Before getting into NFTs they made no sense to me. It wasn't helping that most mainstream NFTs are pictures. Why are they worth anything?? Why aren't these JPEGs worthless??!
Well, after I got my neat lion, I started questioning my perspective. It meant something to me and had value. If I was wrong before, I might be wrong about other NFTs too, so I started questioning my beliefs. Now, when it comes to value, most NFT degens will give you this set of answers when you ask them why NFTs are worth something. This list includes:
Art
Lots of people say they buy some specific NFTs for art. But it's clearly not the case when they are planning to resell them. And some of that art is so subpar that it's so questionable. While no one is bound to get NFTs only for art, there's only a few people that I have noticed that do get nice NFTs for art. Most other people who get NFTs for art do so to support friends or because they enjoy more of that personal art work. But you ain't fooling me if you are paying $100k for some ugly monkey, imo, and saying it's just for the art.
Utility
Usually, there are lots of things mixed into this category. Basically, anything that will add a checkmark to XYZ project offering something extra. Some examples: alpha calls, news, some extra picture NFT, some shitty web games, etc.
Community
This is such a valid reason, and I still feel like it's vastly undervalued. Through my experiences, I've only found a handful of communities that are really worth having an NFT just for the community, and that's wayyy more than enough. Unfortunately, many projects, whether consciously or unconsciously, mix utility into them, like promising some events or creating some perks to create a community, but they do not seem as strong.
Investment - speculation
This is where passive income and staking, and all other utilities technically fall into too. However, when it comes to art, some expensive collections might be good investments, but that does not mean that everyone is getting into them to make a profit. Unfortunately, lots of actually valuable NFTs are going to suffer from the vastness of pump and dumps and a variety of cashgrabs.
Overall, the majority of the space is still immature. And if you read my reflection on Attention, you'd probably guess that some crucial points apply to NFTs and their value. Fundamentals?? Never heard of them!! Whatever attention is on, it's your current flava of the week, and it's pumping! The more you try to use logic - the more likely you are to fail to make sense of that!
I'm looking for the next wave of NFTs:
Where great art is more noticed and rewarded.
Where friends' art is more accessible through solid Layer 2's.
Where utilities are actually useful and not so 'placeholder empty promises," while in reality no one cares about those
Where communities are built and fostered before being mixed with a financial component.
And investments. Well, I'm just hoping there are better UIs, more tools, safeguards for new users, and more people who are in the space for something more than just pump and dump projects.
