No more NFTs

We hear a lot of noise about recent unsuccessful NFT project from huge automotive company. Once again, we can point fingers at these greedy companies that thought web3 is easy. It happens – even to the greatest ones, plus some of us had a good laugh about this. There are also good things coming out of this situation - we learnt a lot. Some people drew conclusions that NFTs are dead. That’s not true. It’s just that this drop was made so poorly that it was almost like designed to flop. Let’s not forget that there are so many outstanding examples of using Blockchain among other companies. Let’s focus on the positive side of things and talk a little more about this.

The most prominent one is of course Nike. Nike with addition of RTFKT (native Web3 company – which is important, but we will talk about this later) made something great. This case is showing us how brands can expand their reach and relationship with customers. People are starving for innovation but the innovation has to be good. Starting with the latest project “Cryptokicks iRL” which is a huge step forward into merging digital and physical world. As we can read on their site – these shoes are packed! The Cryptokicks iRL features auto-lacing, enhanced lighting, haptic feedback, gesture control, walk detection, App connectivity, AI/ML algorithms and wireless charging via the RTFKT Powerdeck. It feels kind of android-ish but we speak for transhumanism in this case. People are ought to cross their boundaries.

Other activities fo Nike x RTFKT involved dropping NFTs collection that had a lot of utility and perks in them. It wasn’t just a cool picture of a shoe or flashy animation. It was much more. What the company did was that they were bringing value via NFTs. The medium was just a way to bring people more value and building another layer of relationship. Of course, they used blockchain for that because at this moment this is the best technology in the world. The benefits of using blockchain are rather widely known, but if you are still wondering, we have some articles on this blog that will explain why. In this case, it enables free flow and trading of the NFTs on the market. Utility and value – this is what makes Web3 project great (not again but all the time). Of course not to mention that you can wear this in metaverse but that is just a gimmick for now.

Secondly, we have to mention Reddit because their strategy was quite unusual and successful. Maybe it is the way to go? Let’s see. We all know that NFTs had bad press. In a matter of fact they still do but we talk about them just less. So how does one convince someone to something? Just let them try it. People started to use, trade and collect “digital goods” without knowing that they are NFTs. The experience itself was just so good and polished that people loved it despite all the hate that NFTs had on Reddit before. This tells us a lot about bias that is present in mainstream media and how this bias is preventing adaptation of technology that benefits us all. If we get people to use it without bias – they will love it. Still, we cannot forget that – just the technology itself isn’t enough! It has to bring value. It can be collector's value or utility value but once again: value is the key. In conclusion, after Reddit released their wallet – 2,5 Millions accounts were created. Numbers speak for itself.

There are a few honorable mentions of companies that are trying or experimenting with web3. They are not engaged fully, but their moves are rather thoughtful. They are actually building something. Starbucks have just released their web3 program called Odyssey, which allowed people to experience “Journeys”. Journeys wasn’t just NFTs – it did bring some additional rewards for the users. That’s the way to go. There is also Bulgari. Did you hear about their thinnest watch in the world? (or 2nd thinnest at the moment). It has a QR code engraved into the watch, which is connected to the NFT. They say that they are expanding the space of the time and watch itself into digital world. This is a coherent concept that works well with the Web3 and watch industry.

So, getting back to where we started. What went wrong in this Porsche NFT flop? At first – you can not just drop NFT collection out of nowhere expecting hype and money because. I do understand that supercars brand is cool but Web3 is not about being cool. It is a mix of things that start with decentralization. It’s actually kind of strange that a company that big didn’t start with fundamentals. Research of target and market needs. Maybe it was only proposed by their marketing team based on the trends? Even though – make it good. Specially if you are brand that known. To sum up, the flop wasn’t a surprise at all. The surprise lies somewhere else. Why they did it like that in the first place?

What to do to prevent flops like this? Firstly, just get in touch with Web3 native company. Most of us started this out of passion. We fell for Blockchain not because of the money. There is much more behind this. So if you want to be part of it – as the classic says – start with why. Why people love Blockchain? Why Web3 is growing? Why Web3 is a thing? Then you can go further and ask what. What are the rules? What drives the demand?

In the end, let’s talk about the money. Of course, blockchain is public so we can track all the numbers. No surprise that money is there. Nike made $184.74m selling NFTS. We talked about this so many times. People love to collect, trade and show off. In addition to that, you can have benefits and utility that comes with the collectible. However, we should keep in mind that is just the beginning of the road. But why is blockchain better in this case? Open market. There is no restriction. Everything is transparent. Let’s build on top of that.