When normal life is disrupted, and during times of crisis, innovation is often triggered.

In
2008 big banks knowingly gambled with their clients money in high-risk ventures, plunging
the U.S. into a financial crisis. It was in the aftermath of this disruption that blockchain was
developed, becoming a massive enabler of change to a broken system. Blockchain is the
engine, or system, in which all crypto currencies and NFT’s are built on. Blockchain records
all transactions in a way that makes it difficult (if not impossible) to change, hack or cheat the
system. Additionally it is decentralized, which means the transfer of control and
decision-making changes from a centralized entity (individual, organization, or group thereof)
to a distributed network (group of people). This revolutionary technology demands
transparency, accountability and puts the power into the hands of its users.

Joon Ian Wong

Joon Ian Wong is the Founding co-president of the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists
and Researchers. He was formerly a Technology reporter for Quartz in London where his
interests included bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain. He began his career in crypto as
one of the earliest reporters at CoinDesk, where he helped launch Consensus.

The goal: to develop a new monetary system that wasn’t in the hands of a few who made
decisions behind closed doors, rather a system that worked as a whole for all who were
invested and a system that could be clearly monitored. The first major blockchain innovation
was Bitcoin. Which was also the first global currency, a global currency that can be
exchanged with ease between countries and without exchange rates. This becomes
incredibly significant as we become a globalized society. Obtaining crypto currency works
the same way as exchanging your country's dollars for foriengn currency. The only
difference is that instead of going to a bank, you exchange your money on a highly secure
platform, such as Coinbase, Robinhood or Metamask. For those of you scared of the
transference of money digitally, it is worth noting that traditional banks also hold your money
in a digital format and run the potential of being hacked. The benefit of traditional banks is
that they are insured. However, crypto is far more secure because it is built on the
blockchain and every single touch point is tracked. This means higher security with less risk
of being hacked and if there was a hacker they would be easily tracked.

With guaranteed ownership and authenticity, along with its purely digital nature, NFTs have
become valuable for content creators in the digital space. Since creators can now put out
something they truly own and get recurring revenue every time they’re sold, creators now
have more control over their digital art. Further, each sale of an NFT is recorded on the
blockchain, creating a digital provenance that can’t be altered by just anyone.

As the Bored Ape holders have discovered, it’s super cool to launch a non-fungible token
collection and see a community develop around it. But at some point it gets difficult to herd
all the cats – especially if said cats are also very rich people. What if there were some way to
coordinate them and align their interests? What if you could do all of this on-chain? With a
cryptographic token perhaps?

This article is part of Culture Week, which explores how crypto is changing media and
entertainment.
This is why the future of NFTs is fungible. The many NFT communities that have sprung up
this year are finding that it’s not so easy to manage a community with unique tokens alone.
Fungible tokens created by the community start to become very attractive in theory. Luckily
for them, this concept already exists: it’s the world of social tokens – streams of
community-centric tokens that are, yes, fungible.

Before i continue let me enlighten you on how its being embraced;

Two years ago, before the world was quarantined in the pandemic, not a lot of people had
heard about non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Traded through blockchain technology, just like
cryptocurrencies, these digital assets slowly saw an influx of interest and activity from
gamers, influencers and artists who learned to maximize the technology to their advantage.

It’s the refrain heard in Discord servers around the world. When is such-and-such project
going to airdrop a token to its community members? This question is particularly urgent if a
community happens to assemble around a $2 billion NFT project – one like Bored Ape Yacht
Club. That’s why BAYC had an answer to the question in October:

As the Bored Ape holders have discovered, it’s super cool to launch a non-fungible token
collection and see a community develop around it. But at some point it gets difficult to herd
all the cats – especially if said cats are also very rich people. What if there were some way to
coordinate them and align their interests? What if you could do all of this on-chain? With a
cryptographic token perhaps? According to him.

The non-fungible Social tokens, Here is the look of a great Jeff Wilser feature that dives
deep into the genre. But here’s a quick summary of how they’re supposed to work: Suppose
you spot a promising young artist from among the selection presented to you by Spotify’s
algorithm. You stream their music thousands of times over the years, gradually attending
concerts and buying merch. Eventually,
the artist breaks through to the mainstream and is picking up Grammys left and right, and
appearing on “Saturday Night Live.”

The above example might be called the “Taylor Swift Hypothesis” of social tokens. The way
the hypothesis works is, imagine injecting a token into the scenario above. What if that artist
is Taylor Swift, and what if she has issued $SWIFT in the earliest days of your fandom. You
might have accumulated lots of $SWIFT, watching the stash grow in fiat money terms as
Taylor ascended the heights of pop stardom. The Swift Hypothesis is described in the Index
Ventures investor Rex Woodbury’s recent think piece on social tokens in The Atlantic.

According to application tracking firm DappRadar, people were buying and selling more than
85,000 NFTs in May, amounting to a total trade value of $5.8 million in a single day. That
said, in my opinion, mass adoption is almost out of the question of it's development

The Standard streaming of NFTs to the world

NFTs started grabbing mainstream attention when Beeple sold his "Everydays: The First
5000 Days" digital artwork for $69M in partnership with Christies. NFT’s tend to be
associated with the art world...for now, but there are many ways in which NFT’s can be
applied. Traditionally a piece of digital art (or data) can be copied over and over again,
leaving the creator, or purchaser, with no control over this duplication or way to validate the
original work. Michael John Peters who has been working in fine arts for over a decade
explains the importance of NFTs for the art world, “It is very easy to fake certificates of
authenticity or replicate art. Some paintings that are exact in size and composition sell for
drastically different prices depending on if they have provenance (a tracked history) and
certificate of authentication. For example a Picasso painting that had its provenance and
authentication sold for 2.2 million dollars. Whereas a different Picasso painting that is the
same size, composition and close to the same sale date, but without provenance sold only
for 158 thousand dollars. NFT provides an iron clad indestructible proof of ownership along
with provenance that will last for eternity. In the future every painting, both digital and
physical, will have a NFT attached to it.”

Jessica Salomon adds, “NFTs can be accessed by a global community from a range of
global NFT marketplaces that take a minimal (or even no cut) which allows artists to create
more wealth, unlike the standard exchange of art where galleries and agents take a
significant share of the artists profits. Moreover, NFTs allow artists to connect directly with
their customers as each purchase is documented on the blockchain and the recipient and
creator is clear. This transparency spurs viral communities and fans; enabling real dialogues
between creators and buyers on other social platforms. It has created remarkable
opportunities for artists like pplpleasr who last year was jobless due to the pandemic and
applying to every job she came across, while this year she is selling out of magazine covers
and sharing stages with renowned artists like James Jean and Steve Aoki.” Pplpleasr further
commented that, “Crypto/NFTs changed my life not only because of the money and investing
opportunities it exposed me to, but also because of a welcoming community of passionate
people who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo."

Rather, I submit that NFTs will eventually — sooner, rather than later — displace industries
that love to take ownership of other people’s hard work. Think record labels. By then, NFTs
will become somewhat of a status symbol for the future of decentralized social media, just
like a checkmark on Instagram.

However, there’s more to NFTs than trading Bored Apes for millions of dollars. In my
experience, the digital asset can be more widely used, including for practical uses in
business. Since the trading of digital certificates happens online and through decentralized
blockchain technology, business transactions can potentially happen
more quickly and safely.

The Mission To Decentralize

Creators can take advantage of the decentralized social media component to speak about
their NFTs to an audience. After all, decentralization as a concept is very much in line with
what NFTs are trying to do, which is to bring the possibility of owning art — a privilege that’s
been reserved for the wealthy for years — to the masses. Even the valuation of art, which
has always been a task for a relatively small group of connoisseurs, has now become a
democratic process.

But keep in mind that this unregulated character of NFTs is creating skepticism among some
creators as much as it is harboring optimism for the likes of me. I have to admit, the future of
NFTs remains largely to be seen, but the opportunity to get in now is something my company
isn't going to miss out on.

The future of digital entertainment brings to light.