Forget about NFTs: But you will be part of the NFT experience

01/17/2024 - 14:39

Chances are that you have heard about NFTs the last couple of years. People were restricted to their homes looking for leisure in new places. The pandemic gave us all infinite time behind our laptops. We started to appreciate digital experiences as it was the only alternative. NFT activity grew as CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks and NBA Top Shots were minted, traded and sold. Interest soared to a full-fledged hype in March 2021 when practically all media outlets worldwide reported on the sale of The First 5,000 Days. Mike Winkelman, better known by his artist’s name Beeple, sold this artwork as an NFT for 69 million dollars. Soon after Yugalabs minted their Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of 10,000 unique illustrations of monkeys. They promised to “shape the future of web3 through storytelling, experiences and community.” More skeptical people thought they were just overpriced ‘jpegs’ of monkey cartoons.

Uncover

Author: Maarten Jan van ’t Oever has a position as a teacher and course leader of Leisure & Events Management at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.

Every day a new project
Irrespective of opinions these events undeniably marked the start of a one-year bull market in which cryptocurrency values soared and every day a new NFT project was started. It was also a time of scams and opportunistic behaviour. Projects were hyped and on a wave of FOMO NFT collectors, investors and ‘degens’ bought practically every next NFT hoping it would bring them riches. Around the spring of 2022 most lockdowns were gone. Simultaneously the novelty of NFTs wore off. Mainstream interest started to wane. The final blow came when the FTX crypto exchange lost billions of dollars and went bankrupt.

Say goodbye
Now the time has arrived to say goodbye to NFTs. The naysayers got their way because crypto is definitely fake money and NFTs turn out to be meaningless digital pictures that everyone can just ‘right-click-save’. Still, appearances can be deceptive. Even though financial value has plummeted, transaction volume has been stable. The number of people holding wallets is growing as well.

Nike’s new initiative shows what is happening. Nike chose to ignore the term NFT and came up with their own term: dot Swoosh. By signing up, users get a .Swoosh ID, which gives access to community experiences and virtual creations. At the time of writing this article, over 350,000 users have been onboarded, as can be seen on the blockchain backend through PolygonScan. But why bother users with blockchain tech and NFT prejudices?

Easy access and participation
The same holds true for one of the most successful NFT projects from the boom. NBA Top Shot started three years ago, but from its inception they never talked about NFTs. They are creating “a revolutionary new game in which jaw-dropping plays and unforgettable highlights become collectibles that you can own forever.” Even though these basketball videos are registered to the Flow blockchain, they always went with the term “digital collectibles” instead of NFTs.

The success of both approaches is that these companies make participation easy and accessible. For instance, both Nike and NBA Top Shot offer credit card payments instead of having to use a crypto wallet. More importantly, they implement the innovative tech in the backend. The actual customer experience is designed around participating in the lifestyle. The NFTs have been rebranded and serve as entry points into their worlds. The tech then allows for further utility, like giving out surprise gifts, tracking fan engagement, creating personalised status symbols or connecting digital to physical manifestations to name a few. The NFT becomes the connection point to the community.

Get ready to experience leisure in a brand-new way using blockchain technology that will definitely not be NFTs while building a steady collection of… NFTs. Our leisure experiences will be registered, tracked and enhanced in the coming years. You will be part of the NFT experience. Just forget about the term.