[A Sip of Books] "The Biggest Battleground in the Metaverse Is NFT"

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We present meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

NFT is an essential infrastructure that enables economic activities in the metaverse. It will transform the way we earn and spend money, own and accumulate assets, and further extend the foundation of human life from the physical world to the digital world. The author introduces why NFT is important based on this foundation and encourages readers to pay attention to NFT from now on.

It is the era of NFT. To elaborate a bit more, it means that our lives are transitioning from a reality-based to a digital-based foundation. The basic paradigm changes, common sense is shaken, and daily routines change... Global IT companies, including Meta (formerly Facebook), predict that a proper metaverse will be operational around 2024 or 2025. Considering this, the next few years will truly be an era of great upheaval. At the center of this upheaval is NFT.

Simply turning digital files into NFTs and selling them might sell somewhat in the early days, but when countless NFTs appear, they quickly lose competitiveness. Users will open their wallets for about 1-2 years, attracted by the novelty and new technology. Over time, success requires a simultaneous approach: a humanities approach that creates a worldview, adds stories, and communicates with users, and an economic approach that understands supply and demand and focuses on marketing and brand management.

Collectibles have always had a strong investment concept. For example, with baseball cards, fan loyalty plays a role, but NFT collectibles rarely have that. How many people buy the monkeys of the Bored Ape Yacht Club simply because they love monkeys? Often, there is little particular meaning. That lack of meaning ironically looks 'hip.' One of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club uses the name Gagamel. He chose that name when starting the project because he was shocked that his girlfriend didn’t know the Smurfs. This kind of story, which doesn’t hold much meaning, becomes the story itself. It becomes a topic passed along through people’s conversations.

Looking at the NFT art and collectible markets, it’s not just about issuing NFTs. NFT holders actively create and participate in communities and build their own cultures. NFT art creators themselves, and the issuing companies of NFT collectibles, deeply engage in these cultures and communicate together, forming a unique community culture where creators and consumers blend. These communities are likely to overlap with original idol fan clubs. NFT communities mainly aim for investment, while idol fan clubs mostly aim for ownership, so their basic directions are fundamentally different.

The Era of NFT | Written by Lee Sihan | Dasan Books | 340 pages | 18,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.