The cryptocurrency community headed to Nassau in the Bahamas this week for the inaugural Crypto Bahamas conference.
As with most conferences, panels fill the agenda and topics at Crypto Bahamas on Wednesday ranged from NFTs to crypto in sports to asset allocation in the nascent Web 3.0. During one particular conversation, titled Evolution of NFTs: Culture, Utility and Regulation, the panelists had some insightful thoughts on the NFT market.
To contextualize the Crypto Bahamas conference, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas in September 2021. It recently entered into a multi-year partnership with investment firm Sky Bridge Capital by Anthony Scaramucci, and his events arm SkyBridge Alternatives, or SALT. They jointly present the conference.
Therefore, the NFT panel was made up of multiple perspectives of Tristan Yver, chief strategist at FTX US, Joseph Doll, Fenwick Lawyer, Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, and Sarah Hammer, managing director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School. Zack Guzman, A writer for the Meta-owned newsletter platform Bulletin acted as moderator.
Great to have the opportunity to speak about #NFTs & their evolution @CryptoBahamas! Excited about the many applications for NFTs & other #digitalassets, esp. for #education, #healthcare, #socialimpact. @jackshaftoes @FTX_Official @dapperlabs @zGuz #CryptoBahamas @WhartonCypher pic.twitter.com/tQVlDOb29g
— Sarah Hammer (@FinanceHammer) April 27, 2022
Gharegozlou pointed out how new it really is the NFT market when “most people have only been thinking about it for a year and a half”, what makes valuations “very immature”. As CEO of Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, Gharegozlou acknowledged that “the utility, the rewards and the way to value and NFT is based primarily on the strength of the community.”
He added that a good way for an NFT collection to build a strong community is to have various levels of scarcity. In the case of NBA Top Shot, at the higher price end there is extreme scarcity, but there are also millions of “ordinary” moments for people to “get their first NFT and see how it feels without having to spend all their money.” money”.
Tristan Yver echoed that the current valuation and pricing model for NFTs is based on a collective perception of value based on the number of people willing to buy an asset for a certain amount. He anticipated a “move away from this consensus view toward a more unique singular view where people buy things that resonate with them rather than what resonates with a broader community.”
Joseph Doll jumped in to say that “Communities have to think about democratizing access.” There are some “massive” barriers to entry to certain projects, he said, like not getting there early enough or not having enough capital at the time. And he questioned: “That’s not what cryptocurrencies are about, is it? It’s exactly the opposite.” Democratization, he suggested, can come in the form of spin-off projects at better prices.
Another important point raised by Yver was the reality of scams, especially on Discord and Twitter. He said that “We have to get past the security aspects in order to really attract the next big wave of users.” He recommended talking to family and friends or asking a Discord moderator to make sure “click the right link when minting that NFT” because “wallet security sucks right now.”
Gharegozlou even said that Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, should use Web 3.0 to fix Twitter’s fraud problem, just like Discord should use Web 3.0 authentication and verification as well. “Once NFTs are kind of the identity bridge between all these different social networks, identity and assets, authenticity, provenance,” then the system can be more resilient, he added.
When asked what “primary alpha” the public should be aware of, Doll said to get involved and be a part of these NFT communities even if it’s “scary”, because getting scammed is a “part of the journey”.
Sarah Hammer, who runs the Wharton business school’s Cypher accelerator, said the school is launching an incubator specifically for NFT projects in partnership with Dapper Labs because the “NFT model is a business model for the future.” He stressed that the best way to grow and innovate in this space is to increase education efforts so that more people learn and work together.
The Bahamas government recently allowed residents to use digital assets, including the world’s first central bank digital currency (CBDC), to pay taxes in 2022.
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