Perhaps more YES than NO!
It looks very much like a trap that many fell when someone shows them "A million pound note" - if you have not seen the movie, you may want to - the link is below, enjoy! Or a trap of the possibility of quick earnings, like with Bitcoin, when 94% of all available Bitcoins is owned by less then 2% of total number of 106 million owners, while the rest are still hoping to one day become rich... This distribution very much reminds another one: of the global wealth! 2% owns as much as the rest 98% of the total population of humans... Or just read the following news reported by many...
"Interest in NFTs exploded after Beeple’s $69 million sale"
"Interest in NFTs exploded after Beeple’s $69 million sale"
"Interest in NFTs exploded after Beeple’s $69 million sale"
According to cnbc.com "This sale prompted mainstream coverage of NFTs that wasn’t seen before." Worth reading once more: this sale prompted mainstream coverage of NFTs that wasn’t seen before. A 'contemporary "million pound note" was shown to the masses... This time the auction was conducted in ETH (cryptocurrency), and when Beeple converted the crypto collected from the sale to fiat currency, he was assessed as betraying the crypto community. Some claim that this and the following NFT hype somewhat accelerated by several major brands joining the call had a major effect on the demand and prices of the crypto. Reminds a bit the hype caused by the emergence of tens of thousands of ICO offerings back in 2017-18, that was followed with most of the projects failing to deliver on their promises.
"It’s been a record year for the cryptocurrency market, which briefly surpassed $3 trillion in value in November. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, and ether, the second-largest, hit all-time highs, while altcoins, like meme-inspired dogecoin, surged in popularity.
Other digital assets, like nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, sold for millions of dollars alongside fine art in major auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s. In addition to art, NFTs representing in-game assets and digital land soared in value as well." https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/27/12-key-moments-that-fueled-cryptos-record-growth-in-2021.html
FT reports that Facebook owner Meta dives into NFT digital collectibles craze
"Social media group plans to enter hype-fuelled $40bn market for creating and selling non-fungible tokens."
https://www.ft.com/content/2745d50b-36e4-4c0a-abe0-e93f035b0628 - in case you want to ready the full article on NFT written by Financial Times. Below is a big extract from it, as the aim of this article is not to shine with originality, but rather bring as much more or less credible sources to make the point as vivid as possible for the reader.
"Dominant NFT marketplace OpenSea, which takes a 2.5 per cent cut of any sale, this month raised $300m at a $13bn valuation — just six months after raising $100m at a $1.5bn valuation. Major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is launching its own marketplace. Meta rival Twitter is testing NFT showcasing capabilities, while Reddit has launched its own collection of NFT avatars."
"The move comes after Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg last year said that NFTs could one day be wielded to support a market for digital goods in its planned metaverse, an avatar-filled world that the company is investing $10bn annually in building over the coming decade."
Does't the above sound like an episode from the "War of the Titans"?
"Meta is working on plans to allow users to create and sell non-fungible tokens as Facebook’s parent company seeks to join the rush of companies trying to capitalise on the digital collectible craze. Two of the people said that Meta has also discussed launching a marketplace for users to buy and sell NFTs — essentially a digital asset representing art or imagery that cannot be replicated. All of the efforts are at an early stage and could yet change. But the discussions mark Meta’s first efforts to cash in on the hype-fuelled world of NFTs, the popularity of which surged last year to become a global market worth $40bn.
Critics have cast the freewheeling sector as a speculative bubble plagued by scams and market manipulation." FT
To compare the emerging $40bn NFT market (which was $20bn less than a month ago) with already established markets (approximate figures): the global market for gambling is $510bn, gaming is worth $170bn, art market is $50-60bn (15% of which is the contemporary art market with over 30,000 active artists), VR is about $20bn, and the list goes on.
"Collectibles market size was estimated at $412 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $628 billion by 2031. Digital NFT Market Collectibles is the fastest growing segment with a CAGR of 14.2% during the forecast period. The NFT industry is witnessing enormous growth with some product segments acquiring as high as a 1,400% growth in a quarter (i.e. around 14 times the market)." - Marketdecipher reports.
The media space (perhaps we can call it also the Social Media Space) is dominated by +/- 10 platforms, including 2 giants that own most of it - FB and Google. While the rest of media is in the survival mode. And these platforms have the best knowledge of their billions of 'inhabitants', their aspirations, desires, behaviors, habits, likes and dislikes - enough to exercise almost full control over multiple ways for milking the attention of these audiences for every penny of ads earnings, for which they take over 50% CUT!
Social Media Adspend was about $170bn in 2021 (Zenith report), while total ad spend was about $700bn, 60% of which was spent in the digital space.
FB is loosing its young audience, hence should find new ways to make them stay and bring new users in. It is trying to offer, like its crypto space with Libra (perhaps on hold for the time being), all that is possible to continue capturing the attention of the new audience, especially the younger generation.
Another centralized (owned by a few) marketplace/platform is emerging with a modest 2.5% cut (OpenSea), this time a space where one can sell its NFT. Certainly, the majors will cut their piece of the emerging "NFT" pie soon.
At the end, what will change for an ordinary content creator with the introduction of NFT? One may suggest better IP rights protection: maybe! Or better earnings: more No than Yes perhaps? Most likely nothing but that they will continue enriching a few with their energy and efforts. Until when - is the question to ask?!
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Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels, with the major acceleration starting in 1634 and then dramatically collapsing in February 1637.[2] It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history.[3] In many ways, the tulip mania was more of a then-unknown socio-economic phenomenon than a significant economic crisis. It had no critical influence on the prosperity of the Dutch Republic, which was one of the world's leading economic and financial powers in the 17th century, with the highest per capita income in the world from about 1600 to about 1720.[4][5][6] The term "tulip mania" is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values.[7][8]
In Europe, formal futures markets appeared in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. Among the most notable centred on the tulip market, at the height of tulip mania.[9][10] At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled artisan.
Cover photo: https://www.behance.net/gallery/99052779/everydays-january-2020