Did you know that NFT was the word of the year for 2021? That alone shows that we can expect a rip-roaring year in 2022 for NFT-related projects. Projects raked in the masses, established huge communities and made decent revenue at the same time.
There were also a few that reiterated the darker side of the hottest trend since Bitcoin by creating hollow projects with little to no utility and even going as far as creating deliberate rug-pulls. 2022 will more than likely be the year that NFTs and the long-term viability of the concept gets realized with mass-adoption and increasing utility.
We’ve scoured the web, liaised with industry professionals and formed our own ideas around what the year has in store for Non-Fungible Tokens:
- Mainstream NFT adoption
- Charities benefit
- Revival of the art industry
- Transformation of P2E gaming
- Multi-chain marketplaces
Mainstream NFT Adoption
NFTs have already kicked off with a bang in 2022 and there’s no doubt the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. But what will it all come to? How will the majority that are online realize the true value of this digital token?
Charities to benefit from NFTs
Charities are now exploring the potential of NFTs – with the main benefit being the decreased overhead costs due to the decentralized manner in which they would raise funds.
Smart contracts make donating to a charity or fundraising that much easier – you’re able to automatically assign a split for every transaction. One of the major flaws of charities (pre-blockchain and NFTs) is that there was always a doubt that the funds were going to the right place – now with transparent, publicly traceable data everything’s out in the open.
Another revenue stream could be tokenized video-plays – where royalties will automatically be paid out every time the video is played or shared.
Revival of the art industry
NFTs have given artists a renewed sense of hope – and reaffirmed what Bitcoin’s whitepaper envisioned for the industry – true peer-to-peer transfers. Artists are able to sell directly to their fans with zero interference or splits by a middle man.
Fractionalized NFTs also allow artists to involve their fans in the process of a project and allow them to become part of the future success. Artists are also now able to benefit perpetually from future sales of their NFTs through smart contracts.
NFTs aren’t just for the intangible assets – they can also be used to tokenize ownership of tangible assets too – such as Beeples physical artwork that was accompanied by the NFT (which sold for $29 million in November 2021).
Social Perks & Subscription Models
With NFTs offering utility to HODlers, new types of subscription models and social perks could be established in the coming months as adoption increases.
Time Magazine is leading the way here by offering NFTs from 40 distinct artists and makes the NFT owner a community member. TimePieces is basically an alternative to the usual digital subscription model, unlocking all content for the NFT holder and giving them access to exclusive experiences and events.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) offer social perks to their holders. BAYC NFTs essentially give holders exclusive club membership to the Yacht Club – a social club in the Metaverse.
Multi-chain Marketplaces
Right now the largest NFT Marketplace, OpenSea, currently only supports major chains Ethereum and Polygon – with Polygon being it’s “gas-free” marketplace.
However, with Solana and the like gaining popularity on their native chains coupled with the exorbitant gas fees on ETH and the difficulty to bridge MATIC (Polygon), we could potentially see the likes of OpenSea opening up to allow Fantom and Solana onto their marketplace.
Whether or not this leads to a monopoly (which is what Web3 is trying to get away from) is yet to be determined.
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The rise of NFTs and them slowly proving their value (utility) could lead to a big year for those that are either active in the space or considering entering it.
NFTs are just one of the building blocks of the emerging Metaverse and investors and creators alike are trying to put their stamp on the market and potentially become the Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates of Web3.