</a>… Even if he did not put this contract on the blockchain, it is still the one that inspired quite a movement a decade later.



<h2>The second contract: Alex Masmej</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/alex.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2589" width="541" height="541" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/alex.jpg 540w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/alex-300x300.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/alex-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px" /></figure></div>



Alex is a French entrepreneur who is behind the NFT Rocket project, which provides loans and borrowing from NFT. He subsequently made the same crazy bet, the one of leaving life choices to a vote of the community. Taking the form of an ERC-20, the $ALEX token serves as a governance token for <a href="https://decrypt.co/32417/alex-masmej-ethereum-token-crypto-control-life" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">his life projects</a>. The sale was originally intended to finance his move to San Francisco, but COVID-19 has slightly delayed its plans.



Thanks to this experience, the term “Personal token” was created! According to Alex, this “Personal token” is used to sell shares of oneself.



<h2>The third contract: Marguerite deCourcelle</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2590" width="580" height="580" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist-300x300.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist-150x150.jpg 150w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist-768x768.jpg 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/coin_artist.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



Also known as <a href="https://twitter.com/coin_artist" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coin_artist</a>, the CEO of Blockade Games (Neon District) had a slightly different idea: to tokenize the “coin_artist brand” and not a real person.



The difference is that it will not let buyers tokens decide on life choices but rather the brand, avatar, and the syndicate. All voting decisions are <a href="https://medium.com/@coin_artist_17801/why-i-turned-myself-into-an-nft-6fe08cb7aca8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">for the virtual space only</a> and will have no impact in the real world.



The NFT is separated into several ERC-20s, the $COIN, which will be used to gain privileges in the E-Den virtual syndicate created for the occasion. These privileges could be information in preview, advanced functions, voting rights concerning the decisions of the Syndicate E-Den and other bonuses in the virtual universes which will use it.



The sale is expected to take place in mid-August, while waiting for coin_artist NFTs that can be purchased on <a href="https://opensea.io/assets/coin-artist" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a>. The Ethereum collected in this way will be used for the liquidity of the $COIN thereafter.



<h2>Choices of life</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/vote-1024x590.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2591" width="580" height="334" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/vote-1024x590.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/vote-300x173.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/vote-768x442.jpg 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/vote.jpg 1061w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



These three projects have something in common, and that is having third parties who can influence an individual&#8217;s free will, all with their prior consent.



There are several ways to look at these experiences:



<ul><li>Accept and participate in them</li><li>Denounce a potential drift</li><li>Take an interest in it from afar</li><li>Acknowledge a technological and social evolution</li></ul>



It is difficult to determine who is “wrong” or who is “right” but, what is certain, is that it raises ethical questions since the fundamental freedoms of a human are concerned. Fortunately, for the moment the initiatives of the crypto community mainly concern the projects that are related to it. And right now, that doesn&#8217;t apply to <a href="https://medium.com/@AlexMasmej/introducing-control-my-life-use-my-cryptocurrency-alex-to-vote-on-my-life-choices-8d62471963cd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">all lifestyle choices</a>.



Nevertheless, the line is rather blurry on what will be possible to vote afterwards. What if Alex decides not to obey a vote imposed on him? The irreversible nature of the blockchain gives an even more immutable tone to the taken decisions&#8230;



<h2>What’s next ?</h2>



It’s impossible to predict what tomorrow will bring, but it’s interesting to see that Alex’s project created some kind of standard for the “community token”. These ERC-20 can have several uses but the main one is above all to support the project or the affiliated person.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/logo_whaleshark.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2592" width="144" height="144"/></figure></div>



The $WHALE token is a great example, it&#8217;s a token that was created by <a href="https://twitter.com/WhaleShark_Pro" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WhaleShark</a>, one of the biggest and most influential buyers of NFTs in the market.



Long term, the value of the token is set to be backed by the value of the NFTs that WhaleShark owns. In order to ensure the true value of its assets, Whaleshark has asked NonFungible.com to audit the vault contents and estimated monetary value on an ongoing basis.



You can download the first two audits built by NonFungible.com team, in order to give the highest level of transparency on the actual value of the Vault, which are public:



<ul><li><a href="http://nonfungible.com/static/may-2020-whale-vault-audit.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1st Audit &#8211; May 2020</a></li><li><a href="https://nonfungible.com/static/july-2020-whale-vault-audit.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2nd audit &#8211; July 2020</a></li></ul>



There are several ways to get $WHALE:



<ul><li>Actively participate in the community</li><li>via airdrops that take place on their Discord</li><li>Arriving to sell an NFT in $WHALE</li></ul>



And to spend them, you just need to go to OpenSea and find the sellers who accept it!



Others have tried it like Connie Digital and $HUE, but also <a href="https://decrypt.co/32921/sudden-rise-ethereum-based-social-token" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Laurel Driskill and her $TINGLE</a>. The first allows you to buy exclusive artwork while the other allows you to ask questions of the artist or see private videos.



What Connie, Alex, Laurel, and WhaleShark have in common is the use of the Roll platform which helps to <a href="https://tryroll.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">create your own social currency</a> so that it can be used for social purposes.



<h2>Conclusion</h2>



The value of the tokens depends on several factors such as the reputation or “seriousness” of the project, utility, hype-momentum, or the nature of the assets in the case of WhaleShark&#8217;s NFT vault. There is therefore a strong speculative potential in the very nature of these new types of tokens!



The use of these new tokens is still in the early stages and it is interesting to see that the first uses concern video games, governance or the artistic community.



Sources :



<ul><li><a href="https://decrypt.co/32921/sudden-rise-ethereum-based-social-token" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The sudden rise of the Ethereum-based ‘social token’</a></li><li><a href="https://decrypt.co/32417/alex-masmej-ethereum-token-crypto-control-life" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum token now lets you control one man&#8217;s life choices</a></li><li><a href="https://playboy.co.za/2017/09/26/the-worlds-first-publicly-traded-human-goes-nsfw/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The World’s First Publicly Traded Human Goes NSFW</a></li><li><a href="https://medium.com/@AlexMasmej/introducing-control-my-life-use-my-cryptocurrency-alex-to-vote-on-my-life-choices-8d62471963cd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Introducing “Control My Life”: use my cryptocurrency $ALEX to vote on my life choices</a></li><li><a href="https://medium.com/@coin_artist_17801/why-i-turned-myself-into-an-nft-6fe08cb7aca8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why I Turned Myself into an NFT</a></li></ul>

With the issuance of the "Community Token" or the appearance of "Social Token Offering", the crypto world just passed a new milestone towards tokenizing the world!

Thoughts about social tokens and tokenizing the world

In recent weeks we’ve noticed an increased volume of “wash trading” of NFTs. While not a new concept to “crypto” or the world in general, wash trading has been mostly limited to isolated cases in the non-fungible token space. We wrote about this briefly in a previous article, <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/corporate/bad-behaviors-nft-blockchain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Behaviors in the NFT ecosystem that we hope will decrease in 2020</a>.



Some examples include:



<ul><li>CryptoKitties’ largest on-chain sale for 600 ETH (<a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/cryptokitties/CK/896775" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kitty #896775</a>) is a strong suspect of “wash-trading”. There is no correlation between the price and the attributes of this CryptoKitty.</li><li>Transactions intended to inflate platform metrics of SpiderDEX (<a href="https://nonfungible.com/market/history/blockchaincuties?filter=usdPrice%3D927%2C8537&amp;filter=blockTimestamp%3D2018-04-25%2C2020-03-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trading Blockchain Cuties and others on their exchange</a>).</li><li>Attempts to make specific Decentraland <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market/history/decentraland?filter=nftTicker%3DLAND&amp;filter=assetId%3D20076659648335369344339101838474324475769&amp;filter=saleType%3D&amp;filter=blockTimestamp%3D2020-02-21%2C2020-02-21&amp;length=100" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">assets appear more valuable or interesting</a>.</li><li><a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/rarible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Most recently on Rarible</a>, incentivized by <a href="https://medium.com/@rarible/introducing-rari-the-first-governance-token-in-the-nft-space-5dbcc55b6c43" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">”liquidity mining” of Rarible’s governance token</a> where users <a href="https://twitter.com/bergleeuw62/status/1293502649308979200" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">are &#8220;paid more than they spend&#8221; to buy art on the platform</a>. Note: this is merely a short term illusion.</li></ul>



On the blockchain, whether wash trading is at the hand of a platform/company, content creator (artist, minter, etc), investor, ill-intentioned user, or sabotage by competitors is anyone’s guess in many cases.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/cryptokitties-most-expensive.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2602" width="580" height="296" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/cryptokitties-most-expensive.png 597w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/cryptokitties-most-expensive-300x153.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



We believe that wash trading and ill-intentioned behaviours are the leading problems deterring new users from entering the ecosystem. From our research, NFT-curious and even experienced users are worried about making the wrong decisions and being out-smarted by insiders.



<h2>What is wash trading?</h2>



Ignoring the definition’s use of the term “security”, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/washtrading.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">from Investopedia</a>: “Wash trading is a process whereby a trader buys and sells a security for the express purpose of feeding misleading information to the market. In some situations, wash trades are executed by a trader and a broker who are colluding with each other, and other times wash trades are executed by investors acting as both the buyer and the seller of the security.”



At the core, in regards to non-fungible tokens, wash trading includes any purchases or sales made not for the sole purpose of buying/selling a product. Some more concrete examples include:



<ul><li>Purchases to create the illusion of artificial demand for a specific project</li><li>Purchases to create hype or false demand for a specific asset, publisher/artist, or platform</li><li>Purchasing assets with the purpose of artificially inflating public metrics</li><li>Purchasing assets to collect rewards where the reward value exceeds the cost-of-attack</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/rarible-wash-trading.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2603" width="580" height="387" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/rarible-wash-trading.png 995w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/rarible-wash-trading-300x201.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/08/rarible-wash-trading-768x513.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



This has short and long term consequences on users, sentiment, reputation, and growth of the global ecosystem.



<h2>Why is wash trading a problem?</h2>



Illegitimate/wash trading has negative impacts for all involved. For projects themselves, investors, collectors, traders, and the global community of enthusiasts.&nbsp;



Projects no longer have reliable statistics about their own platform’s growth and reach. They need to spend their time cleaning their own records to determine actual use vs. fabricated use instead of focusing on their product. Project workers will also need to spend their time managing unreal expectations and correcting misinformed users.



Investors are forced to rely on measurable statistics less and less, making the due-diligence process much more difficult. They require specialists to analyze the data for discrepancies. 



Collectors and Traders are unable to make informed decisions. If a user likes a piece of art or collectible, they may pay too much, sell for too little, or otherwise make an uninformed decision due to misleading statistics and history.



The Community is affected the hardest. Wash trading gives regulators and proponents of mainstream financial services additional ammunition against decentralization. The more we can conform to acceptable social norms (property rights, financial practice, marketing tactics), the more adopted and accepted the technology will become.



<h2>How to fix it?</h2>



Project leaders must design systems carefully with bad actors at the front of their mind. Due to the anonymous, free, and open nature of blockchain, there are many implications that project leaders need to be aware and respectful of, constantly.



Although not an absolute fix, market fees play a big role in preventing wash trading. Attackers are less likely to perform an attack if they are losing a percentage with every attack.



Rewards or incentive must be less than the cost-of-attack. Anonymity and 0-accountability make people do crazy things, take an active role in not fostering negative behaviour.



Similar to outsourcing software (smart contract) audits, projects should consider economic model audits. Manipulation and the probability of risk-free and anonymous illegitimate activities needs to be considered with every new feature and update, these attacks will quickly dominate a system.



Statistics platforms (such as NonFungible.com) need to develop methods to detect wash trading and flag “wash-volume” and &#8220;wash-sales&#8221; accordingly. It is extremely important that every potential customer checking these profiles is aware of the issues so they are making fully informed decisions based on accurate data.



Aggregator and statistics platforms also need to play a role in education, users need to be aware of these techniques as well as past, present, and potential future cases. Ultimately, we need to prevent users from making decisions based on false/manufactured statistics.



Recently, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cleaning-up-crypto-exchange-wash-trading-will-take-global-regulation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinTelegraph suggested</a> that regulation is likely the long term answer. We prefer to believe otherwise, people are better than that, no? The community must be willing and capable of self-policing in a decentralized and democratic way to make this work, profit is a short-sighted use case.



<h2>We are all playing a role</h2>



At this stage of infancy, everyone needs to play an active role. Project leaders need to be respectful of their community and the general crypto community by building systems that discourage or eliminate these damaging behaviours. Aggregators need to enhance their methods of identifying this behaviour and presenting it in a non-destructive but clear manner. And, the NFT community needs to hold each other, project leaders, and influencers accountable from magnifying the problem.



At NonFungible.com, we are building a suite of detection techniques designed to identify and make apparent wash trading statistics per project, asset, publisher, or wallet automatically. Our goal has always and continues to be: “to provide the community with the most accurate and reliable information about NFT markets”, wash traded “sales” are not supported by this statement. If you see wash trading, report it! Contact us using our <a href="https://nonfungible.com/services/businesses" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contact form</a>, tag us on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/nonfungibles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@nonfungibles</a>), or let us know on <a href="https://discord.com/invite/nonfungible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discord</a>.

Mass adoption of NFT is a pipe dream if users cannot trust the statistics and numbers that projects are advertising. Learn exactly what is defined as wash trading, how to spot it, and what projects and leaders should be doing to avoid it.

What is “wash trading” and why is it negative for non-fungible tokens?

In 2018 Enjin arrived in the NFT Universe with one big promise: <a href="https://nonfungible.com/blog/enjin-over-hype#!" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a treasure discovered by solving a complex puzzle</a>.



The clues to this riddle were to be spread across many different projects, all connected under the Enjin umbrella. To achieve this goal and maintain its community over<a href="https://enjin.io/about/timeline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 2018 and 2019</a> Enjin developed many tools to assist developers and make access to their ecosystem easier:



<ul><li>Wallet with functions such as token swaps, access to exchange NFTs, the ability to list on their marketplace or even &#8220;melt&#8221; NFTs and link games to the wallet.</li><li>Documentation and <a href="https://enjin.io/software/platform" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tools</a> required to develop using their platform.</li><li><a href="https://blog.enjin.io/enjin-multiverse-program/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Developer support system</a>.</li><li>Dedicated marketplace.</li><li>Assistance with promotion.</li></ul>



Since the huge hype around the project launch, especially their <a href="https://blog.enjin.io/erc-1155-token-standard-ethereum/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ERC-1155 standard</a> plus the many projects that have later developed using their tools, how has the Enjin ecosystem evolved today?



<h2>The limits of the Enjin Universe</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="767" height="432" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-ship.jpg" alt="Enjin ship" class="wp-image-2967" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-ship.jpg 767w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-ship-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure></div>



With its range of tools for developers, project creators and players alike Enjin has been able to arm itself with tools that seem easy to use. Also the catalogue of games present in their ecosystem has grown over time offering greater diversity.&nbsp; However there are a few issues that appear once you start to take a closer look at how the system works.



The first of these restrictions is found within the Enjin Universe itself as all interactions that can be performed in this environment involve the use of their $ENJ token at some point.



To send or melt an Enjin NFT a certain number of $ENJ tokens are required beforehand and the number is determined by the NFT creator. These confinements result in locking the user into a world where they have to invest at some point in $ENJ in addition to covering the costs of the Ethereum network.



In a bid to compensate for these limitations Enjin looked to create an environment that was rich enough in potential for the user to evolve within it. The trump card offered up to achieve this was the interoperability of Enjin objects between different games.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="767" height="432" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-coin.png" alt="Enjin coin" class="wp-image-2965" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-coin.png 767w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-coin-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure></div>



It should be recognized that the community were able to be creative in terms of using their NFTs between platforms, for instance,<a href="https://kriptomat.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Kriptomat</a> rewarded its users with dragons that can be used as pets in<a href="https://lostrelics.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Lost Relic</a> and a sword from the original Enjin universe can be used in Forest Knight etc.



But even so, unfortunately three major drawbacks are clear that stem from their restrictive structure.



<ul><li>The inability of external games to be able to interact with Enjin games.</li><li>Growing inequality between early adopters and new users.</li><li>New content evolving slower than the majority of the crypto-gaming world.</li></ul>



However, it should be noted that three games have managed to stand out thanks to the use of the Enjin system:<a href="https://www.bitcoin-hodler.info/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Bitcoin Hodler</a>,<a href="https://thesixdragons.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> The 6 Dragons</a> and Lost Relic. From an achievement reward in the form of an NFT medal to the accumulation of materials sent to your wallet at the end of a dungeon quest, the massive NFT sending system was favored over that of developing an economy with the ERC-20.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="767" height="432" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-house.jpg" alt="Enjin house" class="wp-image-2966" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-house.jpg 767w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-house-300x169.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure></div>



Another big project development was setting up an entire<a href="https://www.enjin.com/game/minecraft-website-builder" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Minecraft server</a> to be compatible with the Enjin Universe. Thanks to a plugin, it is possible to create weapons and armour in Minecraft which can then be used in other games in the Multiverse.



Outside of the gaming world,<a href="https://enjinx.io/eth/asset/62907" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Coingecko was the first</a> to take advantage of this ability to distribute NFTs in promoting their use and adoption.<a href="https://enjin.io/powered-by-enjin/binance-collectibles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Followed by Binance</a> a few months later who have shown an increasing interest in digital collectibles distribution throughout 2019 and following on with the same logic also,<a href="https://twitter.com/CoinMarketCap/status/1321346211148947456" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Coinmarketcap for Halloween 2020</a>.



<h2>Emancipation of ERC-1155</h2>



There was a time when the ERC-1155 was synonymous with Enjin, but can we name many &#8216;standard&#8217; tokens that are only used by a single entity?



Today mainly due to The Sandbox, Rarible and CryptoVoxels, a divide has been forged between Enjin and the standard they created.



The Sandbox has used it to allow creators to easily make multiple editions of the same object. In addition to giving their users the option to transform their ERC-1155 into ERC-721, The Sandbox launched $SAND in October 2020 which backs the value of their in-game NFTs. Even though it was announced in advance, by not using $ENJ for the game economy, The Sandbox has positioned itself as the first project to &#8220;break away&#8221; from Enjin.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="218" height="241" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/image.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2987"/></figure></div>



From another perspective Rarible has shown that its use can benefit Artists with its extremely easy-to-use marketplace. Creating and selling works has never been simpler and even the airdrop of its controversial $RARI has still managed to attract many new users the platform.



That said, it&#8217;s still a whole ecosystem that developed around the ERC-1155 including the ERC-721 and the ERC-20.



Both these two projects have in common the fact that they have developed a whole monetary aspect in their own right, allowing them great freedom in regards to their communication and community.



<h2>Conclusion</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="767" height="432" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-traveler.png" alt="Enjin traveler" class="wp-image-2968" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-traveler.png 767w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2020/11/Enjin-traveler-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure></div>



It’s been some time now since the quest for the Enjin Monolith began and there is still little to date to be able to solve it. Although five new games have recently joined this family, it would appear that once again they are only in their developmental stage.



One of Enjin&#8217;s goals is to achieve a decentralized economy in a Multiverse that could interact mostly with $ENJ tokens, but with the advent of DeFI and governance tokens, that potential has now opened up to everyone on a much larger scale, embracing the entire NFT ecosystem.



One of the promises that once gave Enjin its strength has since been democratized by DeFI and the ERC-1155 was able to democratize itself thanks in part to The Sandbox and Rarible, two projects outside the Enjin environment.&nbsp;



By focusing too much on his own Universe, Enjin now seems to find itself somewhat isolated with a more limited evolution potential than other Ethereum projects in the space today. Even with the Efinity solution which will ensure free transactions (<a href="https://blog.enjin.io/announcing-efinity-2018-roadmap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced in 2018</a>), other projects have already started to develop their own&nbsp;or will use an already existing sidechain.



If more projects continue to utilise the ERC-1155 standard without going through Enjin they will have access to a world of possibilities as well as a much larger audience. These new&nbsp;audiences may not be so interested in the &#8220;proprietary&#8221; solution of Enjin, leaving some doubt about the future of the platform.

Announced with great fanfare two years ago, surfing the hype a year ago, what has happened to Enjin-related projects?

Enjin and ERC-1155, what has become of you ?

For those of you who were there in 2017-2018, you will remember the &#8216;revolutionary&#8217; projects that ran their ICOs with the promise of changing the world through cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Yet today 99% of these projects are dead and their investors are left with useless tokens.



Some simply made an exit scam, others just gave up but all had a similar goal in common which seemed to meet a growing need in our society: to move out of banking and financial centralization to become ‘your own bank’. This dream was shaken by the brutal fall of cryptos during 2018 and it was open season for all the critics to degrade the various initiatives related to the blockchain in the months which followed.



However, slowly but surely, Non-Fungible Tokens began to develop on Ethereum, offering more and more content and possibilities. First, in the form of collectibles, there were video game objects, NFTs that were related to art and now NFTs seem to be exploring more and more use cases, especially thanks to some large famous companies who have entered the space.



Of course, this promotes their adoption, but how is the balance being struck? Can NFTs really revolutionize the world of art, gaming and true ownership?



<h2>‘In for the money’..?</h2>



When it comes to blockchain, it doesn’t take long for profits to overshadow its transparency and underlying technology and since the coronavirus crisis confined the planet, many newcomers to the ecosystem are discovering a new way to make some money.



‘What do I have to buy to get rich?’ This question is heard far too frequently during these bull market times and is the root of a lot of problems within crypto ecosystems like the NFT markets. It poses a problem for a good and simple reason, which is that it completely sets aside the notion of ‘use value’. Any asset, whatever it may be, is immediately perceived as a tradable asset and becomes meaningless if not to be bought and sold.



The many players in the ecosystem like to show the gains they have managed to make, exchange platforms are promoting their latest listing, the media are talking about the last ATH reached by this or that crypto&#8230; sometimes forgetting the real usefulness of the crypto in question.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/enjin_cards.png" alt="enjin cards" class="wp-image-3457" width="580" height="335" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/enjin_cards.png 614w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/enjin_cards-300x173.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



The story of NFTs begins on Ethereum in 2017 thanks to CryptoPunks and then following the sharp drop in the price of crypto-currencies in 2018, the developers focused on the gameplay of the decentralized applications that they offered. The goal was to, above all, have as many users as possible play their game: the entry price was affordable for any wallet and the pre-sales were thoughtful so everyone had a chance to secure rare assets.



One of the best examples of accessible play that has brought real change to the NFT space is undeniably Axie Infinity. The ability to battle your little monsters, breed them or resell them at extremely low prices (0.01 $ETH on average) has created an increasingly solid, and importantly, a helpful and engaged community.



For slightly larger portfolios, Decentraland was for its part the flagship project in real estate speculation: for many years the game was simply inaccessible and the various sales that took place in the game were simply to build an empire or bet on the value of a piece of virtual land in the future.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1280" height="720" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/2018-nft-yearly-report-waa.jpg" alt="2018 nft yearly report waa" class="wp-image-3454" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/2018-nft-yearly-report-waa.jpg 1280w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/2018-nft-yearly-report-waa-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/2018-nft-yearly-report-waa-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/2018-nft-yearly-report-waa-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /></figure></div>



This aspect of using blockchain for large-scale entertainment has allowed many users to familiarize themselves with this environment and subsequently help newcomers while discovering new projects in parallel.



While the 2018 crypto winter became the year to educate newcomers and recognize those who desired to grow in this ecosystem, thoughts of high percentage profits were put aside.



<h2>New experiences for everyone!</h2>



The opportunity of being able to offer artworks to an enthusiastic community and having collectors able to own the digital items in their wallet whose possession was absolutely proven and unfalsifiable has attracted artists interested in this new emerging sector, first from the community and then from the real world.



Being able to exhibit in CryptoVoxels or Decentraland was an opportunity to create a new kind of experience for anyone walking through these metaverses without anyone noticing.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/makersplace-cryptokitties.jpg" alt="makersplace cryptokitties" class="wp-image-3458" width="580" height="472" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/makersplace-cryptokitties.jpg 1000w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/makersplace-cryptokitties-300x245.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/makersplace-cryptokitties-768x626.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" /></figure></div>



These two use cases weren&#8217;t especially recognized by the real world and yet they were at the forefront of a worldwide cashless trend that was only evolving. It took 2020 and a global confinement for the habits of artists to be forced to change.



At first timidly, a few tests took place, then towards the end of the year many internationally renowned artists got the word out: it was possible to sell works on the blockchain to an audience that had significant financial means.



A new audience and a new way to sell, all in a purely virtual environment and therefore in line with the new social distancing measures, it didn&#8217;t take long to see players from the old world arrive. Reproducing the same thought patterns to allow them to keep their elite place while taking advantage of their notoriety in this new digital frontier.



With the price of Ether reaching record highs, this mix between hype of new artists using new technology and the promise not to have a new use but to be able to resell their more expensive work has brought the ecosystem into the real world. Yet, with the transaction fees not having come down, it seems to have become normal to pay a small fortune for a transaction that everyone would have bailed out of during the Summer of 2020.



It is therefore difficult to convince newcomers who do not have the notoriety of Deadmau5 or Lindsay Lohan that blockchain is inexpensive and accessible fir them to carry out their project to a public that is very enthusiastic about new initiatives.



<h2>Speculation VS real use case</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/centralization-in-disguise.png" alt="centralization in disguise pest supply" class="wp-image-3456" width="360" height="300" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/centralization-in-disguise.png 700w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/centralization-in-disguise-300x251.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></figure></div>



Is it getting to a point where speculation is making people forget the real value of things? Looking at a recent event on Rarible, it would seem that a lot of people were &#8220;fooled&#8221; by the artist Pest Supply but not quite in the way you might think when first hearing about him.



By imitating the style of street artist Banksy, a significant number of collectors believed they were buying an original that would be of great value in the future. Total sales amounted to 512 Ether (just over a million dollars) before a crypto-artist asked Banksy&#8217;s official contact if he had embarked on the blockchain adventure &#8230;and received a negative response.&nbsp;



The speculators were therefore disappointed but at the same time (and obviously without knowing it) they encouraged an artist to continue producing what he liked. Let’s not forget that this is the basic purpose of cryptos: encourage as many people as possible to use them without falling into abusive speculation which has led to the various financial crises in the world.



To take the example of Axie Infinity cited above, it is no longer possible to find them on Opensea for less than 0.03 Ether ($60!), but remember: their supply is unlimited and soon Ronin will fix the gas price.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/axie-dai.png" alt="axie infinity dai" class="wp-image-3455" width="519" height="478" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/axie-dai.png 519w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/02/axie-dai-300x276.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 519px) 100vw, 519px" /></figure></div>



This technology is open and accessible and this is just as true for the old world as the new with the old world bringing with it marketing techniques much more developed than the organic growth that the NFT sector has experienced up until now. Just like in the real world, if there is too much of a gap between speculation and the real usefulness of an asset, this represents a risk of total loss in value over the long term.



We can hope that the next updates to the Ethereum network like the EIP-1559 or the use of sidechains in the future will make it easy and low cost for everyone to use. At the moment NFTs do not seem to have changed the world which is just starting to take an interest in this new way of certifying different assets.



Will the possibility of seeing a future transparent method for the exchange of works, diplomas or even the provenance of parts of a Breitling watch bring more ethics to the world?



The question remains open and the answer lies mainly in the choices that users will make with their cryptos..



Image : <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/chakkree_chantakad-15107399/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chakkree Chantakad</a>

Everyone is talking about the record sales of an artist or game related NFTs and many newcomers are looking to profit from this new technology. But should we be cautious of promises too good to be true?

NFTs: The new promised land?

As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTs</a> (Non Fungible Tokens) gain popularity as a way of owning digital assets and joining tokenized communities, it’s becoming clear that this use of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blockchain</a> could drive more than just innovation in technology and ownership structures. There are signs that this new way of creating and collecting art could also drive advances in diversity, equity and inclusion in historically inequitable spaces.&nbsp;



<h2>Defining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion&nbsp;</h2>



The team here at NonFungible is a diverse one. We bring together a variety of cultures, languages, gender and sexual identities, among other groups and statuses. We believe in equity, which means acknowledging our differences personal and historical, including disadvantages. Our team’s composition and how we work with one another prompted this article. So did our desire to foster inclusion of the wide-range of folks who have contributed to the amazing proliferation of NFTs in such a short time. All of us have a lot to offer via NFTs, and NFTs can catalyze the innovation we bring. Yet there is a long way to go in the realm of non-fungible tokens more generally when it comes to <a href="https://diversity.uiowa.edu/resources/dei-definitions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diversity, equity, and inclusion </a>(DEI), especially for disabled artists who create non-fungible tokens to represent themselves and their culture.



<h2>What does DEI mean in the world of non-fungible tokens?&nbsp;</h2>



As another of our authors pointed out in her article on the<a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/utility/the-history-of-nfts-on-ethereum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> history of NFTs on ethereum</a>, 2021 was a year of representation. NFT projects by women, LGBTQ+ creators, among other marginalized groups. For the realm of NFTs, DEI means ethical representation and supportive platforming for marginalized groups. It’s a framework that counterbalances white, cis-gendered, heterosexual, and white narratives and power structures. And the NFT world, as much as the world we eat and sleep&nbsp; in, needs balance if we’re to avoid making the same mistakes that have excluded the full richness of human experience.&nbsp;



<h2>Who benefits from DEI in NFTs and why?</h2>



We all benefit. While folks who want <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/03/01/gen-z-brands-need-to-prioritize-dei-and-gender-liberation/?sh=2ed636b874ab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DEI tend to be younger</a>, that seems to be skewing upward as older generations realize <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/03/harnessing-the-power-of-age-diversity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DEI applies to age</a> as well. At the same time, the youth-oriented NFT market continues to gain coverage and legitimacy in places as unexpected as golf (LINK) and fine wine (LINK) that have been traditionally associated with older, more affluent groups. The culture of disabled artists may be the next field non-fungible tokens will spotlight.



<h2>ARTXV and Disabled Artists&nbsp;</h2>



<a href="https://www.artxvnft.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ARTXV</a> is a community that serves neurodiverse NFT artists and celebrates their culture. Neurodiversity covers a broad scope of individual experiences&nbsp; that includes Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more. These conditions are common and natural, yet not so common that it’s easy to create community around them in the real-world. The flexibility of NFTs, their openness to carry the experience of very different individuals and communities, also creates common digital ground. The wide range of neurodiverse experiences can be valued and made visible for the community as well as those outside it.



Visual art speaks emotional truths that words often fail to do, especially&nbsp; in neurodiverse discourses. Seeing is believing and believing can yield understanding. Once visible, disabled experiences are harder to deny. Communities like ARTXV, the NFTs they&#8217;ll soon mint, and the conversations they promote extend beyond a small, often excluded community. When disabled artists can show their art without passing a credential check for a Master of Fine Arts, or for their connections to high-profile galleries, or agents and influencers&#8217; gatherings that require neurotypical tact, boundaries dissolve and possibilities arise for individual expression and community. The art demands of the viewer: “Could you exclude me now?”



Perhaps for disabled artists the flow of inclusion will pour into the real world from their art. Or from able-bodied allies who transfer their appreciation from the NFT gallery back to the person in the wheelchair. Or the young lady flapping her arms happily at the cafe. When disabled folks can build thriving communities online that elevate individual and cultural dignity, both individuals and culture become that much harder to tear down. Part of that individual dignity is financial stability. This is key for Autistic folks in particular as the unemployment rate in that population may be <a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/work/wor2492">nearly 40%</a> in the United States.



<h2>DEI and the NFT Market</h2>



Can NFTs facilitate DEI practices in the metaverse? We hope so. The metaverse and marginalized groups like Autistic folks have everything to gain from diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage you to continue this conversation while the NFT market is young and the ethics that guide it are in flux.



As part of Web3, NFTs can be a lever we use to push and innovate real-world discussions. NFTs, thanks to their horizontal and transparent nature, can give exposure to anyone who wants to build the next web and a better world. So far, the next web looks more diverse and inclusive thanks to NFTs and their creators.



Read more about DEI:



<ul><li>Bastian, R., 2021. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebekahbastian/2021/10/24/the-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-potential-of-nfts/?sh=4d8ad9753179" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Potential Of NFTs</a>. Forbes</li><li>Cat-Wells, K., 2021. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/keelycatwells/2021/12/02/nfts-by-disabled-creatives-breaking-moulds-and-making-profits/?sh=3e3d485d5cce" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTs By Disabled Creatives Breaking Moulds And Making Profits</a>. Forbes</li><li>Fries, T., 2021. <a href="https://tokenist.com/nft-projects-raised-over-23-million-for-charity-in-august/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT Projects Raised Over $23 Million for Charity in August</a>. The Tokenist</li><li>Bishara, H., 2019. <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/501999/artists-in-18-major-us-museums-are-85-white-and-87-male-study-says/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Artists in 18 Major US Museums Are 85% White and 87% Male</a>. Hyperallergic</li></ul>

What does DEI mean in the world of non-fungible tokens? Can NFTs lead the way to a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future?

NFT culture: a diverse, equitable and inclusive future?

<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index#wiki_frequently_asked_questions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antiwork</a> and near-death experiences led me to the friendly shores of NonFungible.com and NFTs.



Like so many Americans, I’ve worked myself to death. Only literally. In 2012, I found myself in either the intensive care unit or emergency room multiple times due to years of overwork combined with poor access to healthcare. The doctors’ message became increasingly clear even in the gray haze of exhaustion and pain: quit work or die. And so, like many sensible Americans have done in recent years, I quit work.



I clawed back into life after over six years of being bedridden. A big part of my emergence from bed was furthering my education. After finishing a graduate degree in English, many job opportunities presented themselves. Nearly every job offered a path back to death-by-work. Creating in the world of NFTs felt like the opposite. Here’s what I saw: opportunity for creative, autonomous, meaningful labor that encouraged me to combine my diverse identities, work experiences, and educational background.



The opposite of what the late great anthropologist David Graeber called a <a href="https://immediatism.com/archives/podcast/235-on-the-phenomenon-of-bullshit-jobs-by-david-graeber" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8216;bullshit job&#8217;</a>. Ask any American from multiple minoritized backgrounds how rarely such a chance arises. You might think of an unicorn extending its paw in welcome and inviting you to a world-wide party that you get paid to attend when you want to, where you want to, how you want to.



<h1>NFTs&#8217; Contribution to Antiwork</h1>



NFTs are radical. They’ve already reconceptualized markets as diverse as <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/nfts-and-higher-education-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">education</a>, <a href="https://www.nonfungible.com/news/art/art-using-nfts-here-to-stay" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fine art</a>, and <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/collectible/nfts-and-traditional-life-series-part-2-wine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wine</a>. Perhaps, if we push for it, infusing the NFT world with antiwork ethic can benefit more workers like myself. While NFTs are property and many antiwork advocates oppose property, what leverage do we have against governmental and transnational corporations without it? Consider NFT-based transactions and labor as a step toward antiwork ideals.&nbsp;



Do you want to end the toxic work culture that pervades the United States and countries like it?&nbsp;



<ul><li>Move away from top-down governed capitalism that’s as transparent as a bank vault’s walls.&nbsp;</li><li>Demand publicly viewable NFT contracts that will facilitate fair wages for all workers and minoritized groups in particular. Oversight is built into them because the contract is hosted on-chain in a cryptographically secure public ledger.&nbsp;</li><li>Participate in grassroots organizing without any question where the resources have gone for a workplace that’s built for those who do the labor at least as much as those who control capital.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h2>To the NFT Opposition and Skeptics</h2>



Many <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/wiki/index#wiki_frequently_asked_questions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">r/antiwork</a> members have voiced absolute opposition to cryptocurrency, and by extension NFTs. Some of their claims are justified.&nbsp;



Cryptocurrency and NFT whales do exist. They have an outsize influence on the NFT market . They equate crypto and non-fungible tokens as a mere extension of capitalist control without considering the potential for labor negotiation and thus a life more committed to our own interests rather than those of the state and their corporate liaisons. For them, anything less than a full tear-down of anything resembling capitalism is failure.



For those r/antiwork members who are skeptical, limitless educational opportunities await. Read about the artists, the theorists, the latest applications, then act as you see fit. To do otherwise is only to indulge fear and ignorance. NFTs and crypto have more potential if we dig into them rather than staying in the relative (dis)comfort of what&#8217;s come before. <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/why-most-definitions-of-non-fungible-are-incorrect" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read our articles about non-fungible tokens and crypto</a>. Send us questions on our <a href="https://discord.com/invite/nonfungible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discord</a>. We want to learn from you and make community with you.



<h2>Choosing your Antiwork NFT Office</h2>



And for those who value a meaningful life in work and beyond, I&#8217;m writing to you this morning. I can hear four birds&#8217; songs float in the mountain air six feet beyond my desk. My cat greets me for more belly rubs. While this is not antiwork in the sense of the absence of work, it is the presence of a life well-balanced where my priorities, my meaning-making comes first.



Read more about Antiwork:&nbsp;



<ul><li>Manjoo, F., 2021. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/opinion/work-resignations-covid.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Even With a Dream Job, You Can Be Antiwork</a>. New York Times</li><li>2022. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/p3ytxc/bitcoin_is_antiwork/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin is Anti-Work</a>. Reddit.com.</li><li>Whang, O., 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/magazine/antiwork-reddit.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hating Your Job Is Cool. But Is It a Labor Movement?</a>. New York Times.&nbsp;</li><li>Graeber, D., 2022. <a href="https://immediatism.com/archives/podcast/235-on-the-phenomenon-of-bullshit-jobs-by-david-graeber" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">235 &#8211; On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs</a>. [podcast] Immediatism.</li></ul>

NFTs are radical. They’ve already reconceptualized markets as diverse as education, fine art, and wine. Perhaps, if we push for it, infusing the NFT world with antiwork ethic can benefit more workers?

NFTs and the Antiwork Revolution

There is this widespread mind set that blockchain is immortal and by extension NFTs are too, but regarding NFTs, this statement is not entirely true. Although the token itself will live eternally on the blockchain, its underlying asset, image etc, is often hosted on Web2 technology.



To guarantee the immutability that is so dear to NFTs, some projects are using &#8220;100% on-chain&#8221; NFTs. What does this mean and is this the future standard of the NFT industry?



<h2>The need for digital scarcity</h2>



As we have seen since the beginning of the creation of crypto, one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of Web3 technology is understanding how this technology actually works. Trying to explain simply what a hash function is, why a double transaction is problematic or how the Bitcoin money creation system is a revolution is a feat that only a few manage to accomplish.



Yet, in our age where digital creation is abundant, having a technology that offers digital scarcity has become indispensable. Whole sections of our lives are now digitized which has had an impact on our real lives. Concert ticket, payment application, parcel delivery tracking, newspapers, tax declaration, health data, digital art&#8230;and soon identity and even diplomas.



Today, it’s extremely easy to duplicate content on the internet, and in fact, extremely difficult to authenticate in a 100% secure way where the information originated from. Digital scarcity has become more and more important as our real lives continue to build a duplicate online.



<h2>Blockchain fixes this. What about NFTs?</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="521" height="268" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/Etherscan-tokenURI-IPFS.jpg" alt="Etherscan tokenURI IPFS" class="wp-image-20557" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/Etherscan-tokenURI-IPFS.jpg 521w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/Etherscan-tokenURI-IPFS-300x154.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px" /><figcaption>Etherscan &#8211; IPFS hosted image</figcaption></figure></div>



Blockchain. The promise of data living forever on the internet, without the possibility of going back. Every action is decisive, definitive, eternal. From now on, it is possible to quantify the digital unquantifiably, do you have any doubts? The information is verifiable by anyone, everything is public and transparent. Well, everything? Not quite.



For this prerequisite to be respected, the blockchain used must be public and sufficiently decentralized. But this brings a problem, that of scalability. Because of the slowness and low number of transactions supported by public blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum, the number of users is limited.



A balance between centralization and decentralization has been gradually adopted until, bringing the missing piece of the puzzle to the crypto ecosystem, NFTs arrived!



These tokens perfectly respond to the problem of infinite digital duplication. But NFTs are a bit peculiar because blockchain is not made to host large files. To be able to display a photo, image, video, or other type of media, a link is contained in the metadata. Depending on the project, the media is therefore hosted on a centralized server or via the IPFS system.



In either case, this ensures a certain longevity to the media but in the end, not eternal. The next step would be to use another blockchain to host the media. Or even better: NFTs should host the media themselves.



<h2>Why are 100% on-chain NFTs important?</h2>



To honor the promise of having, for example, an artwork living forever on the blockchain, the solution is to have all the data hosted in the NFT. The most famous projects which have chosen this method to host their media are <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/avastars" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Avastars</a> and <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/cyberbrokers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chainbreakers</a>. They succeeded because the images are not in .jpeg or .png format but in vector format.



But it&#8217;s not just the images that are important, so is all the other metadata. The number of editions, properties, description, characteristics, asset IDs&#8230; everything must be hosted on-chain.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">I have tried to reconstruct <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CyberBroker?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CyberBroker</a> directly from the smart contract. It could be completely rebuilt. It is a complete fully on-chain NFTs. I further appreciate the greatness of this project. Developers should try it immediately.<a href="https://twitter.com/CyberBrokers_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CyberBrokers_</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cybourgeoisie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cybourgeoisie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/josiebellini?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@josiebellini</a> <a href="https://t.co/mjwuksjzi8">pic.twitter.com/mjwuksjzi8</a>&mdash; NΞOXV.eth (@neoxv09) <a href="https://twitter.com/neoxv09/status/1503395166492958720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Why is this important? Because if ever, for one reason or another, the teams were to abandon their project, NFTs and their metadata will still exist on the blockchain. This allows for example anyone to take the code to &#8220;recreate&#8221; the smart contract and therefore, revive the project at any time. It also allows anyone to use the information contained in the smart contract without having to depend on a third-party service or API.



Because one of the intrinsic crypto values is also that, not to depend on a trusted third party. Yes, the more data there is, the more expensive it will be for everything to be hosted on the blockchain. For Chainbreakers, the switch to 100% on-chain format will have cost them 90 ETH. But this allows these NFTs to live forever and be used by any other NFT project using the same standard.



If the importance of the project is worth it, having NFTs hosted entirely on the blockchain should be the norm. 



But then the question arises, are all the NFT projects actually worth it?

There is this widespread mind set that blockchain is immortal and by extension NFTs are too, but regarding NFTs, this statement is not entirely true. Although the token itself will live eternally on the blockchain, its underlying asset, is often hosted on Web2 technology.

The importance of 100% on-chain NFT

In March 2021 ( a year ago already! ), the entrepreneur Sina Estavi added his part to building the citadel of buzz around NFTs by buying the first Tweet in history, written by Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, under the form of an NFT. 



At the time, this sale made a lot of noise and raised many questions: How can you buy a Tweet? Who is willing to spend $2.9 million on a digital asset, which is only the vehicle for another digital asset? What does it mean to &#8220;own a Tweet&#8217;s NFT?&#8221; »



<h2>Why is Jack Dorsey&#8217;s Tweet not reselling at the expected price?</h2>



In short, the NFT sphere was on fire for a few weeks, then this sale fell into oblivion… until its owner <a href="https://opensea.io/assets/matic/0x28009881f0ffe85c90725b8b02be55773647c64a/20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decided to put it back on sale a year later</a>, and the auction did not take off.



<ul><li>What lessons can be learned from this phenomenon?</li><li>What does the “Jack Dorsey Tweet” NFT say about what the NFT industry has been through over the past 12 months?</li><li>How does this sale reflect a profound change at the heart of the markets and in the perception that the general public has of NFTs?</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="703" height="303" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/jack-setting-twitter.jpg" alt="jack first tweet" class="wp-image-20388" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/jack-setting-twitter.jpg 703w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/jack-setting-twitter-300x129.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px" /><figcaption>Twitter &#8211; Jack&#8217;s first tweet</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2>The context, during the initial sale</h2>



Let&#8217;s put ourselves in the context of the time. The world was emerging from a more than gloomy 2020 and was just beginning to see the end of the Covid tunnel. NFT technology was starting to get talked about alot and not a week went by without another sensational new announcement bringing the subject of NFTs back to the fore.



We are in early March 2021, the World has already heard of &#8220;Punks in JPGs&#8221; which sell for several hundred thousand dollars. Even more recently, the art industry experienced an unprecedented earthquake with a digital artwork that <a href="https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold as an NFT for $69 million by the American artist Beeple</a>.



We are then in total euphoria around NFTs. We don&#8217;t really know what they are yet, but one thing is certain: there is a lot of money in circulation and these digital assets open up perspectives never seen before. This industry phase is an explosive mix of experimentation and gold rush. You must give it a try! After all, who knows what will become a high-value NFT?



The “NFT” then appears as the digital magic wand that transforms any digital object into an object of great value.



It was in this context of boiling markets that the first Tweet in history, published by Jack Dorsey, found itself on sale. Note in passing that the Tweet was put up for sale by a third party and not by Jack Dorsey himself.



Jack announced that he will accept the highest bid on March 21, 2021. <a href="https://twitter.com/sinaestavi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sina Estiva</a> won the auction, and the NFT was sold for $2.9 million.



<h2>Where is the NFT Market today?</h2>



The least we can say is that the landscape has changed quite a bit since March 2021 and March 2022. Let&#8217;s just look at some of the elements that have profoundly changed the face of the industry in one year:



<ul><li>Excessive speculation has led to a slowdown in trading and an increase in reselling at a loss (see <a href="https://nonfungible.com/reports/2021/en/yearly-nft-market-report-pro" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yearly NFT Market Report 2021 – Pro version</a>)</li><li>Public opinion is losing interest in this ultra-speculative digital asset class whose value proposition of 80% of NFTs in circulation leaves something to be desired.</li><li>We observed an obvious saturation of the NFTs markets: the volume of NFTs in circulation increased from 14.2 million in February 2021 to 32.1 million a year later, an increase of 126%. (Source: <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NonFungible.com exclusive data</a>)</li><li>The war in Ukraine has brought a complex geo-political context which naturally takes center stage, and leaves less room for the coverage of NFTs sales.</li><li>Last but not least.. “Cent” The marketplace on which the Tweet was initially sold finally had to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nft-marketplace-shuts-citing-rampant-fakes-plagiarism-problem-2022-02-11/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">close its doors in February 2022 due to “Rampant, fakes &amp; plagiarism”.</a> Thus, the NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first Tweet is put back on sale on OpenSea , in the midst of millions of other NFTs. Without any particular setting, lost in the mass, but despite everything tainted by the aura of a marketplace that has failed to limit suspicious activities.</li></ul>



In other words, we are now in a situation where the NFTs markets have suffered enormously from excessive speculation, where the markets have been saturated with low-value assets, where the general public is beginning to doubt the real value that NFTs can bring and have more eyes on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict than on trading NFTs.



No more Beeple sales at $69 million in the landscape to make buyers believe that any NFT can resell for tens of millions of dollars.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="730" height="303" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/nft-twitter-estavi.jpg" alt="nft twitter estavi" class="wp-image-20386" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/nft-twitter-estavi.jpg 730w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/04/nft-twitter-estavi-300x125.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px" /><figcaption>Twitter &#8211; Estavi selling Jack&#8217;s first tweet</figcaption></figure></div>



A final element contributes to this phenomenon: the current owner of the NFT considers that it cannot be sold for less than $50 million…or x17 the price paid one year ago. This very approach to selling contributes to this feeling of over speculation around NFTs.



The asset has not yet had time to convince of the inner value it conveys, in 12 months, and its owner is already trying to resell it 17x a price which already seemed high at the time, in full age of mad sums invested in NFTs.



Would the sale have gone differently if its owner had not announced from the outset that his NFT could only be sold for at least $50 million?



<h2>Less fantasy, more concrete evidence.</h2>



“The sky is the limit” was the philosophy of the NFT industry a year ago. Nobody had any notion of what could be a legitimate price for an NFT, the benchmarks were all under construction.



“Stay safe” seems to be the new philosophy in 2022, vis-à-vis the trading of digital assets.



Well, everyone is asking the question, so it is necessary to provide some answers:



Was or was not Jack Dorsey&#8217;s tweet worth and still worth $2.9 million?



All we can say at this point is that this unique and highly experimental digital asset is not finding a new buyer as easily as expected. The fact that it offers very low liquidity, and that 99.9% of the population cannot or does not want to buy this Tweet at this price does not necessarily mean that it is not worth the price paid initially. We are not talking here about a simple collectible card, but about a particularly rare asset.



The context of the sale (closure of the previous marketplace, conflict in Ukraine, slowdown in the NFT markets, etc.) are obviously factors that are the complete opposite to the context one year ago and do not help to sell the asset.



Is this tweet currently worth $2.9 million? Obviously not. 



Could it one day be resold at this price or even more expensive? Time will tell, but let&#8217;s remember that the NFT markets have surprised us on many occasions and no doubt will continue to do so in future..!

In March 2021, the entrepreneur Sina Estavi added his part to building the citadel of buzz around NFTs by buying the first Tweet in history. Recently, he tried to sold it, unsuccessfully. What happened?

Jack Dorsey’s NFT Tweet: One Year Later

Aggressive competition dominates the higher education landscape. Institutions that fail to make rankings or raise sufficient donor dollars wither and fall away. Innovation is a key differentiator among colleges, especially technological innovation. 



The fact that <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/nfts-and-higher-education-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTs are both mainstream and tech-forward</a> presents numerous opportunities for regional and national level differentiation. NFTs can catalyze improvements in areas such as fundraising, athletics and events, showcasing instructors’ achievements, and sharing sensitive information.



<h2>Fundraising with NFTs</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="750" height="500" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/NFT-FoundationScreenShot750px.jpg" alt="UC Berkeley image by Maggie Valentine" class="wp-image-19407" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/NFT-FoundationScreenShot750px.jpg 750w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/NFT-FoundationScreenShot750px-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /><figcaption>UC Berkeley image by Maggie Valentine</figcaption></figure></div>



Ask any college graduate if their college’s alumni association has asked them to donate, and the answer will be ‘yes.’ Colleges love money as much as any human being, and NFTs offer a way to raise more of it. Many higher profile colleges like the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University possess massive troves of historical items. Berkeley has begun to make the most of its archive by selling <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/06/08/first-ever-auction-of-nft-based-on-nobel-prize-nets-uc-berkeley-50000/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTs of Nobel Prize-winning research</a> that its professors have completed. We expect more universities to capitalize on what they have in storage in the coming years.



Bentley University drew from its store of historical memorabilia as well, with an emphasis on sports. When their Coach Barbara Stevens was inducted into the basketball hall of fame, <a href="https://www.bentley.edu/news/bentley-creates-first-nfts">the university commemorated the occasion by minting and selling an NFT that featured a photo of her 1000th win</a>. Soon after Bentley, The <a href="https://www.legalsportsbetting.com/news/the-university-of-miami-becomes-first-school-to-sell-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Miami began to sell NFTs</a> of their sports program’s top moments. The university will even offer non-fungible tokens of the championship rings won by the school’s football program! 



We believe there’s room for synergistic <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/college-sports-nil-rules-and-laws-143623459.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHUcoupvwV63kZfwAMRb-HKa5yt0hToDXxK-rpjOyz4-XuHoD9C2z1P1kFVDLSQk9Vl6AzTFBJ_fpQ5De8jz47hEPXRHH8hi0YNDp1sFarF0TnIVD0RZfjh2XqbPZt-LbsADg3XGboDVuqfov-RRVMXVlbcgH2oG-zcDtbO4FEYc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT offerings in college athletics</a> because recent legal decisions have allowed athletes to profit from their name and image. When high profile players receive an advertising boost from major institutions and vice versa, the possibilities are extraordinary.



<h2>Events, athletics, and textbooks</h2>



Events, including sporting events, are as common as classes at universities nationwide. And with those events come ticket reselling. If universities switched to NFT-based ticket sales they’d not only profit from the initial sale but they would also receive royalties upon resale of tickets. 



Institutions could also benefit from NFT textbooks for similar reasons. University bookstores often require students to buy textbooks written by the school’s professors. An NFT-based textbook system could lower costs for textbooks while generating secondary sale royalties for the authors.



<h2>Academics and their research</h2>



Instead of storing sensitive research in the cloud where it can be meddled with, higher education institutions and academics might wish to take advantage of non-fungible tokens. Their versatility, security, and transparency are well-suited to the task. NFTs would also circumvent bureaucratic intermediaries because a transaction can be made directly on a blockchain network.



If human research subjects are involved, their personal data would arguably be more secure on chain than in some form of centralized storage. At the individual level, academics and institutions can use NFTs as a secure, authentic curriculum vitae that prospective students and fellow researchers can view while retaining clear ownership.



<h2>Conclusion</h2>



Higher education institutions in the United States hold tremendous power. Their activities are woven through American life from biomedical research to basketball. NFTs adaptability allows smooth pairing with any purpose a university might desire.

In our last discussion on higher education and non-fungible tokens we focused on the student side of things. This time we’ll examine the role of NFTs from the perspective of colleges and universities. 

NFT & Higher Education: College and Universities

In the United States, conversations about higher education are commonplace. That’s because in our information-driven economy college-level education is a necessity across many careers. More recent educational theories have sought to better meet this demand. 



These theories are, like non-fungible tokens, more decentralized and focused on the agency of individual students. They combine with higher education’s increasing dependence on technology to create a welcoming landscape for NFTs.



<h2>College admissions and student-ownership</h2>



Getting into college comes first and that can be a tangle of paperwork that non-fungible tokens could smooth out. High school transcripts, standardized test scores, and other achievements would streamline college admissions if transferred to NFTs. 



And in the US, students would save significant money: every transcript and test score sent to colleges comes with a fee that NFTs would obviate. Once admitted to college, NFTs could help students more easily make their case for scholarships, internships, study abroad opportunities. 



And more because they’re in possession of the proof of their accomplishments rather than some distant or disengaged middleman institution.&nbsp;



<h2>Optimizing credentialism</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="850" height="360" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/new-media-nft-certificate.jpg" alt="new media nft certificate" class="wp-image-19316" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/new-media-nft-certificate.jpg 850w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/new-media-nft-certificate-300x127.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/03/new-media-nft-certificate-768x325.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" /><figcaption>New Media &#8211; NFT Certificate</figcaption></figure></div>



Credentialism is here to stay. Positions that once required only a high school education and a reference now ask for a college diploma or certificate plus relevant experience. The on chain transparency, visibility, and authenticity of NFTs allow students to clearly display their diplomas and certificates.



Even more detail is possible, especially for coursework completed online. Students can showcase the individual courses they’ve completed, the real-world projects they’ve collaborated on, the skills they’ve gained, and the knowledge they’ve acquired in courses from ENG 101 to advanced math. 



Universities world-wide have begun to offer NFTs. The University of Georgia’s<a href="https://grady.uga.edu/new-media-institute-presents-program-certificates-as-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> New Media Institute</a> confirms program completion via NFTs. South Korea’s Samsung-backed<a href="https://forkast.news/headlines/samsung-backed-university-nfts-graduates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Sungkyunkwan University</a> has also issued NFTs to graduates and to competition winners.&nbsp;



Perhaps you’ve noticed a friend or colleague has fully embraced credentialism almost to the point of becoming a collector. Well, why not? Students and institutions can make the most of credentialism by merging it with other trends such as gamification. More on gamification and NFTs in the followup to this article.&nbsp; 



Individual professors like Beau Brannan (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/education-nfts-replace-diplomas-resumes-beau-brannan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">finance</a>) has already distributed NFTs to the enjoyment of students, so why not create institution-wide, interactive showcases for marketable skills and knowledge?&nbsp;



<h2>Community college benefits</h2>



Non-fungible tokens could also benefit students attending professional programs offered by community colleges. Certification programs in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), welding, healthcare, and more could just as easily roll out their certificates in NFT form.



Imagine how much easier it would be for a fresh graduate and an employer to connect when the student can link an NFT that shows them doing the desired work in addition to what would have been a mere piece of paper?



<h2>Post-graduate job search and community building</h2>



Employers can, in turn, more easily authenticate the claims college graduates make on their resumes. As with the streamlining of college admissions discussed above a smoother, NFT-facilitated path could create significant time savings for applicants and for employers in expensive, time-consuming hiring searches. Alumni communities often play a role in graduates’ job searches. 



NFT diplomas and resumes would support these communities by serving as their own on chain background check. Such background checks could also crossover to sites like LinkedIn, Ziprecruiter, and Monster. 



Alumni associations could also take advantage of the possibility of governance tokens issued to graduates who&#8217;ve received NFT diplomas. Governance tokens would even the playing field among alumni, eventually making such associations more egalitarian and less old, established money.



<h2>Some usecases for Student</h2>



Credentialing &amp; Diplomas: 



<ul><li>Can show how individual courses, the skills and knowledge gained relate to one another, and as a whole program completed; demonstrate interconnection, interplay of learning.</li><li>Gamification of learning; learning as a collectible, value of showing learning over telling</li><li>Certifications for stuff like CNA, welding, etc at community colleges</li></ul>



Resumes:



<ul><li>Transparency and visibility of diplomas and certificates could be built into resumes and CVs that employers could more easily assess for authenticity, even showcase for clients and HR recruiting purposes</li><li>Whole-person, citizengogy, active learning, logocentric learning</li></ul>



<h2>Or for institutions</h2>



<ul><li>Shows that the institution is tech-forward, innovative, engaged</li><li>Cal selling NFTs of Nobel Prize winning research </li><li>Possibilities for sports NFTs</li><li>Event ticketing, gain $ from secondary sales market</li><li>Instructors can use NFTs as CV as well: NFT vita</li><li>More robust version of RMP</li><li>Lower textbook cost — Mark Cuban — again, secondary market savings / profits</li><li>Share sensitive research between colleges, with private sector, government</li><li>NFT / <a href="https://daotalk.org/t/dao-university-dao-to-disrupt-education/1134" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crypto-guided DAO colleges</a> / universities online</li></ul>



Inspiration sources : <a href="https://abc7news.com/uc-berkeley-cal-nft-meaning-nobel-peace-prize/11516417/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">abc7 News</a> &#8211; <a href="https://daotalk.org/t/dao-university-dao-to-disrupt-education/1134" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DAOtalk</a> &#8211; <a href="https://upcea.edu/tech-trends-in-higher-ed-metaverse-nft-and-dao/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UPCEA</a> &#8211; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nfts-move-beyond-arts-and-entertainment-11645546723" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a> &#8211; <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/tech-trends-higher-ed-metaverse-nft-and-dao" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Inside Higher ED</a>

Here is our third article making the link between NFTs and traditional life. This article will focus on Higher Education!

NFTs and Higher Education

If you have just arrived in the NFT ecosystem you might be feeling a little lost. As you first see the passionate discussions taking place between monkey avatars, pixelated punks and&nbsp; manga characters you can be excused for feeling bewildered&#8230; but don&#8217;t worry it&#8217;s normal.



<h2>The submerged side of the iceberg</h2>



&#8220;Normal&#8221;, in the sense that more and more musicians, sportsmen and even actors are publicly flexing their latest NFT purchases. Sometimes for several hundred thousand dollars, sometimes a few million. Yes you read that right, the monkey image you saw as a profile picture of <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/boredapeclub/BAYC/3001" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Justin Bieber</a> or <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market-tracker/boredapeclub/BAYC/6633" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neymar</a> is worth a significant amount in dollar value.



If you&#8217;re thinking of wandering through a virtual world like Decentraland, you&#8217;ll have the opportunity to visit the Coca-Cola building or in the case of The Sandbox, a map slot is reserved for Warner Music Group and Snoop Dogg&#8230;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="269" height="259" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/02/snoop-dog-the-sandbox.jpg" alt="snoop dog the sandbox" class="wp-image-13617"/><figcaption>Snoop Dogg lands in The Sandbox</figcaption></figure></div>



You could be forgiven for thinking of this digital image based world as a simple fad, and yet&#8230;



Twitter has set up a system to highlight NFT ownership as a profile picture. Meta (ex-Facebook), Instagram and Youtube are actively working on the integration of NFTs on their platform. Adobe is thinking of putting an &#8220;export to NFT&#8221; option in its software and the list continues.



Famous auction houses Christie&#8217;s and Sotheby&#8217;s have made sales of NFT artworks totaling several hundred million dollars.



Not to mention an original copy of <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/investing/constitution-auction-sothebys-crypto/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the US Constitution was sold through an NFT auction</a> and the only copy of Wu Tang Clan&#8217;s album &#8220;Once upon a time in Shaolin&#8221; was <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin-album-nft-group-pleasr-dao" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bought by a group of NFT collectors</a>.



Also Nike has acquired metaverse wearable creation company RTFKT, McDonalds and Pepsi have done promotional NFTs and there&#8217;s The Matrix license too by the way.



These big institutional moves display a movement very far from the idea of a simple fad. In reality what we are talking about here is a massive NFT adoption by some of the most influential actors in our society.&nbsp;



Plus, everyone seems to be getting rich..!



And not like with Bitcoin, there is a fundamental difference here as this is not about buying or selling money. But rather it is a question of evaluating, with strong subjectivity, an entirely new type of asset class, with all that it entails.



<h2>The hidden side of the NFT iceberg</h2>



Now let&#8217;s dive beneath the surface and see what wonders are lurking in the depths.. Because so much happiness, so much money that seemingly falls from the sky, it only happens in movies doesn&#8217;t it? It can&#8217;t be real.&nbsp;



But it is real: the blockchain remembers, and the transaction is irreversible.



In case of human error, there is no central entity to request a cancellation of the transaction. This implies that the user is fully responsible for his wallet and transactions and individual financial accountability is taken to the extreme.



Those who have been in crypto for a few years remember exchange hacks, ICOs that disappeared with the money or simply cases of loss from compromised private keys. These war torn early adopters tend to play it careful and regularly post reminder messages about basic safety.



Since 2017, the NFT ecosystem has been building little by little and at the start, thanks to the small number we were then, it was relatively easy to notice dubious projects and we had the time to do some research, to ask questions.



Then in 2021, a massive increase in activity took the entire community by surprise. We knew that NFTs were going to be a revolution, but maybe not so fast! So, new generation, new rules! What was going to be the trend of Summer of 2021?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="450" height="450" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/08/collectibles-profile-pictures-pickles.jpg" alt="collectibles profile pictures pickles" class="wp-image-5899" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/08/collectibles-profile-pictures-pickles.jpg 450w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/08/collectibles-profile-pictures-pickles-300x300.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/08/collectibles-profile-pictures-pickles-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /><figcaption>My Fucking Pickles</figcaption></figure></div>



Avatar Jpegs with a random design, what we thought was a seasonal fad was actually going to become an economy of memes. Unfortunately, cynicism knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. And in the absence of a sufficient number of expert players, the older form of self-regulation that operated within the ecosystem has become less effective.



Behaviors devoid of ethics or morality have emerged. Not really online scams, in themselves they are as old as the internet itself. Two biggest problems would emerge: identity theft and the use of NFTs of major brands in their product without consultation with their community.



<h2>The start of a dead end conversation&nbsp;</h2>



There are several ways to resolve conflict, some with more peaceful methods. It can be said that the consensual method (everyone is satisfied with a commonly found solution with no one party required to make a sacrifice) was not the one that was preferred.



It was probably Joanie Lemercier and Memo Akten who opened the dialogue on the issues inherent in NFTs. Especially on the ecological aspect of Ethereum which uses the Proof of Work, algorithmic consensus known to be energy intensive. The #CleanNFT movement was created as a result of this. Very quickly, Tezos saw fit to buy a slot of their logo every time a user uses this tag on Twitter.



The ecological aspect of Proof of Work is regularly discussed, especially on the side of Bitcoin. Miners&#8217; efforts to have cheaper energy, in particular from renewable energy which has steadily increased in recent years, even more so since China banned mining on their territory.



Spending energy is not a big deal in itself, what matters is to know where this energy comes from. For Bitcoin, the narrative is very clear. For NFTs, a little less so and this is where the tension seems to crystallize.&nbsp;



What exactly does &#8220;the NFT community&#8221; carry as a value?



<h3>Getting rich</h3>



We&#8217;re not going to lie, the overwhelming majority are here to make money and to get rich in this ecosystem and there are not many options: work or trade.



The first option, there is not too much risk and income is created regularly in the familiar manner. The organization or the company you work for may differ from usual but the goal remains the same: to pool efforts in a paid way to achieve something bigger.&nbsp;



The second option on the other hand, a difficulty will soon become apparent, how to accurately value the asset to be bought, sold or resold. How to know the &#8220;right price&#8221; of an asset in such a new market? Is it by looking at the sales history or by fragmenting the NFT into several ‘shards’ to have an overall estimate? or by asking a trusted third party?&nbsp;



The questions are endless.



<h3>Ethics and morale</h3>



Without law (or regulation), it is community ethics and morality that have become the regulators in this space. The set of values that define what is &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;bad&#8221; are currently being thrashed out in Discord channels, voted on in DAOs and in other virtual community spaces.



In our article on <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/ethics-and-nfts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ethics and NFTs</a>, we returned to visit the political movement that comes closest to this market: Libertarianism. This notion is highly developed in the United States with progressive and conservative undercurrents more or less extreme. Taken to the extreme, it is the idea that everything can be traded on a free and open market. Yes, everything.



For example, when looking at what underpins traditional currency, is trading oil and weapons morally correct? Nowadays, the majority answer to this question will be &#8220;no, it&#8217;s wrong&#8221;. Yet it is oil and weapons that serve as the store of value for the U.S. dollar. Not gold anymore.



Real-world discussions about what is &#8220;good&#8221; for humanity have been in full swing since various COP and IPCC reports. But in the face of government inaction, increasingly radical actions have been organized across the world in a fight &#8220;at all costs&#8221; against this system of centralized and unequal regulation so that future generations can have a fairer life.



As the fight against faceless corporations and seemingly powerless politicians continues, the NFT ecosystem seems to have been lumped together as part of this battle. And the ecosystem&#8217;s efforts to self-regulate are not enough in the eyes of these new detractors. 



How the NFT community has reacted to this criticism without proposal for improvement? 



With the self-mockery it already knows so well and in response, the hatred has become visceral.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/02/hate-NFT.jpg" alt="NFT haters" class="wp-image-13274" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/02/hate-NFT.jpg 1000w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/02/hate-NFT-300x200.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2022/02/hate-NFT-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>NFT haters messages &#8211; What kind of morale or ethics is advocated here?</figcaption></figure></div>



We must distinguish between trollish attacks and legitimate points that can be resolved together. Just as it is necessary to distinguish between the reuse of works for commercial purposes with impunity and the actors of good faith who seek to improve this ecosystem on a daily basis.



<h3>Decentralization</h3>



Today, everyone wants visible and immediate effects on their efforts and seemingly as it&#8217;s happening online, the collective unconscious feels results have to be instantaneous. Because there is someone who just has to press a button to do or undo. Because after all, it&#8217;s just information sent through a cable at the speed of light.



But this is not the case with the NFT ecosystem. As we saw above there is no going back when a transaction is sent. Before 2020, it was necessary to pay a certain amount to interact with Opensea. Then with the surge in transaction fees on Ethereum, &#8220;lazy minting&#8221; appeared.



No need to pay smart contract deployment fees, this was now up to the buyer to pay all fees at the time of purchasing the NFT. A little more centralization for better scalability seemed like a good solution. Recently, Opensea announced a limit of mint per user before backpedaling. Why? Because their minter is so easy to use and today facilitates not only the mint of true works but in addition is a spam multiplier!



But if the spoofing had taken place on another online art sales site, outside of the public blockchain, who would have heard of it? The Internet is not limited to Deviantart or Behance. Decentralized transparency is a double-edged sword: it allows for public verification after the transaction has taken place but makes it impossible to cancel.



<h2>NFTs are here to stay, deal with it</h2>



This is the sledgehammer argument of the pro-NFT side. NFTs are here to stay, and for a long time to come. Already, because some investors see these small tokens as a long-term investment and have no desire to see them disappear. So they will do everything to ensure that technology survives.



Also NFTs represent a way for artists to quantify what was previously unquantifiable. And to have access, peer-to-peer, to a global market thanks to an censorship-proof means of payment.



Oddly enough, this idea seems to charm the biggest platforms in the world. To continue to offer a &#8220;free&#8221; service based on ever more intrusive advertising targeting, these companies need your personal data, your buying habits are worth more than gold.



Whether to pay to deploy a smart-contract and have full power over it or to continue to give away your digital integrity..the question continues..



There is bound to be an answer in the middle, but for now, no one has found it. What is certain is that today more than ever our online actions have consequences in real life. 



Rather than declaring war and seeing the dust in the eye of the neighbor, it is time to open up spaces for discussion to reduce the risk of damage on both sides of this new digital universe that our children will likely live in.

On one side we have a positive booming community movement within the NFT ecosystem, bringing economic and life changing opportunities to many who thrive in this new decentralised structure. On the other side, we see NFTs increasingly being blamed for many of the evils of the world, from scams to environmental destruction, ponzi schemes, theft or just plain useless..  So why are haters hating?

The good, the bad and the ugly faces of NFTs

While NFTs have only been around for less than a decade, it’s already boomed in popularity and sales, especially in recent years. <a href="https://earthweb.com/nft-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth Web reports NFT sales</a> in 2020 to be at around $250 million in total, with an average of $10-20 million worth of NFTs sold every week. 



Because it’s relatively new, the NFT market may be a little complicated to newcomers, and myths are often spread around. In this article, we’re debunking some common misconceptions about NFTs.



<h2>What are NFTs?</h2>



The term NFT stands for “non-fungible token”, and essentially means that it’s unique and irreplaceable. <a href="https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/learn/what-are-cryptocurrencies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wealthsimple&#8217;s brief explainer on cryptocurrencies</a> highlights that bitcoin is fungible; it can be traded for another bitcoin, which is of the same object. 



The same can’t be said for NFTs, as they act more like a one-of-a-kind collector’s item. These unique assets are sold at online marketplaces and digital auction houses, and can even include everything from music to website domains.



The current trend is really centered around digital artwork, similar to fine art collecting. Unfortunately, most of the buzz surrounding NFTs is quickly turned into myths and misinformation.



<h2>&#8220;NFTs are just a fad&#8221;</h2>



Because it’s now garnered mainstream attention, it’s been observed to challenge traditional notions of the value of art. Many people see NFTs solely as a novelty — this cannot be more false. Digital art has long been an established medium of creative expression, and digital exhibitions are often held around different areas around the world.



In fact, NFTs helped develop a way to monetize this genre of art and provide revenue for artists. For instance, <a href="https://www.harifguzman.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contemporary artist Harif Guzman</a> was able to transform some of his traditional works into NFTs and earn through the Blockparty platform. Guzman and lesser-known artists have been able to use this to expand their mediums and assets.



<h2>&#8220;NFTs are a get-rich-quick scheme&#8221;</h2>



Some people are dead set on labeling all NFTs as scams, while others are proclaiming it as the future of all forms of art. In truth, NFTs are neither of the two, as the concept of owning and selling limited edition copies of work has existed for centuries. 



NFTs are often limited and unique creations, which explains why they are valuable and well sought-after. Investors have had their fair share of investment successes and failures, as well as experiences of fraud. Criminals can hack into an account and resell under someone else’s name. 



This method is called “sleepminting” and was used to sell a <a href="https://news.artnet.com/opinion/sleepminting-nftheft-monsieur-personne-1960744" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fake copy of Beeple’s $69-million piece</a>. Still, this incident is only one among thousands of successful transactions and the NFT market has been a reliable space for all art creators, dealers, and investors alike.



<h2>&#8220;NFTs are bad for the environment&#8220;</h2>



If you’re an avid crypto enthusiast, you’re probably already familiar with the various environmental implications the technology inflicts. Ethereum blockchain burns a considerable amount of power, so many are worried that crypto art will also be environmentally taxing. 



But according to research, NFTs represent only 2% of the gas fees consumption on Ethereum, and some NFTs are supported by other blockchains such as FLOW, WAX, and TEZOS, which are less environmentally taxing. Additionally, Ethereum is already in the process of moving from a proof-of-work model to a proof-of-stake model to significantly reduce the energy consumption.



As we move forward into the future of art and technology, it’s certain that NFTs will continue to play a central role. To learn more about NFTs, read our <a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/analysis/who-framed-the-nft-market" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article on &#8220;Who framed the NFT market?&#8221;</a> Here, we delve into why NFTs get their bad rep and how the ecosystem is still able to thrive in spite of it.



Otherwise, you can check out our latest <a href="https://nonfungible.com/reports/2021/en/q3-quarterly-nft-market-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Q3 NFT report</a> for more insights about the NFT market.

With the rise in popularity of NFTs, more and more myths persist. Let's go back to three of them!

Debunking three common NFT Myths

Facebook has changed its name. It is now called &#8220;Meta&#8221;. Coming from the Greek, this term means many things: &#8220;after&#8221;, &#8220;beyond&#8221; or &#8220;with&#8221;. Although it is easy to ironize on this choice of name, especially with regard to the legal setbacks of Facebook currently, let&#8217;s not dwell too much on this mastodon.



Let&#8217;s look at the context from a wider angle. First of all, the remote use of digital technology, which has exploded for almost two years in the professional sector. Whether it&#8217;s Teams, Discord or Slack, these platforms have become a privileged space to exchange.



Despite a decline in 2020 due to the pandemic, the VR sector has returned to<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1221522/virtual-reality-market-size-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> almost equal</a> levels post-COVID-19. The video game sector, mainly driven by in-app purchases in mobile applications, has experienced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry#2020s" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">positive growth</a> for many years.



With all these elements put side by side, can we say that we are using the internet &#8220;after&#8221;, &#8220;beyond&#8221; what it was 20 years ago? Or that we live &#8220;with&#8221; him?



<h2>What is the metaverse?</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1200" height="675" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-world.jpg" alt="metaverse digital world" class="wp-image-9883" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-world.jpg 1200w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-world-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-world-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-world-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure></div>



By mixing the term &#8220;meta&#8221; and &#8220;universe&#8221;, we get the name &#8220;metaverse&#8221; or &#8220;meta-universe&#8221;. After, beyond or even with the universe. So that term encompasses many, many things.



The universe is wide, let&#8217;s try to keep our feet on Earth and refine this definition a little more. When it comes to metaverse today, the main idea that emerges is that of a virtual world. A digital world where users can interact with each other and do different things.



According to Neal Stephenson, author of the Snow Crash which serves as a reference on the subject, a metaverse is defined by several criteria:



<ul><li>Economic activity</li><li>The code is law</li><li>Access mode</li><li>Scalability</li><li>Usability</li></ul>



In the crypto sector, it is the &#8220;code is law&#8221; aspect that is most highlighted. But it turned out that the immutable automatism of code execution functions made other criteria, with the exception of economic activity, more complicated. By having to surpass itself to overcome the challenges that decentralization imposes, is the universe of blockchains the representation of Beyond?



The world of AR/VR/XR is primarily focused on usability, i.e. interactions between virtual avatars. The ability to see the facial or gestural expressions of the interlocutor today requires cumbersome and expensive technology. That said, developments in this area are very rapid, and may very well represent the After.



If there were to be only one digital metaverse that brings together all these elements today, it would be the Internet in the broad sense of the word. Decentralized by nature, the internet is a multitude of communities and services that exist only online and are interconnected. Somewhere, one could say that the internet represents the With.



Finally, isn&#8217;t &#8220;The&#8221; metaverse simply the set of virtual universes that each have their strength and weakness?



<h2>The digital identity of NFTs</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1280" height="720" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-footprint.jpg" alt="metaverse digital footprint" class="wp-image-9882" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-footprint.jpg 1280w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-footprint-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-footprint-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-digital-footprint-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /></figure></div>



The two major assets of the crypto sector make it possible to ensure a reliable economic activity for the virtual space. Thanks to the code&#8217;s priority over economic activity, the concept of real ownership has become a reality.



The more digital possibilities evolve, the more the choices to define our digital identity become more refined. And being able to prove, thanks to a tamper-proof digital signature, to be the author of a virtual asset is one of the essential components to forge this identity.



There have been many experiences and it took more than ten years for the adoption of Non-Fungible Tokens to take shape. That said, in just one year, we have seen almost all international brands declare a serious interest in it. It is no coincidence that all indicators related to NFT projects have exploded since the sale of Beeple.



This exponential growth took place in a very short period of time, taking over the entire NFT ecosystem: The main marketplace was overloaded, competition between blockchains, aggressive marketing campaigns, bad newcomer management, ecological criticism, the issue of copyright&#8230;



To think that the overall identity of the NFT community boils down to exchanges of pixelated punks, bored monkeys or cute penguins is extremely naive.&nbsp; Economic activity, scalability and ecology have become the priorities of a universe that has not had time to write its laws (or identity) in the code. What an irony!



<h2>Living in or with a Virtual Universe?&nbsp;</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1200" height="675" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-universe.jpg" alt="metaverse universe" class="wp-image-9884" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-universe.jpg 1200w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-universe-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-universe-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/11/metaverse-universe-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure></div>



It is impossible to dissociate the digital identity from a virtual environment like a Metaverse. Whether pseudonymous or official, online identity has now become a global issue on several levels.



The first is the recovery of personal data to sell it to advertisers. The second is the use of this data to influence behavior on social networks. We could also mention the importance of digital surveillance, which has increased since the beginning of the millennium.



Facebook&#8217;s excesses on our privacy doesn’t need to be proven anymore. And changing their name should not make us forget the scandals of this company: Influence of elections, inaction in the face of the malaise caused by Instagram, messaging with low encryption level&#8230;



NFTs make it possible to identify in a tamper-proof way the wallet of a digital creation. This is a first step to regain control of your online data. But if it is a question of having a life in a virtual universe, there are still many steps to be taken.



<h2>We still have a long way ahead</h2>



The metaverse of tomorrow is not the one that will succeed in making interactions between users more human. This element is too superficial. The metaverse of tomorrow is the one that will be done with respect for the most fundamental rights such as confidentiality.



The work that remains to be done before we can claim to live in (or with) a virtual universe is still very long. We are still in the infancy of what could be &#8220;the&#8221; metaverse.



<a href="https://pixabay.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Credits for pictures : Pixabay</a>

Since Facebook changed its name, it's hard not to have heard of “Metaverse”. But don't we already live in a large, interconnected metaverse?

Are we living in a metaverse yet?

Disclaimer: this content is from an outside contributor of nonfungible.com. The opinions shared in this article are the views of its author.



The rise of NFTs has been revolutionary and sudden. So sudden, in fact, that despite a wealth of mainstream adoption and billions of dollars changing hands, there are numerous teething problems.



For all the brilliance of Ethereum, there are a few familiar and fair criticisms that must be overcome to keep the NFT space we love so dearly, growing at a rate of knots. One solution is the combining of two blockchains which may offer a “have your cake and eat it” scenario.



The <a href="https://on.wax.io/wax-io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WAX</a> blockchain is purpose-built for NFTs, but Ethereum is the blockchain world’s monetary system. Two blockchains that may seem to be competing on the face of the issue, given Ethereum is the primary chain for many of the major NFT projects. That needn’t be the case, however. Not only can they co-exist, but they can also complement each other.



WAX’s EVM is news that hasn’t received the attention it deserves; it is a noteworthy moment for WAX, but also anyone with even a passing interest in NFTs and their future.



If you’re not sure what exactly WAX’s EVM entails or why it is an important progression for NFTs, allow me to unpack it for you.



<h2>What is the EVM?</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1080" height="607" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/evm.png" alt="Ethereum Virtual Machine" class="wp-image-7236" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/evm.png 1080w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/evm-300x169.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/evm-1024x576.png 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/evm-768x432.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></figure></div>



First, we need to understand what the EVM is. EVM is short for Ethereum Virtual Machine and is in essence a virtual CPU spread across the globe. Any computer running Geth is part of the EVM and acts as a node, making up a giant network.



The EVM is known as a distributed state machine as it keeps track of the current state of the blockchain on all nodes. Any time a transaction happens, for example, all nodes track it. So, when the co-founder of Ethereum, Joseph Lubin, said they had built an “unstoppable, uncensorable world computer”, it wasn’t hyperbole!



Like a physical CPU, the EVM executes bytecode in smart contracts. Think of bytecode as highly optimized sets of instructions, executed in this case by the EVM. Smart contracts are basic programs comprised of code and data, stored on a blockchain, and that execute when their conditions are met.



For Ethereum, developers write smart contracts in the programming language Solidity, compile it into bytecode, and then upload it to the blockchain as a smart contract. A smart contracts’ required conditions can be simple, but also extremely complicated. So, how does this all look in action?



For example, imagine a smart contract is created for an NFT where the price of 1 ETH is set. Once the prospective buyer submits his bid of 1 ETH, the conditions of that sale are met, and the smart contract executes instantly. If they are not met, the smart contract will not execute.



There’s no wiggle room here and no debate. Once the smart contract executes, it is irreversible. All nodes of the EVM then pull up their copy of the smart contract for that NFT sale and run the bytecode. The state of the blockchain then changes and the EVM tracks this across every single node.



Why the EVM is of staggering importance is another article, but here are the cliff notes: The EVM is a neutral computing infrastructure. It is without ownership, automated, has complete transparency, and there is no trust involved in the workings.



This is why it is so attractive for financial purposes and why Ethereum is the blockchain world’s monetary system.



<h2>What are Ethereum’s Flaws?</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="575" height="188" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/WAX-ETH-BTC-comparaison.png" alt="WAX ETH BTC comparaison" class="wp-image-7237" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/WAX-ETH-BTC-comparaison.png 575w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/09/WAX-ETH-BTC-comparaison-300x98.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px" /></figure></div>



Ethereum’s Virtual Machine is brilliant, but Ethereum’s flaws are nevertheless, numerous. There are three primary concerns with Ethereum: the gas fees, the slow transaction speeds and low capacity of them, and the environmental impact. These are all traceable back to Ethereum’s Proof of Work (PoW) system. The PoW system requires people to crack arbitrary puzzles and is used in cryptocurrency mining, but at a cost.



The gas fees are arguably the most infamous of Ethereum’s drawbacks, and so I’ll give a brief example: My friends launched a series of NFTs earlier this year and I wanted to buy one to support their project. The price of the NFT was around $30, but when I tried to purchase it, the gas fee for the transaction was $112. After two days of waiting and checking, I managed to snag the NFT for $30 and $72 in gas fees. Imagine you ordered a t-shirt online and the shipping fees were nearly three times the price of the t-shirt! It was, and is, untenable.



The issue with transactions on the Ethereum network all comes down to the maximum number of transactions it can handle, which is around 30 per second. That sounds like a lot, but it isn’t.



If Ethereum is financially centered, then the benchmark ought to be <a href="https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/about-visa/documents/aboutvisafactsheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visa’s average transactions per second</a>, which is around 2,000. Ethereum can be forgiven for being a little sluggish, but that’s quite the chasm. Remember that number of 30 per second as we’ll be coming back to it and it’s important. A low number of transactions per second means the network will feel slow as transactions are queued.



The environmental issue with Ethereum is the most profound and urgent. Due to Ethereum’s PoW system — a design shared by Bitcoin — it requires an enormous amount of computing resources which, in turn, consumes vast amounts of electricity. You will have likely heard of people mining Bitcoin. Well, you can mine Ethereum too and the energy consumption and carbon emissions as a result of this, are harrowing.



Ethereum 2.0, it must be said, will solve several key issues for Ethereum, including a dramatic reduction in energy consumption. Ethereum will merge with Ethereum 2.0, taking it from the PoW system to a more environmentally friendly and faster, Proof of Stake system (PoS). 



However, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/proof-stake-ethereum-2-0-153221744.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEtlGtmXD5tnbCDl-r9gK-codg2VybnS_WTFV1qAE4JjhJxUPwVxCAJ_Tb05BGB-NTgtIK4QrakwWPI5VMigWLzqc8hjSjH_Rmtsn03g_5twl-_drOfzmlI1lfTOKczsUT6FyeCaJ3S72b0qdwPD8eb6UYwxeq35fczpxCVEfo0q" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a recent study</a> from the University College of London found that while PoS systems are better, they aren’t all equal. Ethereum 2.0 is projected to be less energy efficient than its rival, Cardano.



With all this in mind, it’s time to turn our attention to WAX. WAX is of course not perfect either and is still improving week on week. For instance, the system of staking resources requires you to stake some of your WAX tokens for network RAM and CPU, which will then allow you to execute transactions without fees.



This can be a confusing situation for newcomers to the blockchain and can result in transactions failing and smart contracts running out of RAM. 



However, this is <a href="https://wax-io.medium.com/psa-wax-cloud-wallet-resource-model-2-0-ebc96d878645" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">going to become an automated function</a>. Nevertheless, WAX can overcome the major stumbling blocks of Ethereum with the WAX EVM which makes it useful to many Ethereum projects struggling with gas fees and transaction times, for instance.



<h2>What is the WAX EVM?</h2>



WAX EVM is a part of <a href="https://medium.com/wax-io/coming-to-wax-a-new-wax-tokenomic-model-cd0616a069e9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WAX’s Tokenomic model</a>, which has inter-blockchain functionality central to its design. WAX EVM, simply put, is a sort of emulator that allows the execution of Ethereum smart contracts, on the WAX blockchain.



By smart contracts made for Ethereum being processed on the WAX blockchain, we can have the best of both worlds, and without affecting the smart contract’s code.



Where Ethereum is the primary monetary blockchain, WAX is designed to be the best blockchain for buying, selling, and trading NFTs. WAX uses a Delegated Proof of Stake system (DPoS) as opposed to the PoW of current Ethereum or PoS of Ethereum 2.0, and you needn’t understand the differences. (<a href="https://www.etoro.com/news-and-analysis/market-insights/dpos-vs-pos-winner-takes-all/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">If you wish to learn about the difference between PoS and DPoS, this is a good starting point</a>.)



What the DPoS system does is avoid having to pay your month’s rent in gas fees to buy a couple of NFTs. It also overcomes those clunky transaction times as the glass ceiling of how many transactions per second are possible, is shattered.



Furthermore, the DPoS system WAX uses is even more energy efficient than the PoS system, and uses over 100,000 times less energy per transaction than Ethereum on its current PoW system! In fact, WAX is <a href="https://on.wax.io/CO2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a certified carbon neutral blockchain</a>.



WAX’s blockchain technology can hand up to 8,000 per second and has proven that with its 500,000 daily active users, 17,000,000 daily transactions, and WAX’s annualized secondary NFT market volume being now five times the size of the NFT primary market.



It manages all this while staying complete carbon neutral, instead of melting a penguin’s house. This is why WAX is the most used layer-1 blockchain; it can accommodate a high number of fast transactions without gas fees and without damaging the planet.



Nevertheless, there are developers, gamers, artists, collectors — you name it — already on Ethereum, wincing every time a smart contract is executed. Enter WAX EVM. Interfacing between blockchains hasn’t been easy, but as it becomes more achievable, WAX asked: what if you could have the best of both Ethereum and WAX?



That is, inter-blockchain functionality where those smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain can be processed with WAX’s technology. You would be able to execute Ethereum smart contracts on WAX’s blockchain, thus avoiding hefty gas fees and getting significantly faster results.



This is all achieved without affecting the original coding of the smart contracts. Let’s look at how big a difference that would make.



<h2>Is WAX EVM a viable alternative ?</h2>



It’s truthfully difficult to succinctly summarise all the good this can do. The chief benefit would have to be environmental; using a carbon neutral blockchain over one that has <a href="https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the annual carbon footprint equal to an entire country</a> is more than a positive — it’s necessary.



The transactions per second capacity being raised from around 30 to around 8,000 makes life a lot quicker and smoother. Not having to pay three times your t-shirt in shipping is also welcome, but is consequential in ways many won’t at first appreciate. To me, that’s a saving of $72 in gas fees when purchasing my friend’s NFT. 



However, to projects being developed on Ethereum, this solution is a lifeline. Every flaw of the Ethereum blockchain is magnified to these developers as slow speeds and high gas fees cripple their budgets, gating their success until there is a viable alternative, and the WAX EVM is just that.

WAX’s EVM is news that hasn’t received the attention it deserves; it is a noteworthy moment for WAX. Let's take a closer overview of this upcoming feature.

What is the WAX EVM?

With the widespread coverage of non-fungible tokens by mainstream media its easy to believe that 2021 will be the year of the NFT. The general public has become aware that the concept of crypto overall is no longer a joke (hello Doge!) and as a result, social network projects are being created in the NFT ecosystem, specialising in this field and are taking advantage of this new ecosystem to make a name for themselves.



One thing is for sure, the battle to the top will be tough, with giants like Instagram looking to launch an NFT platform directly on its app and several influential players in crypto interested in the vision of an NFT social network like Gary Vaynerchuk.&nbsp;



<h2>Nafter: A simple use of NFTs on an Instagram like platform</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1600" height="900" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter.jpg" alt="NFT social network nafter" class="wp-image-5736" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter.jpg 1600w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter-768x432.jpg 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/NFT-social-network-nafter-1536x864.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure></div>



Although Nafter has some great ambassadors, that&#8217;s not what best characterizes this app, more it&#8217;s the growing popularity of social networks and NFTs with which Nafter has created a market using an intuitive interface and simple tools:



<ul><li>Take a picture</li><li>Give a name and a description to the photo</li><li>Choose a category</li><li>Define its price in dollars</li><li>Choose the crypto to accept ($NAFT &#8211; 0 gas fees) ($ETH) ($BNB)</li><li>Define the number of copies</li><li>Activate the sale or deactivate the sale</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1600" height="880" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform.png" alt="nafter platform" class="wp-image-5732" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform.png 1600w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform-300x165.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform-1024x563.png 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform-768x422.png 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-platform-1536x845.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure></div>



And that really is it, the image has been minted on the blockchain and is now in your account ready for sale! It is without doubt this simplicity that will be the catalyst for mass adoption.



Besides the fancy marketing when visiting <a href="https://nafter.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nafter&#8217;s official website</a>, this app could be used: 



<ul><li>To discover the person who minted the NFT through the transaction</li><li>Facilitate contact with fans, collectors and widen your influence</li><li>Make partnerships more attractive for both parties</li><li>Grant access to exclusive content to people of your choice (collectors, stackers, etc.)</li><li>Give access to real content or physical objects</li><li>Create limited and exclusive collections</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1280" height="720" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-content.png" alt="nafter content" class="wp-image-5731" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-content.png 1280w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-content-300x169.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-content-1024x576.png 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-content-768x432.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /></figure></div>



<h2>Let&#8217;s talk about the $NAFT Token</h2>



$NAFT is Nafter&#8217;s token and boasts no transaction fees. It is also a governance token that will allow you to bet (stack) on profiles that you think will gain popularity. Moreover, the wallet used is none other than Metamask, which will greatly facilitate its use considering the many tutorials available.



The addition of liquidity in Nafter&#8217;s pool will also have an impact on your user experience in the app. Three levels of staking will be there to reward liquidity providers:



Fanboy:&nbsp;



<ul><li>Starting at 5000 $NAFT</li><li>Gives access to an APY of approximately 100%.</li></ul>



Influencer:



<ul><li>Starting at 50,000 $NAFT</li><li>Gives access to an APY of approximately 150%.</li></ul>



Celebrity:



<ul><li>Starting at 250,000 $NAFT</li><li>Verified Badge Earnings</li><li>Gives access to an APY of approximately 200%.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1600" height="816" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools.png" alt="nafter pools" class="wp-image-5733" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools.png 1600w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools-300x153.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools-1024x522.png 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools-768x392.png 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/nafter-pools-1536x783.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure></div>



<h2>An early stage dApp</h2>



When the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_-8qhLR-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">app is in action</a>, we can see that the team behind Nafter has greatly prioritised the user experience, for the moment the app is still in development and in its early stage. 



The main concept to remember here is that Nafter has led the way in trying to create a decentralized Instagram. This is a project to keep an eye on because as Instagram seems to have announced a project relating to NFTs and who knows, maybe Nafter will become their decentralized competitor?



<h2>Showtime : The Social Media dedicated to Crypto-Artists</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1200" height="710" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/showtime-homepage.png" alt="showtime homepage" class="wp-image-5737" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/showtime-homepage.png 1200w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/showtime-homepage-300x178.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/showtime-homepage-1024x606.png 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/07/showtime-homepage-768x454.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure></div>



Showtime looks to resolve the huge problem that most digital artists face, lack of visibility. Since the NFT boom earlier this year, many new creators have appeared in the non-fungible token ecosystem. The marketplaces have become overwhelmed by millions of different works, collectibles, assets, land and so on. Because of this glut, many artists with great potential and without great popularity may have become discouraged.&nbsp;



This is where <a href="https://tryshowtime.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Showtime</a> arrives. Instead of making yet another non-fungible art marketplace, Alex Masmejean has chosen the path of an aggregator or rather a real non-fungible Artist social network.



It&#8217;s a bit like the exhibition gallery of all crypto-artists, all their creations are displayed on one account even though they are on sale on several different marketplaces. So you can enter the artist&#8217;s universe without having to search everywhere else.



<h2>What are the strengths of Showtime?</h2>



Networking



As an artist you can be sure to gain the opinion of your fans on your new artwork thanks to the likes, comments and followers you gain. Brands, crypto projects, and even artists will be able to find the creators they are looking for to collaborate with.&nbsp;



Visibility and Ease



You will be directly projected into a large NFT artist community as soon as you connect your Metamask wallet, and that really is it, you don&#8217;t have to do anything else..!



Showtime will directly display creations that are yours or that have been sold as well as the NFTs in your possession, as mentioned before, this is your own NFT gallery.



Interoperability



On Showtime, buyers will be able to access all the artist&#8217;s works via a link that goes directly to the marketplace. Thanks to this, there is no need to promote your work since it will be automatically added to your Showtime account.



<h2>What is driving the Showtime ecosystem?</h2>



The general idea behind this social network fully meets its primary function. Thanks to their fundraising, this young NFT startup still has more exciting things to develop in future. With no less than 7.6 million dollars raised by the platform, we can quote some now famous names in the crypto sphere who have got involved.



The American DJ 3LAU known for his music NFTs, the founder of Compound (Robert Leshner) via his investment fund <a href="https://robvc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robot Ventures</a>, <a href="https://www.paradigm.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paradigm</a> the investment company of the co-founder of Coinbase (Fred Ehrsam) to name only the best known.



As a self-tokenized man, his token the $ALEX as well as its founder Alex Masmejean remains unclear about the future of Showtime. The initial idea was to create a governance token for the social network to take its share of the transaction fees, which requires the work to be for sale on Showtime.



According to the founder, the development of the application will be implemented only if there is a strong adoption. So if you&#8217;re interested in this project, stay tuned to learn more about upcoming news.



Image credit : <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://nafterapp.medium.com/" target="_blank">Nafter</a> &#8211; <a href="https://pixabay.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pixabay</a>

More and more social network are planning to use NFT as a medium of choice for multiple reasons! Let's take a look at it.

A look at two Social Network NFT Projects

NFTs have become increasingly integrated into the world in recent months with their adoption&nbsp; in various uses such as in concert ticketing, art and video games multiplying. Less hyped and more institutional use cases have also started to emerge recently, such as the issuance of educational diplomas in Vietnam or with the transfer of contracts within companies.&nbsp;



There are many reasons for this increasing adoption and the benefits of using a public blockchain are numerous: Transparency makes it possible to fight fraud more effectively, the elimination of the trusted third party provides a fairer benefit for artists and the standardization of tokens allows interoperability between projects.



What these use cases have in common is the resolution they offer to well known trust issues that exist in already well established real world processes. It has been over three years since these different use cases have been implemented and tested out by various projects but very often, the central element is obscured by these technological advances: the community which made these successful use cases possible.



<h2>From community to Social Tokenization</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1440" height="810" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/social_tokenization_169.jpg" alt="social tokenization" class="wp-image-4710" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/social_tokenization_169.jpg 1440w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/social_tokenization_169-300x169.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/social_tokenization_169-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/social_tokenization_169-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" /></figure></div>



These communities are linked together through the use of this new technology but most often these formulate as &#8220;mini-clans&#8221; which seem to interact little with each other.. at least on the surface! In reality there is an entire social life outside of the flagship NFT projects and in the creative effervescence of new projects, experiences have taken place around “<a href="https://nonfungible.com/news/opinions/thoughts-about-social-tokens-and-tokenizing-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">social tokenization</a>” which has the concept of matching a token&#8217;s value to that of an influential third party.



For example, Coin Artists’ social token gave governance rights to the holder within the virtual syndicate present in the Neon District project while Alex Masmej decided to offer the right to vote for certain life choices to the community that participated in the sale of his tokens.. For Alex, the value is backed by respect for the choices his community takes over a given time while for Coin Artist, it is the choices that most resonate with the community that makes the token valuable.



In the <a href="http://cherryhotwife.com/tour/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cherry Blossom Project</a> (NSFW), unlike the previous examples, it is the number of tokens owned that determine the extent of the accessible services. Their value will depend on the number of people who are active in this community as well as the quality of the services provided.



These ideas of decentralized mutual engagement seem to have inspired startups who propose to monetize choices in the lives of famous influencers in the US but no blockchains are currently involved in these projects..at least for the moment!



<h2>A new way of life</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1920" height="1152" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network.jpg" alt="non fungible network" class="wp-image-4707" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network.jpg 1920w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network-300x180.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network-1024x614.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network-768x461.jpg 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-network-1536x922.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></figure></div>



By tokenizing social aspects of life, a form of synergy develops between influential people and their community in a more horizontal way than was previously possible with only social media.



This new way of monetizing our existence by splitting it up on an open market may seem surprising at first glance, but isn&#8217;t it ultimately a way to regain control over our personal data which is currently held (and sold) by a few centralized platforms at present?



As humanity becomes more and more connected to each other through technology, it becomes increasingly important that digital identity can be verified publicly while maintaining the confidentiality of personal data. The character of Satoshi Nakamoto is a very good example of this: anyone can recognize his or her identity by reading the Bitcointalk forum but no one knows who he or she truly is. On another scale, the character of Whaleshark has adopted a different identity: Anyone can check the contents of the Vault on which the value of the $WHALE is backed, but only a few people really know who he or she is.



Even though the existence of these characters only exists virtually, they still have a significant impact on the reality of many people. And it is this new way of living that further expands the definition of humanity.



<h2>Non-Fungible Transhumanism</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1920" height="855" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism.jpg" alt="non fungible mechanism" class="wp-image-4706" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism.jpg 1920w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism-300x134.jpg 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism-1024x456.jpg 1024w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism-768x342.jpg 768w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/05/non-fungible-mechanism-1536x684.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></figure></div>



Pushing back the limits of the human or the &#8220;natural&#8221; as it is commonly accepted is one of the creeds that we can find in the movement of transhumanism. Although mainly reserved for the health sector to replace a lost limb with a prosthesis, it is also found a lot in the army, especially for the war wounded or among athletes so that they can continue their passion.



With advances in research and development continuing to move forward, it&#8217;s hard not to imagine in the relatively near future that anyone can easily access them.



On the one hand there would be more people who could access robotic technology to transcend their humanity and on the other, a trend for monetizing social aspects of their online and decentralized life. It doesn’t care much to associate an NFT with the part of the body that has been replaced or improved.



If the owner of a prosthesis decides to make it available to his community, whether through governance tokens, rewards or services rendered, would the removal of the trusted third party not raise its lot of ethical questions?



The tabloid press would only wait for the first example of a “loaned” hand having been used in a murder, but on the other hand it could also be possible to witness, through “lent” eyes, the realization of a work by talented artists or even listen to a concert thanks to a “shared” hearing.



<h2>Conclusion</h2>



The universe of social tokenization and transhumanism do not seem to communicate with each other for the moment, but in a context where individual responsibility is more and more advocated, it seems normal to dilute responsibility if the latter is too important to manage alone. And this dilution, the blockchain allows it without borders and in a peer to peer way.



Without the control of a third party, the freedoms allowed by this new means of creating and interacting with communities are conditioned by moral principles of the individual who created the project and then of his community.



These are therefore initiatives where the individual is at the center but is never alone in making decisions that create these social experiences, reflections of a part of digital society &#8230; but more real than ever.



Image credits : <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">geralt</a> &#8211; <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/mohamed_hassan-5229782/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mohamed Hassan</a> &#8211; <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/thedigitalartist-202249/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Digital Artist</a>

What could be the link between NFT and Transhumanism? Here are some thoughts about this question!

From social tokenization to Non-Fungible  Transhumanism?

Here we are&#8230; NFTs are becoming more and more mainstream! Many internationally renowned artists are starting to sell their albums as NFTs, other artists are linking their physical work to NFTs from the perspective of selling them more easily on dedicated platforms such as Makersplace, Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, or Known Origin.



But with the popularization of NFTs certain questions have arisen that have not always been foreseen by artists, users or even developers and recently a debate has started regarding what the ecological impact of NFTs could be for the planet.



The question of ecological impact in blockchain and more precisely of the electricity consumption generated by blockchain using Proof of Work, isn’t new and so it’s not really surprising this question is being asked today in our, no longer so small community! It&#8217;s hard to ignore the criticisms leveled at the industry over all, which in less than ten years has seen the need of miners to move from computers to dedicated machines in huge warehouses, comparable to the data centers of Google or Facebook.



Difficult to ignore but by putting things into perspective, certain points put forward by <a href="https://memoakten.medium.com/the-unreasonable-ecological-cost-of-cryptoart-2221d3eb2053" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Memo Akten</a> and <a href="https://joanielemercier.com/the-problem-of-cryptoart/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Joanie Lemercier</a> are still best viewed in hindsight. The initial intention was to raise a debate around the ecological conscience of the users and actors in the NFT space but also to look at the political convictions which surround this new Universe.



Because that&#8217;s obviously what we&#8217;re talking about here: On the one hand, prevent worsening the disastrous consequences of globalization policies on the planet and not fall back into the trap of neoliberalism, the social consequences of which are well established.



Except that to achieve this, banning is not the right option. It never has been. Even less in the crypto space because it is based on two fundamental principles: censorship resistance and consensus.&nbsp;



So rather than wanting to enter into an open war by making the actors of this ecosystem feel guilty which will end up leading to a sterile debate at best, let&#8217;s think together about the solutions that we can provide to build the world of tomorrow whose digital aspect will be part of our everyday life, no matter what.



<h2>A fallacious methodology?</h2>



First of all, there is something particularly disturbing about these articles. We have read statements such as: “a transaction costs XXX in CO2”. Stop. The power consumption of miners only comes into action when writing transactions to a new block! To be more precise: As the blocks are generated ‘automatically’, approximately every 15 seconds or so, the comparison with the emissions from taking a plane journey does not hold. This is because even if it’s possible to leave the ‘planes’ on the ground (and we could see during the first confinement that this was not the case for lack of available places in the airports) it is not possible to stop a PoW blockchain ‘by design’.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="731" height="377" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/Eth-Tx-life-cycle.png" alt="Eth Tx life cycle" class="wp-image-3675" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/Eth-Tx-life-cycle.png 731w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/Eth-Tx-life-cycle-300x155.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px" /></figure></div>



Whether for a simple or complex transaction, NFTs are in a kind of waiting room called a &#8220;mempool&#8221; and these mempools only require the power consumption of the very node that receives it! Making the user feel guilty by saying “your NFT transaction will cause planetary catastrophes&#8221; is simply not true! As the size of each block is limited, the number of transactions that can be contained in each block is also constrained.



If the miners decide to turn on more machines to find new blocks it’s not because the number of transactions are increasing but because the price of Ether is increasing and therefore makes the block reward more attractive.



So yes for the moment to have a good ecological conscience by creating NFTs, the only solution is to use a Proof of Stake system and recently Vitalik Buterin is trying to speed up&nbsp; the process of this transition for Ethereum. But since he will not do this at the expense of network security, it is taking time.



In his article on Medium, Memo Akten specifies that it is a question of the estimated carbon footprint and at the same time recognizes that his methodology is not intended to be scientifically approved but rather to raise awareness that the system of Proof of Work is energy intensive.



<h2>A green paradox</h2>



So yes, thank you for the reminder Memo! We are certainly all aware that our planet is experiencing global warming, worrying rising waters and we have created a continent worth of plastic in completely artificial ways. But is this a good reason to be so vigorous in this anti-blockchain (and not necessarily anti-NFT) lobbying by believing that the community of crypto-artists have no ecological conscience? What if it was the other way around?



<h3>Offsetting</h3>



In an article by <a href="https://everestpipkin.medium.com/but-the-environmental-issues-with-cryptoart-1128ef72e6a3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Everest Pipkin</a>, the issue of &#8220;offsetting&#8221; is approached as a hypocritical way to take green credit with the planet and buy yourself a clear conscience. What is offsetting? To give an impression: it is the idea of planting a number of trees equivalent to our carbon footprint to compensate. If this idea seems hypocritical it is because the argument against this practice is to consume less and plant more trees, not to consume more and to plant more.



Not everyone wants the choice of an absolute decrease to the point of eliminating all computers and electricity on the planet, but at the same time everyone is aware that something must be done to limit the risks and create harmony. Offsetting is a practice of &#8220;risk reduction&#8220;, a balance somewhere between risk 0 and the excessive pollution of the planet. Why has this solution increased popularity over time? Probably because one of the big concerns today with companies and associations that offer the offsetting service is that no one can verify where the funds they collect for this type of operation actually go.



“Blockchain fixes this”: The question of trust is fundamental to any blockchain player and often the phrase “any project is a scam until proven otherwise” is true. Anyone today who wants to check in a tamper-proof way where funds really go or how a particular choice of action is voted for has good reason: we are talking about public policy here, what could be more normal than everyone able to openly access this information?&nbsp;



This is exactly what the <a href="https://offsetra.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsetra project</a> proposes: to put $DAI in receivership so that the interest generated in this way will be donated to ecological projects. It is also that of <a href="https://nftree.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFTree</a> which aims to raise awareness on the one hand about the ecological issue while using an eco-friendly blockchain (<a href="https://www.crownplatform.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CROWN</a>).



<h3>Renewable energy</h3>



Equally important is the issue of renewable energy by miners. Here too, it&#8217;s a balance between consuming 0 and running the old machines at full speed to try to find a new block.



Trying to determine the carbon footprint with a simplistic calculation to create a sensation is once again, not a good method to convince the actors who will be able to make a difference. Why? Because the miners who responded to the <a href="https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/3rd-global-cryptoasset-benchmarking-study/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cambridge University study</a> must remain in good faith until their power consumption can be <a href="https://www.ledger.com/engie-and-ledger-partner-to-develop-the-first-blockchain-hardware-securing-data-at-the-source-of-energy-production" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">verified on the blockchain</a>.



Overall, the renewable energy estimate is around 40%, but a closer look shows that mining farms mainly mine&#8230;Bitcoin.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="926" height="554" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/coins-mined-region.png" alt="coins mined region" class="wp-image-3673" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/coins-mined-region.png 926w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/coins-mined-region-300x179.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/coins-mined-region-768x459.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption>Page 22 of the <a href="https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-ccaf-3rd-global-cryptoasset-benchmarking-study.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cambridge University</a> Cryptocurrency Report</figcaption></figure></div>



It has been shown more than once that the ecological impact of <a href="https://blockbain.medium.com/bitcoin-electrical-consumption-f395ddd0cf3d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin transactions</a> (or <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/mzur8mgbxyju9g2/2021%2003%20bitcoin%20and%20environment_benichou_published.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>) is not proven, so we won&#8217;t go into it here.



Knowing that the majority of NFTs are minted on Ethereum, let&#8217;s go even further into this study to find out which resources South America mainly uses as a source of energy.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="922" height="508" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/crypto-energy-source-region.png" alt="crypto energy source region" class="wp-image-3674" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/crypto-energy-source-region.png 922w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/crypto-energy-source-region-300x165.png 300w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/crypto-energy-source-region-768x423.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px" /></figure></div>



But before claiming victory over the use of South America&#8217;s hydropower, it is important to remember a very important point: the impact of giant dams which is an ecological disaster on the forest ecosystem in this region of the world. We could also question the efficiency of solar panels, particularly because of the maintenance required so that the collection of the sun is not disturbed by dust. We note that oil is also mainly used, but is this a surprise in a region which has one of the most important oil reserves on the planet?&nbsp;



<h2>No perfect solution?</h2>



One solution would be that everyone puts down their weapons, we sit down and we think rather than continuing to bicker over problems which should unite us rather than divide us.



Individual empowerment is the cornerstone of global change since the only real power people have today are their choices as consumers. The term &#8220;consume actor&#8221; has been appearing for a few years now and it is not surprising: in our time when money is king only the final purchase decision acts as a vote to encourage the companies or individuals behind a product sold.



To those who still doubted it, NFTs are indeed the realization of the oldest dream of *libertarianism: turn the world into an asset and put it up for sale on a free market. Some will find it terrible, others will find it a major development in our society.&nbsp;



“Terrible” because we have seen the consequences of an unregulated market made available to limitless liberalism. Terrible because of unlimited monetary creation to reinforce the organizations which were responsible for these financial and economic crises.&nbsp;



The fears are therefore justified to see a new market appear where, freely, everyone can upload GIFs, real estate or videos. Maybe history will repeat itself in a worse way than before…or maybe not.



The solution of using a public blockchain not only makes it possible to have a general ledger searchable by anyone but also to automate complex processes. The issue of transparency is essential for fraud to decrease, but above all for the distribution of wealth and resources to be distributed more equitably. If we trace the problem back to its source, the origin lies in an elite which uses its influence to escape punishment and deepens social inequalities in this way.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/UN-ratio-richest-poorest.png" alt="UN ratio richest poorest" class="wp-image-3678" width="526" height="232" srcset="http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/UN-ratio-richest-poorest.png 526w, http://100.96.1.66:3001/app/uploads/2021/03/UN-ratio-richest-poorest-300x132.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px" /></figure></div>



This is exacerbated by the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/01/World-Social-Report-2020-FullReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">problems related to climate change</a> and the gap between rich and poor was further widened in 2020 because of global lockdowns&#8230; Starting from this point, is it not an ethical problem to accuse all the ills in the world are due to artists who have been deprived of their main income over lockdown and have used NFTs to try to make a living?



<h2>NFT and blockchain are a technological tool</h2>



It is important here not to get the wrong enemy and to use blockchain for what it really is: a technological tool. Like any tool, it is how you use it that will determine its positive usefulness or not.



The criticisms around the ecological impact of the PoW are already known and the actors have been trying for years to reduce their carbon footprint. If this industry never gives up on this technology, it is because it is convinced of one thing: it will change the world.



If the goal is to get to ETH2 faster, it can start with rounds on Gitcoin to encourage web3 developers. It can also be to donate the profits obtained from sales directly to reliable NGOs or even ask for more creations linked to political, social and ecological causes.



Blockchain education for the population must continue and to be fully effective, the next steps to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past is on the one hand in raising awareness (and not blaming) users but above all around activism against the use of private and centralized blockchains.



With widespread use of blockchain, it will be possible to have reliable and above all tamper-proof data in almost all industries. Whether in the course of a supply chain, the energy consumption of individuals or companies or even fraud by those responsible for climate change.



Full ownership of its assets should not be called into question because allowing central agencies to have too much decision-making power would amount to the same pattern of deviations that have brought us to this situation that we see today. Rather than saying &#8220;don&#8217;t create any more NFTs&#8221;, it would be better to encourage crypto artists who are successful in helping initiatives to reduce pollution.



Accountability is the dissemination of objective information so that everyone can make an informed choice and certainly not belittling by judging the choices of others without knowing the liabilities of the individual!



*The definition of libertarianism and libertarian in this article is established according to the French definition of the term.

More and more voices are rising up against the use of NFTs, especially in the field of crypto-art and condemning the ecological impact that blockchain can have. So several questions arise: Are cryptos a danger and what are the Universe of cryptos and NFTs doing to help our planet ecologically?

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