Watching the trends while designing an NFT market, the thought that keeps coming up is this:
Rather than 'NFT = uniqueness, a single work of art',
the thought is it should be 'a specific (core service value) role + additional value (uniqueness, a single work of art)'.
For instance, like a postage stamp.
A stamp has the universal value of being "proof of postage payment." And, similar to an NFT, it also has its own unique value (scarcity, artistry). So even as fewer people send letters and its function as a "token of proof" declines, its inherent value still persists.
The role of a platform
As everyone well knows, platforms play many roles. But among those many roles, the top priority will not be merchandise sourcing / MD...
Personally, rather than directly engaging with the value of the product itself (scarcity, artistic), a platform should be able to propose alternatives for practical and universal killer services. At least if you are not a designer, and if the two-sided market (platform) is the business model.
The current NFT and Web3 market perhaps has a lot in common with the early days of Web 2.0. The shock early web markets delivered, the infinite possibilities of online. But most turned out to be bubbles and shut down. I think the cause was less a tech issue and more the ambiguity of purpose and role.
Knowing a category's value and launching a boat in that market is different from sailing that market, and sailing alone is different from bringing many people aboard. Just as only a few companies survived by not being buried under the new possibilities and functional characteristics of the "online shopping and payment" category but instead thinking about content (service) — what kind of shopping experience to deliver, to which consumers, in which environment.
Online goods tend to be services in most cases. A service needs a purpose or a target.
A new paradigm?
1- Pandemic, money. In the end, it did take off.
2- Coupang, solve it with money. In the end, it did work.
But in the end
1- Deflation.
2- A bad precedent. Same old, same old. Groups getting only firmer. And lazier.
