By: by Jacqueline Vong, chief playologist, Playology International (@playologyintl)
Although I still consider myself a blockchain newbie, I’ve been working on a crypto project for the last Six months and It’s overwhelming! I have been digesting as much as I can in this new world of acronyms, currencies, socials, pace and possibilities.
For crypto newbies (noob) like myself, here is a cheat sheet on NFTs:
An NFT is not a tangible object that you cannot touch or feel. You gain proof of ownership of something. You basically own a piece of code.
Why would brands want to be involved with NFTs?
Well, it’s the new hot trend. People are making a ton of money in the cryptoworld with their trades and purchases. The market volume is over $100,000,000 per day.
What are the benefits?
NFTs are registered and transferable ownership of a digital asset
· They can be collectable
· You can profit by staking (Stake to Earn).
Staking: Participation in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system to put your tokens in to serve as a validator to the blockchain and receive rewards.
· Low barriers to entry: essentially individuals can ‘mint’ (create) NFTS not many trademark restrictions and could be used by creators as an early focus group
Why isn’t everyone doing this right now?
· It’s a severely fragmented industry with many currencies and chains and crypto wallets to get involved with. There are no universal standards and no rules except in the code.
· Gas fees can be high especially if you’re trading in the currency of Ethereum (which is common).
· Onboarding: I am still trying to onboard myself and you can spend a TON of time educating and digesting. I look at this as the equivalent of trying to explain how to use text messages to my parents.
Scams are everywhere!
· Since it’s like the wild ‘metaverse’ where some folks may take advantage of the consumer’s lack of knowledge and lead you down an unscrupulous wormhole and there’s really no penalty. Since there are low barriers to enter this, there is a lot of clutter out there so it’s about properly strategizing to break through the noise and market and seed the NFTs within your community and target audience.
· What are the main social media channels used: Unlike traditional marketing where you are used to interacting on the google platforms like Facebook and Instagram, or snapchat and TikTok, most of the crypto and gaming spaces are in discord, telegram and twitter. I had to learn how to interact in these hubs as you can’t just scroll passively on ‘accounts. I also had to learn how to connect to the community and stand out from the waterfall of clutter to market any key announcements or initiatives.
I am energized about where this world is going because gravity and traditional logic seems to not defy it. I look forward to what is coming.
