Delphi Digital Researcher: Culture is a Meme, and so is NFT

深潮TechFlow

特邀专栏作者

2022-02-15 07:32

This article is about 4920 words, reading the full article takes about 8 minutes

NFTs are a bridge between cultural and monetary value.

Original title: "Right-Click Save #2: Culture is a meme. So are NFTs.》

Original author:0xPrismatic，Delphi Digital Research

Original compilation: TechFlow

Original title: "

Original compilation: TechFlow

Think about it:

Valuing NFTs sounds simple, but is actually one of the most challenging things - it incorporates many intangible aspects such as culture and aesthetics. Doing this job well requires a combination of deep vertical knowledge, experience, and keen intuition. I personally think that in a future metaverse (everything is an NFT), NFT evaluation will be an influential new work. They will be the digital counterparts of today's real estate appraisers or art appraisers. I admire teams like Upshot for their unique approach to solving pricing problems, although my opinion is that a purely data-driven approach is not enough.

We know that all valuation metrics are a meme. Monetary value is not physics: therefore, it cannot be quantified with certainty in a truly objective way, unlike today's air temperature (32 degrees Celsius, Singapore is muggy) or the speed of a car. As humans, we attach value to what we think is important, or what we think others think is important. If enough people believe in it, it becomes a reality.

Think about it:

Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow Model? memesStock P/E ratio? memes

gold? memes

Interestingly, memes are also the means by which we spread our culture. NFT represents digital culture.

Reasoning along this line, I believe NFTs are a bridge between cultural and monetary value.

Culture is the most important thing when thinking about NFTs. We as a community decide what's culturally valuable and what's not, voting 24/7 with our Metamask wallet and twitter. But what is culture? I'm not a sociologist, so in a very simple way:

Culture is broad and includes the shared experiences, perceptions and beliefs of a society. Culture is powerful because it infuses us with a sense of purpose and collective identity. Some sociologists divide culture into material culture and non-material culture. Material culture is the tangible objects produced by, and shaped by, non-material culture such as beliefs and values.

In this way, we can think of NFTs as digital, material representations of a set of values and beliefs that can drive powerful cultural narratives. Narratives attract people who resonate with them.

Some simple examples of cultural narratives represented by NFTs (in my personal opinion):

CryptoPunks: Wealthy and knowledgeable early adopters

XCOPY art: underground, OG encryption culture

Art Blocks Curated: Sophisticated Contemporary Art Appreciators

There are 4 main factors at play around culture:

1) Brand value

3) Imitation value

4) Conspicuous value

These are not the only factors that affect culture. However, these are all important factors that can drive a strong fundamental narrative and deserve deep thought.

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1. Brand value

What brand does NFT represent? More often than not, it's inextricably linked to the creator's brand — the artist or the organization. So let's look at the problem first and draw conclusions.

The cultural value of the work of famous artists (eg Damien Hirst, Tyler Hobbs) is far greater than that of new artists - because the artist's brand is given to the artwork. Therefore, the prices of their works are naturally much higher.

Damien Hirst’s “currency” — a series of 10,000 NFTs worth $20,000 each at today’s prices. Spoiler alert: He didn't draw all the dots himself.

The reflection here is that contemporary digital artists will grow their personal brands organically if they continue to produce great work, injected with the right dose of showmanship. This in turn would lead to a higher cultural value of all their works overall and increased demand. Collecting the work of a talented growing artist and holding it over the long term as cultural value accumulates can be a great investment idea. Just ask those who have bought and collected X_COPY and Hackatao works since 2017 - they are worth millions today. We’re all looking for the Picasso of the crypto-art era, and that’s only discovered in hindsight.

On the one hand, mature commercial brands and organizations (such as Disney, McDonald's, Budweiser) have already begun to get involved in NFT. This is easy to judge because NFTs rely on existing brands. Disney is fun and dreamy, McDonald's is fast/cheap, and that will be reflected in their NFTs as well.

Does anyone know about McRib NFTs?

Four anonymous individuals started the Bored Ape Yacht Club six months ago. Today, it has grown into a web3 representation of street culture and has drawn comparisons to Supreme, a 27-year-old, multi-billion-dollar brand. They have limited edition items for members only that are sought after and worn with pride. In fact, the big news this week is that they just teased a collaboration with adidas.

Bored ape on the digital cover of Rolling Stone

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BAYC's hoodie so you can easily spot other fellow apes outside the metaverse

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2. Historical value

1. Timestamp: How long ago was the NFT minted/created?

Today, it is clear that the market places a premium on NFTs with older block ages. This is partly due to the Lindy effect and partly due to scarcity. NFTs in 2017 were considered more valuable because there were so few NFTs back then. There are some NFT "archaeologists" (like Adam McBride) who scour through thousands of smart contracts from years ago to unearth forgotten items. It's a decent job and at least you don't get sand in your pants like a real archaeologist would.

A good example is the CryptoArte project, a collection of 9,895 generative works of art built on the Ethereum blockchain. It was minted for the first time in 2018 and won't be finished until 2021. The base price of the CryptoArte NFT minted in 2018 is 3E per piece today, compared with the recent minting price (0.14E) in 2021, and after controlling the relative rarity, the price is 20 times.

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CryptoArte #9252: Each square represents a block on the Ethereum blockchain, from block numbers 5329152 to 532972.

Cryptocurrency is a young, high-growth industry, only a little over a decade old. We are still in its early stages. Many things that contribute to the development of cryptocurrencies today and in the near future will be considered important and scarce historical artifacts in 5, 10, 20 years. Similar to museum artifacts, they were sought after by wealthy, sophisticated collectors. Well-known collector Vincent Van Dough aptly tweeted about one of his purchases:

Autoglyph #403

Example 1:

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Example 2:

Kabosu is a Shiba Inu who accidentally became arguably the most famous meme in the world - Doge's story is quite fascinating and worth reading. She embodies 10 years of meme culture — nonsensical, illogical, and hilarious. The original NFT minted by her Japanese master is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It was bought by PleasrDAO and split into $DOG tokens so thousands of people can own a piece of this cultural icon.

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3. Imitation value

A lot of traditional advertising taps into this instinct (unfortunately, we can't turn it off) and thus features a celebrity or influencer peddling a product. One of the most successful examples is the legendary collaboration between Michael Jordan and Nike. Billion dollar Air Jordans have been sold to MJ fans.

It is often insightful to see who the main NFT owners are (ENS with human recognizable wallet addresses makes it easier to deduce this), and whether they have a sizable downstream admirer base. Learn from others.

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Left: Bored Ape. Right: Stephen Curry, NBA legend. Source: Hypebeast

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4. Conspicuous value

I'm debating whether to include it in the "culture" category, but I think it deserves a place here.

This week, a good friend and ex-classmate of mine in banking sent me a screenshot of CryptoPunk #3583 in a black blindfold saying "400k for this... I can't figure it out". I explained to him that this is the new digital bragging, and that having it means you're successful. Plus, Chinese billionaires are buying them. He understood right away.

Showing off is how we, as humans, signal socially—similar to a peacock's fancy feathers and a cat's mating call. It's why we splurge $50 on a Rolex only to squint at the clock face when we can tell the time more easily with a $50 Casio watch. Outside of the metaverse, owning a Rolex is the equivalent of telling the world that you've made it (sort of) and have spare energy and wealth to spend.

Arthur Hayes (see you again) defines conspicuous goods as:

1) intrinsically worthless

2) scarcity

NFTs have the potential to become the ultimate ostentatious tokens as we enter a post-COVID era, in a world where a large, and increasingly, part of our lives are spent online. If I wore my Rolex everywhere in a month, maybe a hundred more people would be "lucky" to see this chronograph art. This is not very efficient.

Suppose I own a CryptoPunk. I can now show off to 1,000 people, including distant friends and long-lost relatives, who see my social profiles, but I never talk to them directly. Now I can even show it off in my sleep. It's a socially acceptable, non-obtrusive way of showing how rich I am that I can afford to drop $500,000 on a pixelated image (about $1,000 per pixel). It's a better way to show off, since anyone can look up punks online and instantly know how much they're worth, whereas finding the price of a particular Rolex is much harder.

Today, CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, and Fidenzas have the highest bragging rights in the NFT world. Depending on how much they own, owners imply at least a 7-8 figure net worth. It's usually not just wealth either - with Fidenzas, you're also demonstrating good taste and artistic appreciation.

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Broadly speaking

general speaking: