NFTs and the $13B marketplace, explained

[Applause] at this point you've probably heard about nfts [Music] and if you haven't you've been living under a rock in the past year alone they've become a cultural phenomenon and i want to give one to everyone in the audience everyone gets a name yes some people hate them others think they're going to be the future of everything but no matter where you fall on this divide there's a lot to unpack here including a booming 13 billion dollar marketplace that's trying to become the amazon of nfts but first let's get on the same page about what an nft actually is essentially an nft is a one-of-a-kind digital file like these hear bored apes but it could also be a photo or a song largely they are digital files stored somewhere on the internet mitchell clark is a news writer at the verge and he wrote the verge's nft explainer he helped me who until a few weeks ago knew little to nothing about nfts grasped the subject a little bit better most of what people think of as an nft or actually the digital files not what the nft actually is so the nft is the record on the blockchain that stores the information about that digital file who created it who linked it to the blockchain and then who bought it and who has owned it throughout its history and that is what the actual nft is those transactions are noted on the blockchain which is essentially a public digital ledger that records transactions on the decentralized web the fact that all the changes are made publicly and there are so many computers working on validating them all at once makes it really difficult to hack or cheat the system talk to me a little bit just about like some of the most ridiculous entities that you've seen during your reporting there's so many i think the first one that i thought was uh logan paul did trading cards of nfts you'll find just things that look like they were done in paint by a child which generally people don't buy those like let's let's be clear just because you put an nft up for sale doesn't mean that people are going to buy it and then there's been the ones that are just downright offensive like they're capitalizing on civil rights icons or artists who are now passed away it's just like i don't like that very much at all i mean on the flip side have there been any that you've seen and you're like that that's actually like if i had a hundred thousand dollars to spend i might actually buy that i don't think that there are any of the art ones that i've been particularly interested in but i have kind of enjoyed some of the programmatic ones this includes nfts that actually get you something a bit more tangible than just an entry on a blockchain such as video games or even access to elite members only clubs and there are even more sentimental nfts there's also kind of a heartwarming story of these two cryptocurrency exchange employees who got married and they had an nfp wedding ring like their wedding ring was written to the blockchain i thought that was cute this is all well and good but how exactly do you give someone 69 million dollars for a jpeg on the blockchain while there are many marketplaces for nfts including wearable or foundation there is one that is now valued at over 13 billion dollars open c open c's catchphrase for it is they want to be the amazon of nfts russell brandom is policy editor at the verge he walked me through how open c became the de facto nft marketplace and some of the growing pains that came with such tremendous growth the difference between open sea and the other ones and i think part of what's made it so successful is a lot of the others kind of have this art gallery model where they have particular nfts that they like and you go there because you want this particular type and so it's very curated it's very controlled whereas openc it's basically this is a representation of what's out there this is everything on the blockchain and if it's on openc you can use these special ordering tools so everything kind of eventually migrates there and the fact that something's on there doesn't really mean anything about it doesn't have like the open c stamp of approval it's just the easiest place to buy and sell this is really the the appealing thing about it is you know maybe maybe investing in nfts themselves is kind of like making this speculative bet but they're the casino they're the place where all these bets are happening and the fact that there are a lot of bets happening right now makes that's just a very good position to be in yeah and of course the house always wins right right yeah but with open seas growth came some bumps since its inception there have been a lot of issues ranging from security flaws to scams to users allegedly purchasing their own nfts to artificially inflate their value it's hard to put the insecurity on openc specifically but you get a lot of these situations where it's a totally unregulated marketplace like there are lots of new things that people are finding out how to do i don't know if that's a security problem exactly but it's like a moderation issue in this very chaotic marketplace that because openc is kind of the broker of record they end up at the center of it growing pains aside investors are betting on openc moving beyond hyped up pictures of bored apes although russell isn't too sure put it this way i think for any specific use case the case for nfts is pretty weak for me like i'm not convinced that it'll take off in this particular area but then there's this other like will it take off for something will we find some reason or something that this stuff is useful for i'm sort of a little bit more credulous on that where it's like okay all these people that are looking for something that this will be good for and there's a ton of hype and a ton of energy so hopefully they find something at some point which i don't know if i want to bet on that but it's at least plausible to me but regardless of what nfts could actually be good for in the future we might continue to see people splurging on digital goods for months or years to come do you think it had anything to do with the pandemic and people just being stuck at home and you know just not spending their money on normal other things that they normally would have been spending it on it's very possible um another kind of angle to it is that they were being pitched and sometimes thrown by some people as an investment and everyone had a rough 2020 and we're all trying to like get to a better place and if there's some possible way that we can do that using this nft like we buy an nft and we can flip it in four months for so much money like what if we could sell a million dollar empty that would be life-changing for almost everyone so it's a little bit of it might be a little bit of wow this is an interesting thing coming along that's kind of hard to understand technically so you can get caught up in the sales pitch of it and then also kind of the gambling aspect of this thing could soon be worth millions of dollars if you're lucky and for some people it has worked out that way which only throws more fuel on the fire with you russell i assume the answer is going to be no uh but are there any nfts that you've seen where you've actually said yeah this could actually be like kind of fun to own no no [Music]

Channel: The Verge

Views: 197,766

Keywords: nft explained, what is an nft, nft, nfts, opensea, nft crypto, verge, nft art, what is nft, how to make nft, snl nft, nft marketplace, bored ape, nyan cat, Paris Hilton nft, cryptocurrency, art, non fungible, blockchain, non-fungible token, marketplace, first look, hands on, review, technology, gadgets, tech, latest, tech news, the verge

Id: H3TABd_nBJU

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2022