NFW for NFTs?

I’m a fully formed nerd at this stage in my life, both in passion and avocation. I began coding in BASIC, moved to writing applications and eventually managing tech, media and commerce businesses. So I’m usually very enthusiastic about new tech, including what Web3 represents. I love the idea that we’re all creators and we should have rights to our work (including privacy and compensation). Blockchain is a relatively simple concept to anchor and govern these rights, but it’s unfortunately burdened today by significant environmental (i.e., compute) costs, and by the volatility of cryptocurrency. And where this rubber-meets-the-road for Fandom is in NFTs.

NFTs as a concept represent an enormous tool for creators: It helps bend the “open web” curve back towards creators, enabling recurring compensation for every time a work trades. Unfortunately, this power is not currently centered in the hands of artists; it’s in the hands of brands. Why? Well, of course, money and attention.

The skyrocketing values in NFTs have been almost exclusively driven by the equally skyrocketing value of cryptocurrency. So: “What’s your NFT strategy?” was likely among the top corporate questions of 2021.

And it’s no different for Fandom  (I have a 70-page deck that outlines this very thing!) But since we’re a large, community-first company (with 300M MAU), I thought I’d ask first. No surprise, when we surveyed about 3,000 fans, about half said they were extremely or very familiar with NFTs. Some have even bought them (3% of casual users; 5% of heavy Fandom users). And “official NFTs” have almost double the interest of “FanArt” (i.e, a Batman NFT is cooler than a JPEG of Walnut, my Labrador Retriever, in a fantasy knock off of Mouse from the Dresden Files.)

What really surprised me, however, was the overall negative sentiment that surrounded all the polling we did. I’ve never seen it so scorching: Many in our community say that NFTs environmental costs and the corporate “exploitation” (i.e. greed) make them entirely unacceptable today. “NFTs are a disgrace to the artistic medium. Just a soulless cash grab,” said one. And you’re seeing this blowback play out in gaming, music and other media today.

I’m hopeful that some form of abstraction (ERC 721 & batching?) will develop at scale to dramatically reduce environmental impacts (without adding risk for both buyers and creators). And I’m equally hopeful a simple, accessible and low-volatility marketplace will develop that meets a consumer need (i.e., celebrate fandom through ownership of the art). Creator-oriented game platforms like Roblox (who paid $500M to creators last year) are well positioned to figure this out first. And a next-gen marketplace like StockX knows how markets are made. Or maybe Fandom will forge the solution, marrying our fan and IP insights in a new way. I'm always eager to serve our communities. But I'm curious: What do NFTs (or Web3) mean to your business?