As the entire finance sector continues to deal with massive upheaval, NFTs and the surrounding technologies continue to be a massive topic of conversation in and out of the tech world. With billions of dollars at stake, knowing and understanding what is happening with this new and often misunderstood form of tech is vital. There’s no better way to grasp the current state of NFTs than by inviting a group of experts all in one place to discuss how they’ve been involved in the space and where they see it heading.
That’s exactly what Tech in Motion recently did, bringing in people from across the NFT and blockchain space for a recent event, “The Future of NFTs Micro Summit.” Guests included Alyze Sam, blockchain strategist, award-winning author and serial co-founder, Major Dream Williams, NFT Advocate and Serial Innovator, Sam Kamani, Chief Web3 Strategist for Moonstream.to, Host of Web3 with Sam Kamani podcast, and Shea Richburg, Metaverse Speaker, Futurist & Metaverse Experience Design Consultant, and Co-Founder of Future Wise Group. If you’re interested in watching the full event, click the link below, and read on for some of the highlights of the event.
Watch in Full: Tech in Motion Micro Summit: The Future of NFTs
NFTs: Where They’ve Been and Where They’re Headed
Alyze Sam led off the event going over the history of NFTs and where she believes the technology is going in the future. She told the now infamous story of how back in 2014, the NFT was invented live onstage back in 2014, it was laughed off the stage. Yet, only a few years later NFTs were being sold for millions of dollars, and numerous large companies are and continue to invest large sums of cash into NFT technology.
However, Sam noted there is no denying there has been a drop off in NFTs in recent months, with “average prices being down 70-90% since February 2021.” While this is a substantial decrease in value, Sam laid out her hypothesis that this is a natural phenomenon in the tech world, signified by the Gartner hype cycle, and NFTs are in the “negative hype” phase and will start to head into more steady waters soon.
As for advice for people trying to get into NFTs, Sam told the virtual audience to Always keep track of the crypto price, research the demand rates of the digital audience, and try to grow their follower base even before producing an NFT. “The higher your follower base, the higher the chances of you selling your NFT,” Sam said.
Finally, Sam put it on the entire NFT community to make sure to promote and invest in NFT ideas that will actually add value. “There are a lot of things that look great, but they have to be sustainable,” she said. The way back for NFTs is to bring sustainable tech and valuable art to the space.
NFTs From a Unique Perspective
NFT Advocate Major Dream Williams brought his story to the stage next, and talked about how his upbringing led him, “from the block to the blockchain.” As an early adopter of crypto, blockchain, and NFTs in 2014, Williams described the importance of “minting culture” and how a person with NFTs can be in command of their history.
Williams talked about what he found important in both NFTs and in life when he said, “You have three jobs in life, be happy, don’t hurt anybody, and move the culture forward.” When he talked about minting culture, he described how people can bring their background, experiences and history into the blockchain. “By minting culture, you can find a more relatable and reliable way to get people to believe in yourself.” He talked about growing up in New York City in a Jamaican household and how that made him appreciate that much more of his background and how he can share it with the world.
When it comes to NFTs and web3, Williams said that there is no better time than now to get involved. “The more you stay out (of web3), the more you have to lose…You lose the opportunity to mint your legacy.” As for why, Williams described how in web3, you can be your own bank. In the web3 world, you can be your own sovereign individual. “With web3, it is Read, Write, and Own.”
NFTs, Web3 Gaming, and The Need for Utility
Sam Kamani brought a long-term view of the NFTs, blockchain, and web3 space, starting off by describing how the current ebbs and flows of prices have happened before, as a similar drop like the one currently going is happened three years ago. Obviously, the market rebounded from that and Kamani predicts that will likely happen again.
Going forward, Kamani talked about the need for utility with web3 products. “What comes out of this experience is only the projects that have utility will be the ones that will survive. The projects that are only hype just will not survive,” Kamani said.
This led to his excitement and interest in web3 gaming. Kamani described the evolution of web gaming, coming from pixelated games like “Snake” on older phones to the web3 games today and how now the games and characters you create go beyond the games themselves. “In blockchain gaming, your character can live beyond the game as an NFT. Your character does not have to die when you’re done playing that game.” That ability to take your character out of the specific world of a singular game and into a wider NFT marketplace is what really sets web3 gaming apart.
Kamani continued, describing what sets apart the successful web3 gaming projects from the ones that struggle. While once again describing the need for utility (“If your project doesn’t add any utility, it will go down to zero,” he said), Kamani also talked about the need to make a web3 game, well, fun. If a web3 game is fun and interesting and engaging, a snowball effect happens. “When people play web3 games, the more people play, and the higher value the NFT becomes.”
Similar to what Alyze Sam said earlier, Kamani mentioned the importance of building a community with a web3 project. “You need to find unique ways to have an interactive community,” he said. He described the success of the game Crypto Unicorns, which continues to be successful even during the current downturn due to the engagement, community, and enjoyment people have while playing the game. People play Crypto Unicorns not just because of the grind, but because they genuinely enjoy the game.
The Advancement of Women in the Metaverse
The event took a turn into the Metaverse, where the Co-Founder of Future Wise Group and Metaverse Experience Design Consultant Shea Richburg addressed the crowd (or her Metaverse avatar did), going over the power of the Metaverse, some of the challenges it faces, and how vital it is for more women to get into the web3 world.
When describing the Metaverse, Richburg called it, “Essentially a digital space inhabited by a digital representation of people and things.” Continuing, “You can use your creativity in the Metaverse to create a space to have people find a peaceful state of mind.” While giving an audience a tour of just some of the spaces Richburg is active on in the Metaverse, she went over the significance of having more women involved in these technologies. While many women are currently using their brilliance in the Metaverse in a variety of ways, “The crypto world and Metaverse need the power of women to share their experience and expertise,” Richburg said.
One of the topics Richburg was passionate about was making the Metaverse better for children. “Children today are currently struggling with emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and social awareness, which is made even worse in the Metaverse,” she said. Dealing with biases, exploitation, harassment, and privacy breaches, children are constantly at risk in the Metaverse. However, Richburg and others are working together and have created the Metaverse Intelligence Quotient a way to set the standard on how children connect with each other within the Metaverse.
To see the full event, including a post-summit Q&A with the entire panel not recapped here, click below to watch “The Future of NTFs Micro Summit.”
Watch in Full: Tech in Motion Micro Summit: The Future of NFTs
