WTF are NFTs and Why You Should Look Closer (3-min. read)
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a normie. And that’s ok.
Until 2021, I too identified as a normie. In many respects, I still am. I have nowhere near the technical knowledge of the NFT world that many fellow NFT’ers do - it attracts a techy, engineer-y crowd in large part. (FYI - “normie” is jargon for a normal person - not savvy in crypto, NFTs or Web3).
But if you’ll recall, that exact same type of crowd were the first big users of the Internet, and you could say they’ve done pretty well for themselves since the first pings of that dial-up modem.
Since then “Follow the Nerds” has been something of a background mantra in my mind. What they do on evenings and weekends turns into what they do for work - and what we all end up doing eventually - and that seems to lead making a fortune, at least sometimes.
So I dabbled in cryptocurrency for a bit, then found NFTs to be buzzing around - and I found the art, people and stories behind NFTs more compelling than simply buying and selling virtual coins.
I’ll get into the personal stuff more in later posts - the successes and failures of my past 18 months in NFTs.
For you, dear reader, you should consider NFTs for 4 main reasons:
They are where a lot of the nerds are playing at the moment, even though the market has cooled considerably in the past 6 months.
They represent WAY more than just pictures of cartoon apes. Think community, connections, your tribe. I will expand on this below.
They’re potentially lucrative. More on this in a future post.
They’re fun.
Number 2 on that list needs a deeper dive. Yes, the NFT space can be as dumb and as scammy as you’ve maybe heard. But if you focus on that alone, you are missing out on a lot.
I have met some fantastic people in the last year solely based on the NFT projects that I’ve bought into. Extremely successful entrepreneurs, ex-special forces people who are excelling in the investment world, kind and helpful people from all walks of life, even Tim Ferriss himself - a personal hero of mine.
While real-life friends are still essential for all of us, it’s just not practical to meet up as often. Kids, work, and life all get in the way. But I can hop into my Discord (a new post on that is coming up next) any day or evening, crack some jokes, get some advice, score a tip on an investment, share some personal news, and so on.
These online connections have brought me to New York City and Austin in the past 9 months as well, breaking bread with some of these online friends and meeting new ones too.
Why and how has this happened? You can quickly find an NFT project where you are on common ground. Tim F’s’ project, for example, naturally attracts like-minded people focused on physical and mental health and improvement. Suddenly, you find your tribe and are getting even more great discussions, advice, and laughs. Entry cost? Free.
Check out this video we made to learn how to get in. In this case, it’s a Discord centered on the Tim Ferriss ecosystem - his books, his podcasts, his newest project. It’s free to join.
And if you want to participate more in Tim’s NFT project - called Cøckpunch! - the current cost of one of his NFTs is under $500 (Canadian dollars).
Zen Academy is another one, and an excellent starting place for people interested in starting their NFT journey. It’ll cost you anywhere from zero dollars (for their “Student ID” program) to currently about $800 CDN to get into the group. For life, if you want. Again, more on this on a near-future post.
Oh, and what are NFTs? You’ll find a ton of definitions online. Here’s a simple one: “A unique and non-interchangeable token which exists on a blockchain”.
Ha! Helpful? Ok, maybe not, if you’re a normie. It’s better to dig around if you want to get into the true definition, but in essence, an NFT is a digital key that belongs to you only, when you buy it. It’s as unique as your eyeball or your fingerprint. The external image of it might look identical to 100 or 1000 other ones, but only one token behind it - one eyeball, one fingerprint say - is uniquely yours.
NFTs can represent a wide variety of things, which we’ll explore over time. It can be a piece of art, like the image at the top of this page. It can be a membership pass to get special perks or access to an event or an online group. It can be a collectible, like the old school baseball cards that are now worth $$$.
And for many, it can be an avatar, a profile photo (called a “PFP”) that tells the online world what tribe you’re a part of - at first glance it may feel a bit silly for us normies, but it quickly becomes a fun, unique and useful face when you are online and interacting with your group.
If you want to take a more extensive look at the different types of NFTs, click here.
Intrigued? There will be a lot more to come. As always, questions are best on Twitter - see the links below.
——
Questions? Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment: @iamjif_eth
Finding value in these posts?
Tips are really appreciated! You can send ETH to iamjif.eth or
send an e-transfer to web3@tentcommunications.com