Incomprehensible Art Collection and Investment Myth

On March 12, 2021, one of the world's leading art auction houses, Christie, sold Beeeple's encrypted art painting - "Everydays: The First 5000Days" for a hammer price of US $ 69 million, which not only allowed Beeeple to set the third highest price for artist auctions. which is still alive in One Records movement, and set a record for the highest transaction price of digital art auctions and online specialty auctions.

Currency circles are indeed euphoric, in the eyes of many people, the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) has really broken the circle.

However, in the eyes of some people, NFT is only half a circle, and it is still far from the real out of circle, because the high price of Beeple's work is still a currency circle. high price ruse, most outsiders are still far from understanding the NFT.

Knowing the NFT takes a little imagination

To some extent, NFTs have some origins with ICOs, which were very popular a few years ago but quickly cleared up.

In blockchain, Bitcoin is the first to solve public accounting problems in a decentralized network, it also provides inspiration for future generations. Ethereum tries to solve the problem of applications running on a decentralized network based on Bitcoin. Developers can create any blockchain without building a new blockchain, relying on tokens issued by Ethereum. Smart contract.

Tokens can be divided into two types: homogenization and non-homogeneity. Homogeneous tokens, namely FT (Fungible Tokens), can replace each other and can approach tokens that are shared indefinitely. The legal tender is homogenized currency, and each person has the same $ 100 face value. If the token has been sold before to investors and speculators before, this is an ICO.

So in 2017, the cryptocurrency world staged the craziest moment in history - the ICO wave. A lot of people and teams have poured into the cryptocurrency field, but most of those who enter the game are just issuing coins, pulling up the market, chopping green onions and then leaving. Because of that, my state surveillance stopped it in mid-2017.

At the same time, some have opted for another route - the decentralized application path, or NFT. Roham Gharegozlou, founder of Dapper Labs, and his partners began research on implementing smart contracts on the Ethereum network to develop applications, and launched CryptoKitties in late 2017. This game built on Ethereum allows players to tame and trade cats of various forms, and each one of them. unique. At the hottest of times, the entire Ethernet network even collapsed because of this game, until the game team doubled the cost of cat breeding - in December of the same year, the most expensive cat managed to sell for 246,9255 ether, which was converted into a contract. $ 120,000.

However, in the eyes of some people, NFT is only a semicircle, and it is still far from the real out of the circle, because the high prices of Beeple's works are still a currency circle. Chinese visual

The founder of BlockVita, said that NFT is just scribing in cyberspace, which is characterized by the NFT standard of Ethereum, but because of Ethereum's limited performance, CryptoKitties playback has become difficult. to thrive. This game does not have complicated fighting gameplay, only one basic gameplay breed, two cats can give birth to a new cat. Even though the game is simple, it has blown the imagination of everyone in currency circles. Its greatest significance is to verify that the program can actually run on the blockchain network.

Roham also said in an interview that most assets in the real world are not homogeneous, and are unique, independent and personal to their owners. Only money and a few other commodities are homogenized. Whether we're talking about artwork, real estate, or in-game assets, the most popular assets are those that are not homogeneous. Therefore, the real aim of launching CryptoKitties was to demonstrate the NFT concept, to prove that blockchain can be applied outside the realm of decentralized finance.

At this point, it is much easier to understand the NFT concept. NFTs are unique and inseparable tokens, like crypto kits, which are different from Bitcoin which can be broken down into several. Every crypto kit is different, and one is different. encrypted. The cat is the smallest inseparable unit. Compared to FT, the main innovation of an NFT is to provide a way to mark the ownership of a genuine digital asset (that is, an asset that is in the digital world or originates from the digital world), and this ownership can be in a centralized service. or a center outside the library. In other words, NFTs are actually digital assets published on the blockchain. These assets can be game props, digital artwork, tickets, etc., and are unique and non-copyable. Since NFTs have the attributes of natural collections and are convenient to trade,

As a result, the NFT has officially begun its imaginative exploration and development.

How hot is the NFT?

It cannot be denied that NFT has been a niche market, but this market is growing rapidly. If "Everydays: TheFirst 5000Days" Beeple shows the upper limit of high-end players in this market, NBA Top Shot allows us to see the potential of the NFT market among mass players.

NBA Top Shot is a blockchain-based NBA digital collection platform developed by the CryptoKitties Dapper Labs team in collaboration with NBA officials. This basketball-themed NFT game can seamlessly pass every peak moment on the court in the form of a small video package. In this game, users can exchange, collect, and exchange the NFT cards of their favorite players. Understandably enough, the NBA TOP Shot is an on-chain version of the traditional physical star card. They only exist on the blockchain and are stored using cryptographic technology, so they cannot be forged and can be authenticated at any time.

Each player card is a rare NFT collection. Apart from graphics and text, the NBA Top Shot player card also contains the specific moment, this moment and the corresponding star covers, the number of matches and results, and the player's season. Averaging the data and other information together constitute a complete NFT asset.

According to reports, the NFT collectibles are only one aspect of the game, and the games also provide the opportunity to display collectibles. Players can also form teams for one-on-one challenges. These NFT player cards can also be packaged and sold. Currently, the LeBron James player card updates the highest transaction price with a quote of $ 208,000.

According to statistics, NBA Top Shot will start its public beta in August 2020. Starting April 9, it will only take about 8 months. According to data from the NFT collection statistics site CryptoSlam, NBA Top Shot secondary market transactions total nearly 500 million US dollars, with more than 350,000 owners, and a one-day transaction volume of 11.45 million US dollars. It is also the product with the largest NFT transaction volume at the moment, and the second largest is CryptoKitty, with a transaction volume of around US $ 208 million.

Why are these "moments" that can be viewed or stored on video sites or social networking sites so hot and can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars?

An NFT player card collector said that the process of collecting and reselling card packs is addicting because of the gameplay of the NBA Top Shot blind box. You can quickly buy an NFT card and make him happy. This is a dynamic process. The essence that affects the value of the transaction is not the "moment" itself, but the digital token that represents its ownership.

He told reporters that if you browse the Mona Lisa on the Internet, you can find millions of images of different qualities. While we can save our favorites and print them and hang them on the wall, you don't really have them because the original is still in Paris. And digitization puts NBA-endorsed original video ownership in your hands. This is where the star card value, as well as the value of other NFT assets.

In an interview that for most investors or collectors, the return on investment from star cards is quite large, especially in the early stages of platform registration, it is not difficult to get the "moment" card packages early February, "TJ McConnell Help" and "Dunk Straw Grant" similar only costs $ 3 to $ 4, while "Donovan Mitchell Help" is even free for a limited period of time. With an influx of crazy users, the price of star cards started to go up, "McConnell's help" quickly went up to $ 100, and "Mitchell's help" even went up to $ 1,000. Not to mention the classic "moments" of big stars like LeBron James and Luka Doncic, almost all of them multiplying 3-10 times, or even dozens, in a short amount of time.

The insane added value of this virtual "moment" in the trading market has earned the developers of Dapper Labs and the NBA league that authorize this video game a lot of money. It is understood that sales and transactions of this card pack require a 5% handling fee for each transaction, which is distributed to Dapper Labs, the NBA League, the NBA Players Union and other investors in an undisclosed proportion.

According to official statistics, at the current trading level, NBA Top Shot can generate a trading volume of around US $ 17 billion in a year. The 5% ratio means operators and investors will receive US $ 850 million.

With the popularity of NBA Top Shot, the token that carries the Flow public chain has also increased, from US $ 1.39 on January 27 this year to a maximum of US $ 12.12, an increase of 871%.

From a capital city perspective, this project is also favored by the capital city and many basketball celebrities. According to media reports, on March 30, Dapper Labs raised US $ 305 million in its final financing round. Its main investor is Statue, a technology-focused investment company, and many NBA players including Michael Jordan are active and retired. Also participate in financing.

In the view of NFT investors, NBA Top Shot has built a new mapping and business model between the real world and the virtual world, so that its success can accelerate the adoption of NFT in other fields.