🙀 90% of NFTs will disappear by 2027. Is your precious collection at risk?
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The NFT Apocalypse Is Coming… Most Won’t Survive. Are You Prepared For The Fallout?
What would you do If I told you that 90% of all NFTs will disappear in the next 4 years? I don't mean falling in popularity, but that the vast majority of NFTs, including the ones you may have paid THOUSANDS for, get wiped from existence?
You may be thinking to yourself - “But, but, it's the Blockchain Sae'Von - that's not possible! “
LMAO. Yea… we gotta talk about that.
⌛️ Keynote At A Glance
0:00 Intro
0:56 The NFT Apocalypse Explained
3:26 ClubNFT Explained
3:47 ClubNFT - Getting Started
4:10 How NFTs Are Stored
5:22 How To Backup Your NFTs
6:36 How To Handle "Worse Case Scenario" NFTs
7:14 Jason Bailey's Advice (ClubNFT CEO)
7:54 Final Thoughts
The NFT Apocalypse Explained
First things first, know that today’s keynote is not about problems, its about solutions.
Yes. It is quite likely that most NFT collections self-destruct over the next 4-5 years.
However…
If you follow this whole keynote from start to finish, I promise you’ll know exactly how to protect yourself (and those beloved JPEGS!) from oblivion.
Before I walk you through all of that though, let’s establish some context about this whole issue.
I recently released a keynote video covering my predictions for the top Web3 trends to watch for in 2023. Within that keynote I predict the resurgence & renaissance of on-chain NFTs. This is all the context you need. (Excerpt below)
*Despite popular belief, most NFT collections aren’t actually stored on-chain, instead only storing partial data on-chain: typically the token ID and a URL that points to the token's metadata. Sometimes metadata is stored directly on chain, but that’s usually as far as it goes. *
Rare is the project storing EVERYTHING about the NFT, including the art, entirely on-chain. Why? Because it can get EXPENSIVE.
So why does this matter? Because if something were to happen to the company behind a collection, a major exchange hosting a collection, or the pinning sites hosting the metadata, your NFT will be rendered useless & inaccessible. Instead of seeing your $250M ape on Opensea, you may find, well, nothing.
When an NFT is fully on chain, it allows the token to be reconstructed in its entirety using both on and off-chain decompressors, directly from the data baked into the chain, ensuring the NFT persists in perpetuity alongside the network itself.
All it takes is one metadata related fiasco & I’m confident will see a renaissance of fully on-chain projects w/ genuine persistence & immutability.
Hopefully you now appreciate the gravity of the situation here, but if not, I implore you to read “The NFT Apocalypse” the article that brought this whole situation to my attention. It explains in more detail exactly why most NFTs will break by 2027 & the nuances of on chain art, IPFS & server hosted tokens. If after reading this you’re still not convinced of the potential calamity ahead, ion got nothing for you homie!
Now enough about the PROBLEM, lets talk about the SOLUTION.
ClubNFT Explained
ClubNFT is a platform built to ensure your NFTs are safe & accessible even if the parent company behind or the marketplace hosting the collection were to fail or disappear.
So how exactly does this work?
First, visit the site & create a new account with your preferred email. Then, provide the wallets you want to protect. This will begin the back up process.
When you input an address, ClubNFT finds the available tokens, then it runs a quick assessment of the source contract. Once this is done, the dashboard provides you with a report detailing how the associated content is stored. Generally speaking, there are 3 possibilities. The content is held on a private server (40%), pinned to IPFS (50%), or is stored fully on-chain. (10%)
When you expand the view for each NFT, you’ll find a breakdown of how each element is handled, most showing some sort of mixture.
Best case scenario, everything is on chain, but that’s only true about 10% of the time. Jason Bailey, ClubNFT’s CEO mentioned that out of 1,000 NFTs, he only had ONE collection be detected as on chain.
According to the tool, even Cyberbrokers, one of the most well known “on-chain” projects incorporates “off-chain” elements.
Realistically though, if the image or core “media” file is stored on IPFS, consider it a win, since this means the media can be backed up.
Now, Let’s cover how to actually PROTECT your NFTs.
Backing Up Your NFTs
On average, you should be able to backup roughly 50% of your tokens. ClubNFT’s interface makes it clear which NFTs can be protected. For an individual breakdown of which ones are salvageable, click on “Yes” or "Partial”
Once you’re ready, all you need to do is click “Download Wallet Backup”. The process may take a couple of hours depending on the size of your wallet, but once its done - just download the zip file & you’re all set!
I suggest you store one copy of the backup on an SSD or hard drive, and upload another copy to your preferred cloud storage provider.
So, what about the rest of your NFTs? Is there any way to save them?
If they’re on-chain, you’re good. If they’re on private servers… there’s not much you can do. Because the token is linked to a private server, it will appear “broken” if something ever happens to the company or marketplace that issued it.
You can always pull the “right click save” move, that way at least you have SOME version of the image saved. Though its better than nothing, its not a real solution.
I asked Jason for his advice during our recent conversation, here’s what he had to say about it.
Once you’ve gone through this process once, ClubNFT will regularly scan your wallet for new NFTs. You’re given one free backup per wallet each month, so I suggest you set a reminder to do so. Consider it a part of your Operational Security.
I also recommend you sign up to get notified about their upcoming pinning service. This will automatically create an additional backup of your NFTs stored on IPFS. Its more of a redundancy than a necessity, but one worth considering.
Closing Thoughts
That’s all for this one. If you like to know more about the NFT Apocalypse or ClubNFT, be sure to catch my interview with their CEO Jason Bailey.
If you just wish all your NFTs were on-chain by default, take a look at Bitcoin Ordinals & Inscriptions. I’ve got a full explainer & how to keynote that’ll have you up to speed in just 15 minutes.
Stay blessed.
