The real-life version of "Crazy Stone" is staged. When will the NFT collectibles craze stop?

According to iNFTnews.com, on August 23, early blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun recently purchased EtherRock-NFT for $600,000. In this year's hot trend of NFT, the transaction amount of $600,000 is not outstanding. What is surprising is that the NFT trend has lasted for more than half a year since it emerged at the beginning of the year.

Since 2020, everyone from Elon Musk to Yao Ming, from Coca-Cola to Disney, Marvel, to LV, GUCCI, eBay, Facebook, has started to play with NFT. In the scene of "everything can be NFT", all kinds of strange things have been cast into NFT, such as Jobs' handwritten "job application", NBA highlights, sneakers, WeChat/QQ avatars, virtual stones, Buddhist amulets, real estate, World Wide Web source code, Nobel Prize papers, Time magazine covers, etc.

01 The slogan of NFT

Back to the "famous stone painting" that Justin Sun bought for $600,000, if it was a top artist like Picasso, everyone would think it was normal for him to auction it for tens of millions of dollars.

Why? Because this painting has unique collection value and is irreplaceable. Picasso's IP endorsement, the artistic bonus of the painting, the collection time, etc.

Now, except for a few works endorsed by real artists, most of the high-priced NFT works are the cash of celebrity virtual paintings. Such works can be sold for tens of millions of dollars. Do you think this is a bit outrageous? The reason lies in the special nature of NFT.

(Collectibles purchased by Justin Sun)

1-2 What is NFT?

NFT is the abbreviation of Non-Fungible Token, which means non-fungible token. It means one token, and only one.

NFTs are digital objects verified on the blockchain that have properties such as uniqueness and non-interchangeability. They can take the form of almost any category, but most notably appear in the form of art, music, items in blockchain-based video games, and videos.

A big part of the reason why NFT has become popular in the art world is that it facilitates IP monetization and the display of talent.

02 Tulips vs. the future of the Internet

The tulip bubble, also known as the tulip effect, originated from a historical event in the Netherlands in the 17th century. It is known as the earliest recorded speculative activity in human history. In the 17th century, tulips in the Netherlands once caused an extraordinary frenzy in the flower market. Tulip bulbs were in short supply and prices soared. The Dutch tulip market had become a disorderly gambling pool for speculators to flex their muscles.

Today's NFT trend, if we put aside the blockchain technology, has many similarities with each other.

Opponents will cite the technical features and broad prospects of NFT. Indeed, NFT has unlimited potential in its value and application in rare collectibles, and in promoting digital patents and copyright registration. With the continuous development of blockchain technology, VR and AR technology, more possibilities will be explored in the future.

However, NFT is facing many problems in its implementation: environmental costs, lack of supervision, complexity of blockchain promotion and transactions, slow transaction speed, and impact of traditional institutions. These five problems will pose a major threat to the future development of blockchain.

Although people are very interested in the adoption of blockchain technology in the mature financial industry, many people are still indifferent or opposed when it comes to the underlying blockchain technology. Government agencies and large brand companies often choose to build the underlying blockchain themselves rather than purchase it on the market.

03 The essence of finance is a good story

Humans love stories and believe in them.

What is the so-called story? ——I am the first and the only one, so I have value. When a hot topic is continuously promoted and everyone is doing it, whether the hot topic is valuable becomes less important. Art itself is actually a good story, which also adds the element of imagination. The virtual auction of NFT also opens up everyone's vision and space. Adding the non-homogeneous packaging of NFT, it reaches "1+1>2".

From a marketing perspective, NFT's breakthrough can be regarded as the most successful case in 2021. Whether it is Bitcoin or blockchain, it is a good story in a certain sense. Stories have a characteristic. The truth of the story is not important. The most important thing is whether someone believes it. If someone believes it, it will have value. In fact, this is the case in any investment market. A certain investor is operating and hyping a hot spot. What is his hype? In the early days, everyone couldn't see it very well, or didn't understand it very well, or it should be said that it has been rising all the way amid doubts. Maybe everyone has almost figured it out. More and more people are starting to tell the same story and talk about the value of future stories, and the market at that time is likely to be almost hyped. As an investor, you have to keep your eyes open and understand some of the logic behind a good story.

04 End of the article

On August 23, Visa announced that it had purchased a CryptoPunk for $150,000, which triggered a buying frenzy. On the 23rd, CryptoPunks traded 27,821 ETH, equivalent to $92.22 million. Both the daily trading volume and turnover reached a record high. OpenSea's trading volume reached $194 million, up 55.2% from the previous day. OpenSea destroyed more than 10,000 ETH, worth about $33 million.

These data can prove that NFT has entered the Fomo stage. If God wants it to perish, he must first make it crazy!