NFTs, Ownership & NeoSwap
NFTs are overlapping with the real world. No, this isn’t a scene from The Matrix fren, no blue pill or red pill here. Increasingly, we are seeing brands, projects and protocols linking NFTs with “real” goods. I am just going to call them “real” for brevity in this article…
We think it is an interesting trend to keep an eye on because it is relevant both for the future of tech and equally for NeoSwap.
Eli Tan of Coindesk reported last week that the beloved Pudgy Penguins NFT project announced it was licensing certain NFTs from the collection to be made into real-life toys.
The tweet was met with a lot of positive responses:
Pudgy Penguins saw its floor price surge on the news and a flood of activity in the collection, including a 370% increase in sales, Coindesk reported.
This further cements the idea of NFTs as a certificate of authenticity or ownership, as I mentioned in my earlier piece A Bullish Case for NFTs and it also imbues NFTs with another form of utility- connection to the real-world. Perhaps that is membership to a club like LinksDAO or Fly Fish Club, or maybe it is exclusive swag, limited run collectibles etc. It is easy, or lazy, to think of NFTs are just JPEGs, they aren’t.
We expect games and brands to keep building on this principle as they are able to reward their audiences and users in new and novel ways. Urvit Goel of Polygon has said that he believes NFT gaming companies have a big advantage over their web 2 rivals because of the ability to sell or transfer NFTs and move money in & out of games. Take this a step further if gaming brands connect ownership of certain NFTs to perks both in the real world and online. Add this to the low friction way you can sell or swap NFTs in web 3, (shameless plug incoming: especially using NeoSwap) and you have a whole new economy created overnight.
Following in this vein, last week NeoSwap spoke with the founders of Mattereum. An extremely interesting and ambitious project currently on Ethereum, connecting real-life goods to NFTs as a legally binding form of ownership. Mattereum is founded by a crypto OG Vinay Gupta and they have already built out a legal framework that works across over 150 countries connecting the real-world item with their digital twin (the NFT). They already have wines, gold and other collectibles available to purchase.
Why is this interesting? For a few reasons, but for us at NeoSwap it is the idea of more and more ownership of items coming on-chain.
The reason we didn’t start with real-world items is that it is messy and there is too much complexity. Digital items like NFTs make sense, offering immediate settlement and permissionless trading. It is also much easier to find the owner of on-chain items and for us to propose trades discovered using our AI.
However, as more of these real-world goods come on-chain it opens up a whole new world for NeoSwap, one we have always had our eyes on. Think about this, you would be able to trade collectible cards or figures, or perhaps wine or fine art.
We think this is the next natural progression of ownership, maybe not of all items- at least not in the short term. However, we expect to see brands, games and collectors increasingly bringing ownership of items on-chain, making it easier to keep track of ownership but also to swap these items.
This is a trend to keep your eye on, but let your mind wander and you can imagine some of the amazing NeoSwap parties we could have… :)
Swap your Lambo for my Lichtenstein, wen?
