NFT Boom & Bust

(This was originally posted, by me, in mid-2021, for 1 day)

Since DeFi was the major trend early last year, it has since flatlined, in hype, many months ago. Now both DeFi and NFTs are in their infancy, but this topic will specifically focus on the latest trend, NFTs. This initial NFT hype boom, that started roughly 12 months ago, will eventually fade away and mature quietly in the background. We are already hearing mostly dead-silence in regards to this, since the Bitcoin fallout with the wider stock market.

The concept of bridging a physical tangible good, into a tokenized system, is fundamentally game-changing and is not a new concept in this space. What has recently occurred is the proof-of-concept of NFTs, the actual application and adoption of the tech, which has thousands of practical applications and will continue evolving dramatically in the coming years. There's a great parallel that can be struck currently to 2013-2015, NFTs today are what Foodcoin, titcoin, dogecoin and the 100s of other real-world like POW cryptos, and of those 100-400 shitcoins only 1 survived, Dogecoin. But, they represented a: physical, tangible good, service, idea or etc. And I suppose as crypto has been evolving, there has been a subconscious desire to tokenize everything this world represents, often for malicious schemes, but the pattern goes far beyond then just monetary incentive. People like collecting things and owning them. But in the end, you are no more the owner of your NFT than I'm. That's the reality. That really goes for anything that's digital, be it your collectables in a video game or music album, movies... whatever. The idea of digital collection and digital ownership is an entire field in itself and is highly subjective - I'm not going to get into too much debate about. Ultimately, the majority of digital ownership is subjective in the end, without any governing force or law. With that subjective thought each individual will assign a value to that specific item and thus value is created if another individual agrees on that value. That's essentially what's occurring with cryptos, NFTs, stocks and virtually everything that is tangible.

But alas, what we are witnessing now in the NFT space is speculative gambling, similar to the collection of any other object in existence be it baseball cards, pokemon and etc. The reason being, is that people are assigning a value to a specific arrangement of pixels, in hopes that someone will assign a similar value to those arrangement of pixels in the future. The bigger problem with the current NFT market value or digitization of media is the accessibility to anyone and everyone, which is the inherent reason for the ballooning and inflation of seemingly worthless markets, concepts and etc. With accessibility comes highly-manipulative practices, the wolves are eating the sheep up and making no longer just baby change, but multi-million dollar schemes are operating day-by-day. Just like with everything, a small majority of NFTs - be it your "artwork," music or whatever you've purchased, will actually be worth something. The vast majority of NFTs will have no inherent value, because they were made for a specific purpose in fooling unwary modern-day mom-and-pop "investors." In the end, if you are investing in NFTs, I would urge you to tread very carefully. There are teams, individuals and more who are operating very carefully orchestrated schemes and enacting very diligent forms of social engineering to make you believe you are buying something that is desired and has value. Just know, there are only so many people in this world and only so many people will find worth in what you are so-called investing in, if any. Don't gamble your life-savings away.

NFTs are headed towards major adoption in the future, specifically with the recent buzz about the metaverse and ownership... etc. There's no doubt that NFTs will become standard when it comes to ownership, but don't expect your "artwork" to be worth anything in the future. Just like with any collectible that ever existed, only a fraction are worth anything and the vast majority become useless and worthless due to inflation and lack of appeal. 80-20 rule.

If you are new to this space, just take great caution. Be sure you are sound of mind and body before making any irrational or rational decision. If you're ready to gamble it all away, so be it. The reality is, yes many become millionaires over-night, but the vast majority do not. And for every millionaire that's minted, hundreds of others probably lost their life-savings or are drowned further into debt.