Evolution of NFTs
By Josh Bobrowsky
Things go in waves
New technology goes in waves. The dot com bubble followed by a burst.
When most news sources were quick to celebrate the decline of the internet as a fad, real companies were just being built.
Here are a few companies and technologies that were created in the fallout of the tech crash of the early 2000s:
Facebook: 2004
Bluetooth: 2000
YouTube: 2005
Camera Phones: 2000
iPhone: 2007
Nothing moves as fast as you would like
We are early. That has been a battle cry of Web 3 for at least a year in the NFT ecosystem. However, being early also means that you have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up.
While many of us are focusing our lives on the emerging tech the rest of the world is barely paying attention.
It often takes years or decades for tech to reach the masses.
Where we are in the adoption cycle
We have less than 1% adoption for NFTs. Today there are less than 10 million people holding NFTs. This is nearly the same number of people who used the internet in 1994.
Quick Math: Let's assume that the total addressable market for NFTs is about the same as the number of user of Apple iPhones1.
According to a few estimates close to 1.5 billion people have iPhones worldwide.
Currently, there are less than 10 million people who own an NFT around the world. Roughly 100k users on ETH which makes up 80% of the trading volume and several million spread across other chains like Flow, Polygon and Ronin (10 million is fairly generous).
What is next
The next wave of NFTs will be based on real world use, gaming, club membership, tickets and value propositions beyond speculation and art.
This will be where things get exciting, use cases get real, and titans of industry are made.
Conclusion
Today NFTs are in a downturn, but the future is bright, the potential is huge and the people in the space are smart. Every new wave of technology takes time to evolve. This is true from electricity, to automobiles to NFTs.
While the market may be having a downturn, some of the biggest companies in the world are currently just getting started.
I’m excited for what the future holds and for us to be on this journey together.
Cheers
Josh Bobrowsky
I picked this number because these people are both holding a piece of technology and have enough expendable income to spend roughly $1,000+ a year on cell phone service (cost of phone plus mobile carrier).
Good project nice to meet you
“We are early... however, being early also means that you have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up”
We are early as for the technology proven use cases... but it seems we are behind in that evolution cycle, sad to se how many of “NFT projects” raised a good amount and haven’t developed something significant... we are just waiting for big players to come with real business use cases.