Time to move on from Board Up Yacht Club. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are bad. They give critics ammo and distract from the technology, which is its true value.
To outsiders, NFTs are nothing more than overpriced monkey JPGs. Or any animated animal profile picture is in the firing line.
NFTs are, of course, much more than that.
However, with bored monkeys, and the countless imitations they create, NFTs are getting a bad rep. “Bubbles,” “money laundering” and “scams” are all buzzwords critics associate with the new “Beanie Babies craze.”
It’s a shameful distraction.
Related: Bored Up Yacht Club Hits Big, But Is Wall Street Ready for NFTs?
Yes, Bored Monkeys still sell for over $100,000 (a fifth of what they were at the top of the market). However, they are tied to the volatility of the cryptocurrency and the volatility of the market sentiment that has been declining in the cryptocurrency market.
There are also monkey-backed borrowers on the brink of liquidation and 143 monkeys already stolen, including Seth Green’s Bored Up, who is forced to pay to get them back. And, of course, there are fans who booed Eminem and Snoop Dogg when they performed like monkeys at the last VMA Awards.
Bored Monkeys are the face of the NFT mass cycle. They may be the closest thing to the Beanie Babies mentioned in the NFT space due to their status. However, there is a common mistake in painting the entire industry with the same brush: the professor is not the technology.
If you look past what’s on the market, you’ll find unique ideas with real-world value.
Here’s one: medical record keeping. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have proposed an NFT powered by smart contracts that would allow citizens to control who has access to their personal health records. Citizens already provide their data to medical applications, but smart contracts will allow them to sell their data as NFTs if they choose.
Hospitals and private institutions routinely sell patient data to companies like Pfizer through so-called data brokers—a multibillion-dollar industry. This may seem innocuous, but you never agree. If you know how much your data is worth, you probably don’t.
Related: A cure for copyright ills? NFTs promise to power innovative economies.
As long as the right anti-hacking measures are in place, selling or protecting your data as an NFT can be a real option. Adding encryption to NFTs keeps content private while allowing it to remain in public storage.
NFTs can perform another service: facilitating royalty payments. Artist’s resale royalty rights are not covered by US law – only intended. The EIP-2981 royalty standard made this the code of choice on Ethereum, leading the way for Polygon and other chains.
With the improved security and versatility of NFTs, private documents can be dropped into users’ wallets. These can be legal documents held by law firms or properties. Hypothetically, we could see a work contract on the blockchain that connects decentralized financial payment protocols to provide wages based on tasks completed.
Despite the endless cries of “went utility” echoing through NFT communities, the utility has always been there: the token on the blockchain is validated by self-implemented hard-coded verifiable consensus. It’s the gateway to digital and physical real estate and on-chain gaming experiences or whatever content your digital identity unlocks.
Related: Get ready for the feds to start prosecuting NFT traders
It’s still growing. On trading platform NFTGo, 10 times more Ethereum wallets contain NFT than in August 2020. Doodles just raised $54 million to bolster their IP. Creators are building. And, more skilled underground artists are working now than ever before.
NFT art has turned the traditional art industry on its head. Not only because of the headline numbers, but also the prospect of provenance. Although profile pictures stole the show, the technology was ahead and thrived without its bored ape counterparts.
It may also be better to leave the term “NFTs” in the past, as a genre defined only by certain boom and bust cycles, and move forward with the term “digital collectibles” that some have started.
Some kind of fragmentation is inevitable – and healthy – as builders are burdened with inflated expectations, market downturns and celebrity money grabs.
If you still don’t see the value, you may still have bored monkey glasses. Take them out. There are a growing number of general use cases for NFT technology.
OC Ripley He is the lead content creator for Curio DAO, an NFT community on the Ethereum blockchain. He is the Editorial Manager at Tech & Authors and has been active in Blockchain since 2017.
The author, who identified himself to Cointelegraph, used a pseudonym for this article. This article is not intended for general information purposes and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, ideas and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.