NFT is a bad word

NFT is a bad word.

i’ve spent the past couple of years exploring this technology and everything that it brings with. watching as nearly everyone has tried to capture some of the buzz. opinions about these newfound non-fungible tokens were everywhere. but still, NFT is such a bewildering term. one that contains a negative story arc in and of itself.

what first popped into your head when you heard the word?

i don’t think it had anything to do with envisioning a new wave of creative freedom. or a removal of gated platforms. or possibilities for community ownership and global coordination. nope, the story it tells is one of confusion.

let’s take things back to the basics. non-fungible token.

i really feel like no one really knows what fungible means. and i don’t blame them. not the greatest at retaining information, but even with that, i rarely ever heard conversations around the fungibility of assets even with being an economics major in college. it isn’t common knowledge.

fundamentally, fungibility deals with the ability for something to be exchanged. let’s take something entirely non fungible, like a good idea, and trade it for something fungible, like money. the idea’s valuation may be different every time but the money turns it into something that can be saved or traded or divided or combined.

enter NFTs and what it means for something to have value is now able to be backed by multi-divisibilty and mathematical integrity. this is a clear innovation, but hearing the word NFT alone suggests nothing of the social and economic phenonom surrounding the technology. an environment founded on abstract concepts like digital freedom, identity, and community requires understandable language.

the importance of language in thinking about teaching and learning cannot be understated and is closely tied to overarching narrative. if narrative is a compass, language is the Earth’s natural magnetic fields. both are just as alive as you and me. narrative has the power to infliuence, but we have the opportunity to create our own narratives through language. the thing is, what works narratively is not always true, and narratives can also do real harm.

an example of this can be seen with the rise of web3 and NFTs. taking a quick step back, i don’t even know if web3 is the greatest term to describe this space. making a clear distinction between web2 and web3 works for the narrative of a net new internet, but brings with certain false expectations from users. in reality, the shift from web2 to web3 is less transitionary and more collaborative. bringing with tools from each arenas to craft new digital products, systems, and communities. web3 and NFTs are stories about stories; not an entirely new book.

the use of NFT as such an overarching term has subsidized for a general lack of understanding on the basic use-cases for this technology. i recently saw a tweet predicting what NFTs would be used for in 2030. one answer was that employees will be issued a revokable NFT which acts as their access to digital and physical workplace environments. this is valid. but boring use-cases like this don’t fit the narrative of degenerate activity and instant financial freedom that has been pushed relentlessly this past year.

simply put, most people who hate NFTs don’t realize that they will interact with them unknowingly in the coming years. well orchestrated NFTs will exist in the background; similarly to how no one completely understands the tik tok algorithm but it has changed the way creators operate and are discovered. and i can’t blame people for looking down on the way NFTs are presented today. one search of NFT on twitter or instagram brings a flood of scammy hashtags and low-effort art. many of these NFTs aren’t even non-fungible in nature. brycent recently tweeted, “gamers don’t hate NFTs in games, they hate the narrative that’s been played up of everything being a scam”. abstract away this emphasis of the NFT and people realize that this technology just allows for a fun means of digital interaction and ownership.

what is edgy today, will be normal tomorrow. in coming years, web3 and NFTs will be seen in the same light as the internet and files. to get there, we must craft new language and helpful narratives. continuing the story through genuine curiosity and a willingness to keep asking the why.

i’ll leave with this. nikita bier, recently released an app called GAS which is a simple social platform allowing people to compliment each other. recently, they have been acquiring 10,000 users per hour. i saw this meme in the replies, and thought it actually pushed a good point.

while GAS doesn’t have any NFT component, the next million web3 participants can and will come through simple products like this. removing any language regarding NFTs while accruing value to participants in unique ways.

p.s. some food for thought