This is a reflective response required after watching a lecture provided by my professor. I also have to post it on the Hive blockchain for full credit, and if you are a random person that came across this and do not agree with my stance (since it could be controversial to you especially on a site like this where there are more likely to be enjoyers of NFTs), good luck to you.

Overview

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have been circulating around in the market for a little while now. Became really popular in 2021/2022, cooled off since then. According to this lecture, an NFT is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. It is also a chunk of digital data that has been recorded on a blockchain, which certifies authenticity and proves ownership. Also states who is was created by, and who currently owns it. There are many types of NFTs, including digital art types, royalties, etc. Corporations have even grown to make their own NFTs, such as Nike, Adidas, the NBA, and more. With ever increasing technology, NFTs are unlocking new potential all the time, but will this activity continue?

Personally Not a Fan of NFTs

I myself am an investor in cryptocurrencies which I believe will have value and utility in the long-term. However, I genuinely do not see how NFTs will have any sort of use in the future. With interested people and moving market cap, there will always be money to be made. But when it comes to collectable, rare items, I think most people would much rather have tangible items, in real life. There will always be small, niche communities for things like this, even with NFTs, and there are occasions where people have virtual item collections in games like CSGO with rare pieces that are worth a lot of money, but it all comes with popularity. And, these NFTs need to have value and utility, like in popular games you can showcase your traded cosmetics and play with them in the games and flex or whatever. But I just don't think enough people are playing these different NFT related games to have a major effect like this, and even then these markets are still extremely niche. It's not a cool talking point either like how most collectable items are, you could be displaying a 1 of 1 Babe Ruth baseball card as your main talking piece at your center table, but if you have a 1 of 1 NBA Top Shot Lebron James Rookie NFT that you have to pull up on your phone, it is not going to hit the same. Furthermore, most of these new NFT projects are worth very little and do not end up retaining their value. If we look at 2024 NFT stats, according to an NFT Insider site, 98% of the NFT collections created that year are now inactive, and only 0.2% of those drops returned profits to investors. In my opinion, NFTs are highly dependent on incentives and marketing, and its initial jump in 2021 was due to the mass influx of new popularity. Now that NFTs have been here for a few years, popularity has absolutely cooled off. The same Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT he referenced that was floored at $130k is now floored at $28,500, and is actually the highest market cap NFT available. Still a large amount, but vastly lower value than it was just a few years ago. The Adidas NFT he was flexing that he bought for $520? Ended up having some good volume for a few months, and then completely died off. Checking now, these Adidas NFTs are worth like 100 dollars and have had very low amount of movement. All in all, the NFT market had a golden age a few years ago, while this lecture was filmed, but has died down in new popularity. Now, that being said, NFTs have become popular once before, and could return in value with innovative technology and new found consumer support, however I personally do not see this occurring. If you do see this occurring, best of luck to you and your investments.

This Is Not Financial Advice

I love hearing people talk highly excitedly about some crypto/blockchain opportunities, and then remembering to say the classic phrase "this is not financial advice, do your own research." This is due to the fact this type of market is a highly volatile market and can change at the swing of an opinion to the mass market. I have heard this phrase from every crypto/NFT influencer/promoter I have ever seen. But in reality, this is actually good advice. Learn about the market yourself, take some time to understand how it works and what it could achieve in the future. Make sure its not a rug pull. Understanding where you are putting your money is a significantly smarter idea than trusting some random person, because at the end of the day it is your money and you decide how much you value it.

Bored Ape Yacht Club, the most popular NFT out there. Image Source

This is a screenshot that I took from the best crypto/nft site, CoinMarketCap, which details the fall of NFTs in the past few years.