When the lecture first started, I had no idea what both Dr. Jonathon and Dr. Quinn Button were talking about. I did not know how to feel about this new sort of crypto currency that they were referring to. An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token that has a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. I immediately asked myself what the point is of having an NFT. After learning the meaning of an NFT I soon learned that people used these as they would crypto currency. One can be given and NFT and watch it slowly grow over time and even earn rewards for them when cashing them in.

What is an NFT

According to Dr. Button an NFT is something has value to it. The example that was referred to in the lecture was owning a car. Except the only thing is that owning the car is not of value, but owning the title has the value as that is what proves it is yours. Fungible refers to being mutually interchangeable. You can trade or sell these at your discretion. Non-Fungible is something that is unique or not interchangeable, this would be referring to art. Token is the identifier of the NFT. There is a block chain that can be used to see who all or how many NFT’s a person has.

ART & Music

Art is an NFT of its own. People are creating art and making it an NFT that can only be viewed if a person owns an NFT from that person or company. This includes digital are that can be made by AI on the computer. Dr. Jonathon Button said that he believes if you do not own it, you should not see it. I believe that he feels this way as if someone made a work of art only, they should be able to see it or show it to who they want as it has not been sold to anyone or put into someone else’s possession. This is much like using a music artists song in a homemade video, it is illegal to use someone’s work without their consent. Art is not the only thing it always changing, music is also always changing. We are seeing music today that is being made into videos where AI has essentially made unique. There is now an app that is uploading new music from artists where an individual can purchase an NFT on the music and if they were to keep it and the artist were to become popular, they would eventually see royalties from their investment. There are few good reasons for a person to purchase an NFT on music. If you were to have an NFT on music, you would now be able to use that song in any kind of digital media you were to make yourself as you would now a sort of ownership from purchasing that NFT. I feel as if this sort of a plat form is good for up and coming artists that have not made it yet. If they had their music on a platform like they would be seen by many and eventually start to grow more due the exposure. This would help them and the people who invested in that certain NFT. The example Dr. Button gave in the video of an artist that would have been good to invest in would have been Little Nas X. He quickly went up in the charts and NFT holders would have made great money.

The use of NFTs in fashion

NFTs are why widely used as incentives for people to purchase their products. In the lecture they talked about the Coach purse company that ran a holiday special by offering 40 NFTs that were given at random with a purchase of a bag. If you were one of the lucky people that received this NFT you could later redeem it for a new Coach purse. I feel as if this is great way to incentivize consumers to purchase a product of yours. They were able to bring more people in to their stores to purchase their products.

Tracking NFTs

When owning an old car or something valuable to keep the value you must keep records of everything that has been done to the car, and receipts to prove it. The great thing that comes from NFTs is the blockchain that stores all the information and does away with one having to keep all these records. In the lecture Dr. Button talked Louis Vuitton that they now had these RFID codes in the purses that would keep information of the purse stored in an online block chain. This is great for people who like to buy and trade designer purses. Essentially built into the purse they have the authentication and selling dates stored making the product hold its value.

Metaverse

The metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. This is something I think we will see continue to grow with time. This is largely due to the aspect that with VR you can attend concerts and events with people from the comfort of your home. It is currently being done where people are using this to put themselves in the same place as colleagues for meetings which keeps them from traveling. This also includes play to earn games essentially you purchase the NFT and can win more money from playing these games. In my opinion this is great, during the pandemic with tourism being down the Philippines used this as a source of income to survive. If people could get started in this, they would have the opportunity to have an easy second small stream of income coming in each month.

Memberships

By owning an NFT, you be privy to special perks. In New York there is a restaurant called the Flyfish Club, if you do not own an NFT you cannot get into this restaurant. I think this is a pretty neat feature of owning one as this would keep this restaurant from being overpopulated and you would also own what I consider a small share of this restaurant. The thing that I personally like most it that if you want to you can loan your membership to a friend so they can go to this restaurant or if you want to you can sell it at any point and time and face any consequences.

Conclusion

As you can see NFTs can be a bit confusing as they are still new and upcoming. I personally do not feel as if I have a great understanding of them. However, from what I learned from the lecture video is that can be good in many ways weather it is using them as a form of crypto currency or using them for advertisement to incentivize people to purchase a product. With the many tracking features, they offer I feel as if we will continue to see them grow and become a more popular staple of our everyday life.

NFTs in use