NFTs imagination and investment trends
[MC] Sally Wang - Head of Marketing at Sino Global Capital
Ben Middleton - Partner at Ascensive Assets
James Wo - Co-Founder, Chairman & CIO of JSquare. Founder, CEO of DFG
Mia Deng - Partner at Dragonfly Capital
Robby Yung - CEO of AnimocaBrands
Steve Lee - Investor at BlockTower Capital
[…] - I missed the opening.
James - […] the infrastructure and first customers are here.
Sally - most important aspects when evaluating NFT projects?
James - the team is the most important aspect. Some projects overvalue their IP when IP is not that important. Have been focusing on L1 protocols but also did some NFT investments (as the fundamental layers strengthen → more opportunity in user layer apps)
Mia - agrees. To do NFTs, one needs to understand trends and cultures. Looks for teams that come from traditional gaming, crypto gaming …
“We are still early and the industry has to do better at opening onramps for non-crypto creators and users. Marketers have to start with the question - ‘what can we make that appeals to the mass market?’”
Sally - Steve, what catches your attention?
Steve - Projects shoud be:
- Commercial: with a viable business model (e.g. Axie Infinity makes money).
- Community-driven: demand comes from a strong community - known teams that have been building community since 2017 and have succeeded in the long run.
- Competition-driven - retention is very difficult without an element of competitiveness (e.g. Aavengochi, Axie, …)
Finally, composability is where the magic happens - YGG good example of this.
Ben - very aligned to others’ perspectives. Also very interested in the DeFi side of NFTs (e.g. NFT collateralized loans, NFT rentals…)
Robby - thinks we are super early and have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Sees amazing innovation happening around “NFTs / digital assets” that allow building businesses on top of other businesses (e.g. real state developers in metaverse). [On REVV project?] Now that people own F1 cars, the cars need other elements (e.g. gas stations, replacements…). Stresses the importance of interoperability (there would be no YGG without products like Axie) and expects more innovations that leverage composability.
Steve - “Good point”. Sees potential combining NFTs with DeFi and real assets in other industries (e.g. music industry) - NFTs unlock hidden value (e.g. create new utility that did not exist for the fans).
Sally - agrees with exposed ideas - utility is key for the success of these projects. Sino focuses more on infrastructure (more potential to reach masses). But DeFi and GameFi are gaining significant traction - which do you think are the pioneers in these verticals? do you see new paradigms emerging?
Steve - Aavengochi is a leader in GameFi: one can buy an NFT, earn in Aave, and also play - if one dives into this project, one will realize how strong its community is. NFT custody is a big part of our business going forward - important to have businesses addressing custody (e.g. platform to manage NFT portfolio).
Metaverse components + NFTs + composability = amazing oportunity.
Robby - technical viability and crypto-comfortable userbase are allowing the emergence of many financial services on top of NFTs. NFTfi started with NFT collateralized loans without us, there is also an NFT rental market.
Thinks existing audience is small and we need to broaden adoption and accessibility as much as possible - in traditional gaming, not getting 10M downloads during the first months is a synonym for death, whereas in crypto-gaming getting 10 seems to be fine.
NFT rental markets are a way to broaden accessibility - F1 card collectors want to own a piece of merchandise but not play this asset and rental markets are a really interesting way to allow that car to play the game.
Ben - echoes previous opinions. Interoperability is key and user retention is tough - we need to enable the existing user base to change games effortlessly. YGG is a good example that improves the UX by providing users with the capability of swapping items, cooperating with other players…
Steve - thinks that the metaverse paradigm is bringing the first DAOs to life.
Ben - clans are the first type of DAOs - a group of people that requires coordination. Smart contract aspect makes interaction more secure.
Mia - the pricing of these assets is an important aspect that needs to be solved - now the price is fairly subjective to the people who underwrite these assets. Invested in experts to price these assets.
James - yes, still very very early days and the industry has to mature but sees a lot of potential.
Sally - Steve, want to conclude?
Steve - don’t want to listen to more “copy & paste” NFT projects. Seeking for projects with strong differentiation - teams with clear strengths, unique background…
Thank you @OdailyChina for hosting this interview
→ More reads on NFTs imagination and investment trends:
“LOOT IS A VIRAL SOCIAL NETWORK THAT LOOKS LIKE NOTHING YOU’VE EVER SEEN” By Casey Newton at The Verge
An uncharitable way of describing all this is to say that Hofmann created a way to let people pay the Ethereum network to return a list of useless names to them. But Hofmann’s fans saw it very differently, and quickly turned Loot into a phenomenon. The 7,777 bags that Hofmann offered up for minting were all snapped up more or less instantly. In the next five days, Coindesk reported, Loot bags were resold for $46 million, and had a market cap of $180 million […]. So far, this seems like any other NFT story: weird artwork is released, price goes up quickly. What makes Loot different is the number and variety of projects that have spun up around it at a staggering speed. First, of course, people started drawing pictures of the Loot bags: some by hand, and some by artificial intelligence-generated pixel art.
“Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games & the play-to-earn economy” by The Coinbase Blog
Founder Gabby Dizon likes to say that Yield Guild Games is one part Berkshire Hathaway and one part Uber […]. YGG is essentially a holding company for play-to-earn gaming assets. […] YGG pairs people who want to make money gaming with the NFTs they need to earn in play-to-earn games.
“a16z invests in blockchain play-to-earn community Yield Guild Games” by Ledger Insights
Due to Covid-19, the unemployment rate in the Philippines reached 8.7% in February 2021. And almost 10% of the employed population was looking for more working hours. In comparison, the unemployment rate in January 2020 was recorded at 5.3 %. Yield Guild was founded by gaming entrepreneur Gabby Dizon who was looking to address the economic situation in his local province by kickstarting a play-to-earn economy.