NFTs are at a crossroad, and the next 6-18 months could decide whether we go down the path of an open or corporate metaverse.
In this video I lay out an argument made by Punk 6529, an influential account from NFT Twitter. The argument goes as follows:
1) Governments/corporations want to maintain and even increase the current state of centralization.
2) Crypto has typically been a home base for decentralization.
3) NFTs are quickly attracting new users and brands, but as crypto gets bigger fewer people care about decentralization.
4) Tech companies are now coming out with alternatives to NFTs and they may take the upper hand.
5) This issue is bigger than you think because the metaverse will be a huge part of society.
Not to be dramatic, but the future is still up in the air and It’s up to us to decide where the space goes from here.
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0:00 start here
1:02 punk 6529
1:59 the world is centralized
3:23 crypto users are changing
4:58 brands see this as a land grab
6:12 uhhhhh is this forreal?
7:43 the metaverse is more important than people think
9:14 what can we actually do?
tags: bored ape yacht club, cryptopunks, moonbirds, azuki, doodles, opensea, metamask, coinbase, metaverse
On this channel we tend to talk about The fun stuff right buying and selling Jpegs debating whether owls or apes are A better store of wealth and so on but There’s a much larger story happening That we need to talk more about because The future of nfts is basically hanging In the balance i know that sounds a Little dramatic but it’s true okay if This were an mma fight for example in One corner we would have decentralized Crypto and that means that if you own an Nft on a chain like ethereum there’s no One central power that can stop you from Selling or holding or renting out your Nft and then in the other corner you Have large corporations like meta and Google that are starting to do a land Grab of their own and because these are Profit-seeking companies they would Prefer to own the actual rails that These nfts run on but we kind of can’t Let them do that so guys this might be One of the most important videos i’ve Ever done i’ve been thinking about this A lot because the topic actually scares Me and i got even more trigger this week When i read that meta was announcing Their own ridiculous fake nft program That we’re going to talk about more in a Few minutes but before we get to that i Have to explain the larger battle that Is being fought right now and to do that I’m going to borrow some ideas from an
Individual named punk6529 now this guy Has become one of the most influential Thinkers in the nft space over the last Year or so and i guess you could Describe him as like a capitalist Philosopher you know he’s made a lot of Money and he spends millions on nfts and Fine art but he’s also very outspoken About the virtues of the open metaverse Which he believes is one of the most Important issues that we face today and It’s an issue that he thinks is going to Be either won or lost in the next six to 18 months okay it’s not something that’s Far out on the horizon it’s actually Here and now and so again if this were a Fight you might consider it a Heavyweight bout where you know you Expect somebody to get knocked out in The first couple of rounds right it’s Not something that you think is gonna be This long drawn out fight that ends up Going to the judges so with that said Let’s break down his argument as to why This open metaverse issue is one of the Most important things we should be Talking about today so point number one Is that outside of crypto the world has Been heading towards more and more Centralization so basically a Combination of government overreach and Tech monopolies have made it easier for Centralized organizations to take Control over vast parts of our lives in
Some countries like china the government Is working to gain full control over the Currency that its citizens use meaning That they’ll be able to decide who can And can’t transact which is foundational To many other rights now you might say Well that’s just china but we’ve Actually started to see this in other Countries as well like canada where Recently they passed an emergency act That allowed them to freeze the accounts Of anyone directly or indirectly Supporting specific protests i don’t Mean to make it political but it’s not Controversial to say that governments Tend to want more and more power and Even laws that are enacted for good Reasons by benevolent leaders can often Get twisted by their replacements down The road but it’s not just governments Right as we know large parts of the Internet are now controlled by a tiny Group of tech companies some of which Are worth literally trillions of dollars Because they have borderline monopolies And as i mentioned earlier as these Corporations get into nfts they would Love to be able to own the rails and the Infrastructure itself because you know Owning the platforms has been such a Huge gold mine in web 2. take apple for Example which might make as much as 64 Billion dollars a year just on fees from Their app store alone and all that leads
Us to point number two which is that Crypto has historically been a response To that centralization and the original Support for bitcoin and ethereum came From a group of tech nerds that mostly Believe the philosophy behind Censorship-resistant technologies and a Very common phrase that they would say Is not your keys not your coins meaning That they believed in a very extreme Version of self-reliance and Self-custody but as time went on the Demographics changed and today we have An estimated 300 million crypto holders And adoption has been faster than even The internet itself but a large Percentage of these holders now hold Their tokens on exchanges or in crypto Apps like robinhood and so what we’re Seeing is that the further away you get From that initial group of early Adopters the less people seem to believe In not your keys not your coins you can Almost think of a graph where the more Users we get the less people care about Decentralization and as a result when Faced between the ease of use of a Centralized service versus you know the Complex and scary road of self-custody They almost always choose the former and On top of all that 2021 saw the first Major attention for nfts and it’s now Clear that nfts will be the first major Consumer application to come out of
Crypto and it’s going to play a big role In onboarding the next 100 million or Even a billion users into the space so To sum up this point adoption is set to Accelerate in the coming years but you Can expect more or less that the bigger It gets the more quote normies you get That don’t care much about Decentralization at all okay point Number three not only are nfts Attracting consumers but they’re also Attracting brands and corporations as Well so 6529 talks about how he used to Show up to ethereum conferences and he Would never see a consumer brand there But now you have douche and kobana Showing up because of nfts now on one Hand this is great right this is what Adoption looks like and we can expect That a lot of these brands are going to Do cool things with nfts although some Will obviously get it wrong you know i Don’t know if buying a starbucks Frappuccino should require me to go on Open seat but i think people are excited To see what comes out of brands like Marvel or harry potter or even you know Fashion brands like supreme and by the Way having these corporations come to The blockchain actually makes it a more Level playing field than what we had Before like 6529 says i would much Rather compete against any big co on an Ethereum layer where neither i nor they
Have any platform Rails advantage the alternative off Chain is that big co is advantage not me Because they can call and make a biz dev Deal with a media company or tech Platform however it’s hard to believe That these companies are gonna be happy Being confined to these decentralized Rails you know there’s always a natural Tension where they just want more and i Think when they look at nfts they’re Seeing this as a land grab opportunity The biggest example of this is facebook Which understands the opportunity so Much that they change their name to meta And a big part of their strategy is Taking their products horizon vr and Horizon worlds and making that a big Part of the future and recently we just Saw what that might look like so here we See the plan is to quote allow creators To sell virtual items and effects within Horizon world for example a virtual Designer could sell a fashion accessory That users could attach to their avatars But keep in mind these are closer to In-game cosmetics than nfts because you Can’t actually take them out of their World the only difference is that Creators can sell them and then get this Meta’s quest store charges a 30 Transaction fee and in addition horizon Worlds will keep an additional 25 of the Remaining profit resulting in a total of
47.5 percent for meta which they Actually called a pretty competitive Rate in the market so basically 50 of The revenue stays with the company and You can tell that it’s even really hard For them to give up that much because They’re used to keeping 100 and look It’s obvious that meta’s current Implementation is a joke and a lot of People were laughing on twitter but over Time you can imagine that they add Things like a secondary marketplace Within their store and then the Differences between what they’re Offering and a true decentralized nft Becomes less clear just like when they Copy tick tock and snapchat mark Zuckerberg is going to copy the best Features from nfts without sacrificing Their control and that’s scary because a Lot of people are just not gonna care Enough to avoid falling in that trap Okay and then we get to point number Four which is this issue is more Important than people think because the Metaverse is inevitable and the Metaverse is more important than people Think like 6529 says here i believe the Metaverse is going to come and it’s Going to be fantastic in 10 years the Resolution will be high the features Will be bountiful and the dopamine traps Will be honed to perfection and so i Spend a lot of time worrying about this
We’ve spoken about this on this channel Before about how much time we’re Spending online and on our phones and How this is only going to increase over Time and that one day not too far out in The future we’ll be living in a mixed Reality where we’re interacting with Digital assets basically all the time This isn’t science fiction this is on The roadmap and companies like meta are Investing tens of billions every year on Exactly this and because this is going To impact all levels of society the main Question is who should own the rails Right should it be a centralized company And their database or should it be the Decentralized rails that we’ve been Building that’s really what this whole Issue comes down to and the reason why This might be settled in the next year Is because we’re about to see the first Big attempts by major corporations to Dominate the onboarding process into Nfts and the metaverse we know that nfts Are coming to instagram and youtube we Know that epic games is raising a lot of Money for their own metaverse and amazon Is even looking for a way to get in as Well and so on not only are these Services coming but they’re going to be Way more user-friendly than whatever it Is that we have today and so the chances That they’re going to convince people to Use them is pretty high okay so now that
We’ve laid it all out what can we Actually do to help push things in the Right direction well the first thing we Can do maybe the most important thing as You might have guessed it is to smash The like button to get more people to Watch videos like this one and then once We have that done the second most Important thing we can do is to push Back against any regulation around Self-custody wallets now a self-custody Wallet is simply a wallet that you can Use in a permissionless way okay so Think metamask or phantom and we’re Getting to a point where governments are Looking at this suspiciously and there Are more and more hints that they want To crack down on this and make it so That the only way you can hold crypto is On a centralized exchange that they Control if we lose self-custody wallets Then it becomes hard to see a huge Difference between nfts as we know them Today and just something that lives on a Closed ecosystem by facebook or walmart The other thing we can do is simply Educate people about the importance of Decentralization so if you’re watching This channel i’m guessing you’re already Pretty deep in crypto and you probably Know more about this and most of your Friends and family and now you basically Have to assume that most of the people You do know in real life are gonna get
Onboarded into crypto in the next few Years and it’s probably gonna happen With nfts and it would be much better if They do get onboarded through you as Opposed to some facebook ad and this is Very important because if everyone does Start using zuck bucks because it’s so Easy and frictionless then we may never Get them back to the other side this is Just part of the responsibility that we All have when you realize that there Isn’t a ceo of bitcoin or ethereum that Is going to do an ad campaign promoting Their solutions versus whatever is being Pushed by mcdonald’s alright guys that’s It for today thanks again to punk6529 For laying out his thoughts i hope i did Them justice thanks again for watching And i’ll catch the next video
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