This booming world of digital assets has opened up a new market.
New York:
NFTs are called everything from fads to outright scams, but early adopters see a future for them as uniquely useful tools for business, health, and the arts that go beyond digital collection.
The non-fungible token (NFT) craze, just over a year old, has brought the world works that have sold for millions, including collections from the “Bored Ape Yacht Club” to a depiction of a naked Donald Trump after his election defeat. in 2020 .
This booming world of digital assets has opened up a new market in which tens of billions of dollars have been deposited, while also sparking discussions about how they can be useful in the real world.
“NFTs are very rudimentary at the moment,” said Sandy Khaund, founder of the start-up Credenza, which helps companies adopt new technologies based on blockchain, which underpin cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Outside of the art world, “they don’t have much functionality. They don’t have much use,” Khaund added.
“Most of them are just monkeys or monkeys or whatever doing nothing,” agrees Juan Otero, CEO of Travala, an online travel site, referring to the famous “Bored Apes”.
Yet there is a class of digital assets that bridges the real and virtual worlds.
Starbucks, which will soon be launching its own NFTs, considers them a “programmable, perceptible digital asset that doubles as an access pass.”
Owning one of the coffee giant’s NFTs will open up access to “unique experiences”, as well as a “community”, a new vision of a blockchain-based loyalty program.
This technology, on which cryptocurrencies and NFTs are based, makes it possible to use the same token for different applications.
On the institutional side, the small republic of San Marino, nestled in Italy, launched a coronavirus vaccine passport that includes NFT technology in July.
While the European Covid Digital Certificate was designed for the European Union, this passport was intended to be verified anywhere, without the need for a dedicated mobile application.
‘Guaranteed madness’
Credenza, for its part, is in talks with sports teams and leagues to draft a multi-functional vision for NFTs.
NFTs and blockchain are “accessible to multiple worlds, whether you’re physically in the arena and ready to go see a New York Knicks game, or you’re ready to go to the metaverse and see a concert there.” said Khaund.
Jenn McMillen of marketing agency Incendio quoted rock band Kings of Leon, who have integrated the technology into their work.
As part of the NFT release of their album “When You See Yourself”, the group issued eight “golden tickets”, each guaranteeing four front row seats on all of the band’s future tours.
“If you were a brand, think of the most desirable experiences, the most insider-y access, or something that was guaranteed to go viral and just go backwards from there,” McMillen said.
“(It’s) guaranteed madness because of the scarcity,” she added.
One of the most successful examples is the travel booking platform Travala, which claims over 300,000 monthly active users.
The site, which already accepted cryptocurrency payments, launched the Travel Tiger loyalty program in January.
At first glance, each of the NFTs distributed to existing customers of the platform is a digital drawing of a tiger, reminiscent of the “Bored Apes” designs.
But attached to it is a series of privileges, from access to exclusive events, in the real world and the metaverse, discounts or loyalty points.
“It’s about retaining these users and ensuring that these users continue to use the platform,” said Juan Otero, Travala CEO.
“To really push this through to mainstream and more traditional business players and so on, we’ll probably have to wait another two to three years,” he added.
Regardless, NFTs, coupled with growing interest in the metaverse and a decentralized vision for the future of the Internet called web3, are part of building a boom.
“The next wave, when it comes, I think will be unprecedented,” Otero said.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
