Artists, Athletes, Influencers! How Deep Can NFT’s Go Within The Open Sea

The recent explosion in NFTs has brought this emerging technology to the general publics realization. From cute penguins to video game items to even music videos, NFTs are disrupting everything within entertainment, but how far can it go?

NFT Mania

Over this past year, NFTs have taken the world by storm. From celebrities like Odell Beckham, Jay Z, Stephen Curry and Marshmello purchasing Cryptopunks and Bored Apes, with some celebrities diving even deeper and minting their own NFTs. The term NFT quickly became a household name. But what exactly are NFTs and whats driving all the craze behind them?

Though NFTs have been a concept in the crypto space for sometime now, the first decentralized exchange for NFTs was launched in early 2020 called Rarible. This saw heavy amounts of interest flow in as prior to Rarible the only NFT exchanges were centralized such as OpenSea and SuperRare. Participants were able to purchase $RARI for governance and voting rights within the platform, as the popularity of this decentralized NFT exchange rapidly grew in popularity as transaction volumes were going through the roof.

And so it began, as one thing led to another, soon enough celebrities were joining into this marketplace of digital images. From the likes of popular artists like Jason Derulo and Paris Hilton, to legendary investors such as Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, to even some of the worlds best athletes such as NBA and NFL superstars Stephen Curry and Odell Beckham Jr.

What Are They?

Essentially, NFT’s stand for non-fungible tokens. Non fungible meaning each NFT is unique and cannot be replicated. NFTs can range anywhere from digital art to in game items, with each NFT either having multiple duplicates, lookalikes or it may be a one of a kind.

Though digital pieces of art, NFTs are a step into the future of tokenized assets, as we are seeing the entertainment & art industry beginning to tokenize some of their products. The biggest feature about NFTs is their ability to verify true ownership and legitimacy as they are fundamentally tokenized images on a blockchain as they derive their value from the demand of each unique image.

Joining In

The NFT mania over the past year have seen celebrities around all industries from content creators, to music artists, to even corporations participate in this emerging space through digitizing some of their content or products while also joining the community in buying some iconic NFTs that draw their interest. Due to the nature of NFT sales with royalties and tracking of ownership, content creators can greatly benefit from providing their content in the form of NFTs, as many artists are taking massive pay cuts due to fees and payments for management and third parties.

Celebrities and content creators alike have taken a notice of the recent explosion of this space with big names along the lines of Tory Lanez, Tony Hawk, Gary Vee, Eminem and so many more. From artists such as Tory Lanez, Eminem and The Weeknd turning their music videos and concerts into NFTs for their fanbase to collect, to virtual accessories such as guitars and cosmetics as demonstrated by popular artists Grimes and Shawn Mendes.

Getting Crafty

Some more creative approaches to NFTs included supermodel Kate Moss, filming a video of her sleeping and offering up the NFT under the title “Sleep With Kate”. With the highest value and likely most popular NFT release belonging to digital artist Beeple when he auctioned one of his art pieces titled “The First 500 Days” which sold for a bid price of $69 million (42,329 $ETH).

Perhaps one of the most unique NFT idea yet was created by social entrepreneur and motivational speaker Gary Vee. With the ambition to connect on a deeper level with his fanbase and community. Gary has turned what initially looks to just be simple doodles drawn by a grade school student into tokenized doodles, now known as VeeFriends that can also be utilized as verifiable tickets to various events hosted by Gary such as admission to VeeCon, one on one discussions with Gary, and even scholarship awards! Gary Vee’s creative mind and consistently innovative thinking has shown the world the wide range utility of NFTs in the form of a admission tickets.

The utility of NFTs have begun evolving from more than just unique digital images, but now also serve as a form of identity and true ownership. As this space evolves its probable to assume other use cases aside from fine arts will form in this space, such as within the gaming industry and even fashion.

Progressive Maturation

The future of NFTs open doors of new opportunities to millions of creators around the world, while also advancing many of the current technological features we have today. As this space has already evolved from a market for crypto enthusiasts trading pixelated avatars, to a new method of content creation utilized by a variety of celebrities within different industries. Artists can now take full ownership of their content without the need of an intermediary such as Apple Music offering to host content on their platform as a paid service. Content creators can now build a stronger connection with their respective communities by creating digital products thats immutable and accessible around the world.

From some small possible examples of this novel system such as professional athletes releasing a limited amount of signed digitized posters of themselves, to a more interesting scenario where musicians and artists minting their work into a limited collection of NFTs for their fanbase to collect and trade, with each NFT also being a pass to a private show to meet and watch their favourite artists perform live within a community with fans of similar interest.

NFTs have the power to take back the freedom and individualism of content creators as modern entertainment is ran by a monopoly of managers, record labels and production companies. Anything from movies, to albums and even videos can be fully controlled and monitored by content creators in the form of NFTs, as their fanbase can purchase these products and choose to collect them or monetize the usage and views for each respective NFT while the original creator of these products can earn royalties on every transaction. The future potential for independant entertainment content creators is gradually building its foundation in the world of NFTs.

Future Utility

NFTs don’t just stop at the entertainment industries though. They have the potential to be integrated into our everyday lives. Remember, NFTs are nothing more than unique images on a blockchain that can tracked to show true ownership. The new digital proof of vaccination card countries around the world are implementing are essentially NFT’s that aren’t on a blockchain as they provide the proof of ownership through each individual registering.

While its unlikely we see COVID vaccination cards being sold on OpenSea as the expected value and demand would be abysmally low and likely breaking countless laws. The idea of basic identification such as passports, school & work IDs and even licenses being digitized into a blockchain would allow the distribution and processing of these documents much more efficient for governments and citizens alike.

Moreover the creation of these NFTs is no different than the tokenization of an asset, only difference is many of these JPEG’s could be argued not to be a legitimate asset. As basic assets such as gold and physical art pieces become tokenized, users from around the world can participate and purchase a dollars worth of equity of sought after pieces such as the Mona Lisa, without having to pay upwards of $800 million to buy the full artwork as the physical piece would require. As tokenization of assets leaks into other sectors, its possible we also begin to see the likes companies and even apartment buildings being tokenized and being owned by hundreds of entities around the world, with each shareholder receiving a portion of rent payments depending on the size of their position.

*None of the information listed is financial or investment advice and should only be taken as entertainment or educational as I’m not a financial advisor*

About Me

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read my work. I’m your average 20 year old, currently in school for Economics and Finance. Some of my hobbies consist of sports, working out and staring at price charts.

I initially began interested in the crypto space after frustrations with legacy markets. From the second I read about the Ethereum ecosystem, I fell in love. An entire ecosystem built on one platform that anybody can access? Unheard of, until now.

With how fast this space is developing, I try and find projects within this industry that show promise and potential to disrupt our modern world. All this fundamental analysis not only helps me better understand these projects better, but hopefully gives you guys some newfound information!

If there are any projects you’d wish to suggest me take a look into, I’m always available on Twitter