Have you seen the article 'Welding Dongwon Kang'? It was news that made many people's hearts flutter at the end of last year. Actor Kang Dong-won uploaded a video of him doing woodworking as a hobby on YouTube in the form of a vlog. It was a box office success, surpassing 5,000 concurrent users without much publicity.
There are more back stories. This video was made with NFT and sold through the online platform collection (Kollektion) from the 24th. There are four types, three video clips of about 8 minutes long, 100 each, and the full 44 minutes and 24 seconds of video was released in a limited edition of 19. The prices are $20 and $1000 respectively. The full video asking 1 million won in our money was sold out on December 31, the deadline. All proceeds will be donated to UNICEF.
When it was first played, it already caused an explosion of viral content, and after that, how did these videos acquire a new exchange value despite the plethora of replicas online? Speaking of which, recently, global tech giants are arguing with each other on Twitter over the so-called 'Web 3.0' based on the use of NFTs. What do you mean by this?
In this Occasionally News, we have dealt with NFTs, which are still up and down with mixed prospects on the one hand with intense interest. How did NFTs emerge as the hottest item in this era?
British dictionary publisher Collins has named NFT Word of the Year. According to this, NFT is defined as "a digital certificate stored on a blockchain that records ownership of an asset, such as a work of art or collectible." NFT mentions have increased by 11,000% compared to last year, Collins said. An abbreviation for 'Non Fungible Token', 'uniqueness' has an important characteristic.
Quite frankly, the recent interest in NFTs is due to their impact on real assets. Interest in direct investment is growing due to the intermittent 'rice cakes' news, such as not only stocks that NFTs skipped, but works of famous people made with NFTs were sold for hundreds of millions of won. (※The 'spicy' version that I experienced and felt at this market will be explained below. Beware of tears.)
Before going into full detail, I would like to mention a philosophical concept that many of you are familiar with. There was once a philosopher named Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) from France. The concept of 'simulacre' he advocated deeply impressed the film directors, the Wachowski brothers, and that inspiration led to the recent reboot of the movie The Matrix.
In a nutshell, simulacra is a concept that refers to a reproduction that is not the original, but is perceived more vividly than the original. It is evaluated that it has asked the question of what is the meaning of the act of pursuing something essential, pure, and original (initially) beyond what is recognized. To what extent is the real thing, is it possible to identify the real thing, and for what purpose such an attempt is made... Now that the metaverse space that represents the real identity is getting more attention than ever, it is being talked about again.
In other words, NFT is a technology that creates a new concept of ownership in the digital space that is 'simulacra' itself in an era where replication has become so easy. It's the art of making fakes look more real. Through the monopoly system of 'Mine that belongs to no one else' and 'I am unique in the world'. NFT is a system that can prove ownership of content produced in the digital space, metaverse.
Let me give you an example. 'Executive Sword' in the popular game Lineage of game company NCsoft is an expensive item that is priced at least tens of millions of won to hundreds of millions of won in consideration of the manpower and cost required to make it. Although the company ostensibly forbids in-game cash transactions, the reality is that in-game transactions are being done secretly among game users. Due to the high market price, it is also called 'jippan sword', meaning a sword that can only be bought by selling a house.
However, this is only an in-game item. If the game service is stopped or the company goes out of business, it becomes completely useless. Even though I own the individual items, it is the platform of the game company that makes those items really exist. In the end, the true ownership of the symbol with the attribute of 'execution sword' lies with the company.
NFT, on the other hand, is a technology that is ideally designed to create the value of 'complete ownership' in the digital age. Are you having a hard time speaking? The reason it's hard to say is because NFTs also have limitations. First, let's start with the undisputed part. The biggest difference between NFT and 'Executive Sword' is scarcity. In the present context, in fact, this feature of scarcity is the first and last of what makes NFTs so special.
Execution swords can be mass-produced as long as the cost and time for production are secured. However, the NFT is the only object. It is inherently impossible to 'replicate'. Occasionally, you may have seen multiple digital art NFTs that look the same on the outside.
Even then, each NFT has its own name. For example, 100 NFT videos with one theme of 8 minutes or so of actor Kang Dong-won were created, and each video is given an order from 1 to 100. The 3rd and 93rd images are the same but different NFTs.
For this reason, in collections of two or more NFTs, which are usually released as 'limited editions', the first NFT produced at auction or the NFT in the order given other meanings sells at a higher price. However, at least in the NFT ecosystem, most of the exchange value comes from scarcity, so the 'mass production' method is not suitable. Even in many NFT user manuals on the market, most of the advice is to fix the number of objects to 1 when making an NFT.
The second most important property of NFTs after scarcity is that the ‘transfer of ownership history’ is recorded on the blockchain. Therefore, when transacting NFTs, you can save the cost of distrust, whether it is a 'fake' or a scam, like when buying and selling execution swords on the community web. From creation to final owner, as long as the NFT exists, a ledger lives forever.
Then let's look at the limits. Earlier, it was said that game items become useless if the game crashes. What about NFTs? The biggest weakness of NFTs is that nothing is confirmed.
The value of NFTs ironically presupposes the real thing. Whether it's an image, audio, or video, just because I bought it from the market and engraved my name on the blockchain ledger doesn't mean it can last forever. You will need a server and cloud-like storage for your purchased files. Simply put, there is currently no 'measures and measures' that are freely compatible with cross-platform NFTs. The situation is similar to the execution sword. When the repository disappears, so does the NFT.
So, even if one platform goes down, in order to fully own the NFT, it is technically necessary to organize traffic. Kwanyeong Kim, senior researcher at the Korea Internet & Security Agency, suggests that "at least in the case of tokens or NFTs issued on the same block chain, it is necessary to make the network process and issuance method similar between platforms." This will allow free movement between NFTs.
Another weakness in the way of popularization is the lack of legal mechanisms. Last June, an auction agency tried to make an NFT art work by Lee Jung-seop, Kim Whan-ki, and Park Soo-geun, and then hold an auction, but it was canceled due to opposition from the bereaved family and the foundation. This is because it is difficult to confirm the authenticity of the work made with NFT without permission from the artist.
The digital work <Meta Birkins>, created by a writer named Mason Rothschild with the theme of the French luxury brand Hermes' Birkin bag, was also caught up in controversy. Infringe Hermes trademark rights and copyrights. As such, the debate over the 'copyright' of the original before the issuance of the NFT and the 'ownership' that the NFT purchaser has is still ongoing.
This is a much more serious flaw than you might think. I mentioned that the monopoly scarcity of exclusive ownership is a defining factor in the value of NFTs. Of course, if the original creator makes and uploads his or her own creation as an NFT, it is not a big deal. But what if the game contents of star sports players are made into NFT?
According to a legal official, it is difficult to see the player himself as the copyright holder because it is difficult to see the game as the 'expression of creativity' of the player. In this case, if you make and sell an NFT video of a game without asking the producer for permission, it may be a case of infringing on the right to copy and transmit.
The same is true if the NFT seller directly filmed the game video through intuition, etc.
Since player faces, association logos or club logos may be exposed, there is a possibility of infringing on the 'right of publicity'.
In the end, the key to NFT Flower Road is to prepare systems and norms that can realize technological ideals.
Readers who have read this far with patience have reached the highlight of this <Somehow> news.
In the end, the questions remaining at the end of all these stories will converge into one.
So should I jump into the NFT or shouldn't I?
go or say
Go, stop?
It's a difficult question to answer, so I personally experienced the NFT auction.
After obtaining the company's permission, part of the broadcast video was made into NFT with the condition of donating the entire proceeds.
No matter how much copyright belongs to SBS, the portrait rights of the people in the video are precious.
(An additional description of the work
can be found
here
)
Production takes priority.
After downloading a part of the video that was sleeping in the in-house archive, I asked designer Jinyoung Choi in the same department for design elements in the style of 'pop art'.
The GIF file to be created with NFT is now complete.
We need to approach the NFT sales platform in earnest.
We have joined the most popular NFT auction site 'Opensea.io'. Creating an ID itself is not difficult, but the problem is creating a 'wallet'. A wallet is simply a storage for cryptocurrencies needed to buy and sell NFTs. Purchased NFTs can also be stored in the wallet. We used the most commonly used Ethereum-based 'Metamask' service. Just search for it and download it.
I thought that all the circumstances of the transaction were prepared when this was done, but it is not the end. There is a hidden ambush of the deal. This is what is called the 'gas fee'. You can think of it as the cost of 'verifying' the blockchain for NFT production and transactions. Sellers who sell NFTs for the first time will have to pay a total of three one-time gas bills.
First, the initial cost for each account to be activated. It is the cost of creating a 'user account' in the true sense of the word. The same goes for buyers. Gas prices fluctuate greatly depending on the congestion level of the blockchain network. In recent years, as the price of Ethereum has skyrocketed and the popularity of NFTs has grown, this cost has grown significantly. It cost me 99 dollars to activate my account, which is about 110,000 Korean Won.
The next cost is a 'fee' in a full-fledged sense. This is the cost required to access the item at the time of opening when the sale is made. It is the cost of exhibiting what kind of sales history my work has. It's lower than the cost to activate your account. It cost 11 dollars.
That's 110 dollars just the amount needed to start the transaction. The important thing is that this fee must be paid in Ethereum. To do this, you need to purchase Ethereum from a cryptocurrency exchange or other wallet and withdraw it to your Metamask wallet. Even in this process, a small withdrawal fee is incurred.
Did you have a hard time following it? So did I. Now that I've come this far, I think I'll have to make a good one and sell it. Now you can write your introduction and choose which way to trade. If you choose to auction, you can set the total duration and minimum threshold. 0.0005 Ethereum, at the time of establishment, set the lowest price at the level of $2. The auction period is set for one week. Now any buyer can come to my page and bid above that amount!
On Christmas Eve, when the first NFT was put up for auction, I put off work and started promotional marketing focusing on personal SNS accounts and acquaintances. To the old woman's heart, I'll secretly add a real perk of 'I'll provide a cup of real coffee to NFT buyers if they want'.
“If it is too successful, there may be a copyright dispute within the company.” The manager's concern, who initially approved the idea for the project, melted away within a few days. Several acquaintances who heard the promotion and asked how they could participate in the auction quietly encouraged "hope it goes well" after experiencing the barriers at each stage, such as the English-language opening website, the process of creating a wallet, and the process of purchasing Ethereum. has been conveyed
As of the last week of December, the works ranked at the top in consideration of the lowest price, transaction volume, and other comprehensive statistics at the time of opening are already strong players who have built up a reputation in the NFT market for a long time. The collection that took first place, beating the 'Cryptopunk' collection, which is called the 'eponymous bird' and actually entered the NFT market for the first time in this field, is the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, a spin-off project of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Ape Yacht Club, MAYC). According to CryptoSlam, MAYC’s secondary market transaction volume reached $70 million in the past week, up 500% from the previous week.
In MAYC, like BAYC, individual buyers can choose and buy a character that combines their desired hair style, eye color, and whether or not to wear a hat. In particular, in this collection, you can own the copyrights of NFTs, so you can create clothes and hats using characters, which is an attractive factor.
Even in the NFT market, the condition for so-called success is marketing. American professional basketball player Stephen Curry and famous rapper Post Malone bought BAYC and actively promoted it, and its value soared. Analysts also say that it has succeeded in attracting new wealthy people who want to satisfy their vanity beyond owning luxury items such as luxury goods by giving them real perks such as a yacht party to buyers.
However, for the majority of the public, NFTs are clearly a byproduct of the cryptocurrency economy utilizing blockchain. The key to popularization is to demonstrate the utility of NFT investment to people who are not familiar with this ecosystem. In order not to stop the possibility of NFT only as a new market for giant entertainment companies trapped in content dealing with so-called 'Insa' pop culture stars who are already well-known, it is necessary to introduce more diverse services that utilize the characteristics of NFT and graft it into real life. there is.
In this context, the recent Web 3.0 debate in the IT industry is drawing a lot of attention. In simple terms, Web 3.0 is a concept in which companies such as Google and Facebook and users who create content jointly own a service.
Nowadays, platforms such as YouTube and Instagram are exerting a strong influence on the content market. However, if these platforms are destroyed or attacked, the content uploaded by users may disappear at the same time, and companies are criticized for taking excessive profit in the process of establishing a monopoly system based on the number of users.
On the other hand, in Web 3.0, users' contributions to the evolution and development of the platform are recognized as 'ownership', and blockchain and NFT can be technologies that make this idea come true. There are those who claim that the Web 3.0 idea is an 'illusion' that cannot be realized (Elon Musk), those who think it is the direction of innovation to move forward (Mark Andreessen), and those who argue that it will only make the capitalists hungry (Jack) city), and various opinions are emerging.
A service that realizes Web 3.0 has not yet appeared. However, there are examples in the game industry that give us a vague idea of how this world will be built. It is a P2E (Play to Earn) method that allows you to earn real profits while playing the game. Recognizing that the items you get while playing the game are owned by the user, not the company.
It is a concept that officially transfers ownership of the Lineage Execution Sword mentioned several times above to the user. If that happens, execution swords traded outside may also appear in the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing. If this concept develops, it may be possible to establish a system that recognizes ownership of not only silk items, but also users who have built large and small services such as game stories and worldviews. Of course, there are a lot of homework that must be overcome in the legal system, such as the speculative controversy.
My first NFT, made with great care, was bid for 0.0008 Ethereum, $2.91 as of the 31st, after competing with two interested bidders despite poor marketing. After deducting 2.50% of the fee, the remaining amount is $2.83. However, in the process of selling to the successful bidder, there was another gas fee to create the blockchain network, which cost an additional $90.
The end result is a loss of over $190.
I paid a painful price to enter the NFT market.
Due to the recent sharp rise in Ethereum price and network congestion, the gas cost has risen tremendously.
Registering and transacting NFTs with a chain other than Ethereum has the advantage of significantly reducing gas costs and fees, but has the disadvantage that the number of buyers and transaction volume are extremely small.
As an investor or trendsetter, one thing to keep in mind is that investing in NFTs today still has the properties of 'value investing'.
By considering scarcity, exclusivity, and practicality that can be derived from various angles, a proper market can be formed and the regret of making a choice can be reduced.
As of December 2021, when the world's largest NFT marketplace opens, the number of active users (based on 30 days) is approximately 300,000.
The world's Internet population is 4 billion.
do you want to jump
■ References
<NFT User Manual>, Matt Fortnow·Q Harrison Tarri, Nam Kyung-bo Station, 2021, Yeouido Bookstore
<NFT Technology Understanding and Application, Limitation Analysis>, Min Kyung-shik·Kim Kwan-young·Park Jin-sang, 2021, KISA Insight
Kim Byeong-wook of the Democratic Party of Korea Member's Office Policy Discussion Material <Seeking ways to vitalize the NFT market and protect investors>
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