Digital World Meets Ancient Civilization — How NFTs Are Meshing With Every Aspect Of Our Lives, And Even Our History
If you’re not familiar with NFTs yet, then don’t take this the wrong way, but you must have been holed up under a mighty large rock.
They’ve been slowly making their way into every aspect of our world, both digital and real.
I say slowly, but perhaps it only seems that way because in the digital age we expect everything to be instant — when in reality, the very first NFT was created only 7 years ago, and now they’re everywhere.
As far as new technology goes, that is incredibly fast, even in our speed-obsessed world.
What Are They, Where Are They, Why Are They?!
- The What
The briefest refresher on NFTs, or Non Fungible Tokens, is the name — it means that they are each unique, identifiable items.
Perhaps the easiest way to think of them is actually like a digital receipt — it’s not exactly accurate, but it comes pretty close.
2. The Where
This is where things start to get interesting, and we’ll dive into this a bit more in a minute, but the reality is, they’re everywhere.
What started as a way to sell art has exploded into video games, profile pictures, collector’s items, even a few individual social media posts have been converted into NFTs.
3. The Why
Now that’s a tricky question, and the answer is because they filled a gap that no one even realized was there.
It’s quite hard to own something on the internet — or it was — before NFTs.
You could buy the rights to something, but you could never prove you owned them except through complicated legal channels, because documents claiming you owned those rights are easy to forge digitally.
NFTs on the other hand are fairly impossible to falsely claim — their ownership record is publicly available, transparent, and unchangeable, due to the nature of blockchain technology.
NFTs Here, There, Everywhere
While many people assumed when they first appeared that NFTs were simply a brief fad, they’ve certainly been proven wrong since.
It’s estimated that in Q3 of 2021, people around the world spent $10.7 Billion USD on NFTs, and that’s way past “fad money,” especially for something in its 7th year.
Rather than winding down, NFTs are winding up, well, everywhere.
Originally it was simply a way to purchase the rights to digital art, but now they’re being used in creative new ways all over the world, in all kinds of products.
Recently they’ve exploded into the gaming scene, to thunderous applause from players everywhere, in a “play-to-earn” style of game that’s become astoundingly popular.
It combines several things that gamers love, and gives each type of player the ability to work on the aspect they like most, while having their work benefit players of other styles.
That sounds like a mouthful of word salad, but let me give you an example.
The Example
A recent game that delves deep into ancient Egyptian history for its context provides players with several thousand unique collectible avatars.
Each of these “Pharaohs” has a unique style and design — but also brings to the game its own set of attributes that will affect the gameplay.
In a play-to-earn game, players can purchase and collect the NFT Pharaohs, or whatever the NFTs happen to be in the particular game, and it will provide them with a unique, one-off collectible, as well as in-game perks.
Other players can “play-to-earn” collectibles or perks, and trade them on the open markets to collectors, or gamers looking to complete a set, or gain a specific perk.
Each style of player, the collector, the perk hunter, the earner, the trader, and the gamers who balance a bit of each attribute, brings something specific to the game — and that benefits all the others.
Without each individual type, the setup would fall apart — and yet because people are so diverse, it works like a charm.
In Closing
This is just one example that I think is going to explode in popularity pretty soon, but there are lots to choose from.
NFTs are everywhere, and if their popularity and value mean anything, they’re here to stay.
I have to admit that I was against NFTs in the beginning, I thought it was a silly way to purchase art.
But then they entered the gaming scene, and now I guess I’m a collector, a trader, an earner, and a player.
