NFTs are objects that last forever in the Ethereum universe. It’s easier and more fun to think of Ethereum as a sci-fi universe like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The difference is Ethereum lives on the internet, can get you paid, and in this universe, no one controls the story.
Each NFT is a kind of infinity stone. There can be a thousand versions of an infinity stone, but each one has its own history. Each one has its own timeline and a different path it can go on.
The World Heavyweight Champion of boxing, pro-wrestling, cage fighting, etc. each have a long history of claiming that the holder of this object is the baddest man on the planet. The man no one else can beat. We can argue about which one is fake and which one matters most, but they are all lineal objects. The history of each object matters. In their respective universes, they are non-fungible – you can’t split up the belt. The whole point is that there is only one.
Over time, variations are created for different weight classes, promotions, eras, or marketing gimmicks, but there is always one belt that can be traced back to that original, single object. The belt everyone wants. That’s an NFT.
People used to own very little. Now we have too much. Unlimited porn has led to OnlyFans. Unlimited cheap shoes have led to some very expensive, old shoes. Kraft cheese? Craft cheese! In a world of scarcity, we seek abundance. In a world of abundance, we seek scarcity. This is especially true with the arrival of ChatGPT because a machine now exists that can reliably fool most people into thinking it’s a person.
As technology makes us feel less special because we’re not even the best at being human anymore, we will seek out new ways to feel unique. And since the primary medium most people use to express themselves, their personas, their uniqueness is via the internet, whatever the reaction is will also be on the internet.
Humans have always had an insatiable appetite for creating new stories and feeling special. In this digital age, NFTs let us do both.
“I’m not surprised, motherfuckers.”
One of the most iconic lines in sports history was uttered by Nate Diaz after an upset win over superstar Conor McGregor at UFC 196. Fans were shocked. Nate Diaz was not. And that victory propelled Diaz to become a superstar in his own right.
UFC, the company, owns the footage, but do they own the moment? They will profit from that scene and that line for as long as the company exists. But what about the two guys that paid for that moment with blood and decades of preparation and injuries? Can Nate and Conor get a piece when that moment is replayed in promos and across the internet? Without NFTs, the answer depends on the contract. With NFTs, the answer becomes more interesting.
If two NFTs were created that captured the moment when “I’m not surprised, motherfuckers” was first said, but one was created by the UFC and the other by Nate Diaz, which one would be more legitimate? NFTs let us find out. The market for NFTs will give us an answer, a temporary and erratic answer, but a tangible answer. The price for each will swing wildly and whichever one more people are willing to pay for will have a higher price on that day. Both versions will probably exist at the same time and both will be valuable, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Diaz-lineage NFT was worth way more in a hundred years.
Francis Ngannou standing over Tyson Fury in his pro-boxing debut in the third round. Another iconic moment in combat sports history. Possibly one of the most astounding feats in boxing history. That image will live forever in college dorm rooms like Muhammad Ali standing over Joe Frazier. Only in Ali’s day, there were only so many copies of that image that could be created and seen. Now, moments like that are instantly seen, remixed, and spread across the world. Yet the reward system for the fighters is still basically the same.
All I’m saying is, if that was an NFT, I would want it. The fact that the people who are most responsible for creating these moments can gain more control and ownership over the legacy of the moment and have the option to give more to their kids, seems like an improvement.
Fighters can show up, do their thing as usual: give a piece of themselves and their souls to the arena. And maybe with NFTs they get to keep something that lasts longer than a paycheck.
The most impactful technologies tend to ask the most interesting questions. With NFTs, many new questions emerge. One of the best ones is “who owns what?”
There was a day when it was okay to steal something from a culture that was different from your own and then decorate your house with it. Eventually this practice became frowned upon and the stolen stuff was put in museums. What if an NFT was created for these looted pieces and the creators of the NFTs were the original tribes or families that owned these objects?
This world would now have two lineal objects: one digital and one physical. Both objects can be moved around and transferred. Both have a unique history and story. The original is a physical cultural artifact. The NFT is a digital cultural artifact.
The physical one is the one they all really want, but the simple existence of the NFT version owned by the original ancestor group who carry the lineage in their blood has now raised some new questions. Wil the existence of an exception birth a new urge to unify the NFT with the original object? Will more people begin questioning the legitimacy of the owners?
AI asks some pretty good questions too with “hat does it mean to be human?” probably being the most interesting one.
ChatGPT made most of the world believe for the first time, that Artificial Intelligence was real, or at least very close to being here in the sci-fi sense of being able to have a conversation with a robot. At the time of writing (July 3rd, 2024, Earth) ChatGPT could easily convince most people that it is talking to another human. But this kind of intelligence is only possible because of the vast amount of data on the internet. Data that we all created and keep creating every day.
If A.I. is a creature, it was born out of the internet. It’s like humanity’s collective child and that child just learned how to talk.
Whether there will be a single all-powerful A.I. or millions of different A.I.s, they will all carry pieces of humanity in them and NFTs let the data that spawned them become recognizable and traceable like DNA. It gives it a heritage for ideas that can be seen by future generations. They become checkpoints and sources of objective truths. NFTs allow us to say, “we created this at this time.” And maybe long after we are gone, A.I. will want to know more about their ancestors and maybe they will use NFTs to trace their heritage back to you.