The NFT world is gradually closing the gap between the niche and the mainstream

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It’s no secret Irreplaceable tokens (NFT) is still a niche subject. Despite their rapid popularity in 2021, a large number of people still don’t know what NFT is. Looking back at the figure below, it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done for NFT to truly become mainstream.

However, in recent months it has become clear that this situation is likely to happen, and there are many signs that I will discuss these signs in this article.

celebrity

Celebrities have always been key supporters of the rise of NFT. Initially, the NFT space began with artists, creators and traders, who laid the foundation for today’s NFT space. Since then, famous people have also entered the field, whether by creating their own projects or simply collecting. The influx of celebrities in recent months is very valuable for expanding the scope of NFT’s influence, but in the NFT space, everyone starts from the beginning, and value is not generated from influence. For many celebrities who create NFT collections without considering long-term nature, their NFTs fail to maintain value, thus reinforcing this point.

There is a difference between celebrities who provide value and celebrities who seek to profit from the field. Take Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon, Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Stephen Curry, Lil Baby, Timbaland and DJ Khaled as examples. They are all celebrities, they bought the collection and displayed it as a profile picture.

These celebrities are undoubtedly the main catalyst for the growth of the NFT space. With the number of celebrities in the space snowball, there is no doubt that their influence will help consolidate the encryption culture into the mainstream. But, most importantly, they joined us-they did not change the dynamics or set the rules. The NFT space is a collaborative effort, and we are creating value together.

related: Celebrities are embracing NFT

Adidas

Perhaps the most important mainstream bridge to date Always a partner of Adidas Cooperation with Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney and PUNKS Comics. Adidas has launched a new Twitter account, Adidas Originals, to discuss their plans with these new partners, a move that excited the NFT world.

In this field, they announced some important things-first, they plan to enter Metaverse, a digital world that allows users to interact with each other in the future. To illustrate their ideas, they released a trailer depicting the performance of Adidas’ Boring Ape and its new partner seamlessly crossing the sky and entering the Metaverse.

related: Buy it: Nike wants to bring sneakers to Metaverse

The Adidas Originals account also changed their profile picture to the newly purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #8774, which is a very special blue ape, they named Indigo Herz, wearing heart-shaped glasses and fisherman hat, will become their brand Image in Metaverse.

Why is this so groundbreaking?

So far, the NFT space has always been composed of individuals. Whether it is an ordinary trader, creator or celebrity, it is the individual who drives the space forward. Now enter Adidas, which is a traditional mainstream brand with 4 million followers on Twitter and 26 million followers on Instagram. The existence of this brand has the ability to bring more eyes to this space than all individuals combined, thereby significantly stimulating the growth of NFT.

related: NFT as a micro social network: the way to adopt cryptocurrency

In order to further realize this vision, Adidas also cooperating Cooperate with the leading cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase. In addition, it also collaborates with The Sandbox, one of the most popular metaverse games. In a tweet, Adidas showed its own sandbox map, which is a piece of digital land, formally consolidating its position in this virtual world.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is the next big company to follow the Web3 route this week. Announcing Ubisoft Quartz Will be available on the Tezos blockchain. The premise of the platform is that users will be able to use cryptocurrency to buy and sell in-game items called “digital”. This is important because it will grant the player ownership of the items in the game, and in regular games, these items can only be used in the game’s own ecosystem and rely on the game’s own ecosystem, not the blockchain. The latter allows ownership to be completely independent of the game world.

Why is this so important?

Ubisoft ranks among the 25 largest gaming companies with more than US$5.8 billion in capital. If this is only the first step into NFT, then it will certainly be able to do more complex things in the future. Compared with Adidas and other big brands deep in this field, they have succeeded in drawing people more attention to the prospect of NFT as a technology that is taken seriously.

Although Ubisoft’s entry marks a big step towards bringing NFT into the mainstream, their announcement has not been criticized. In fact, their YouTube videos received more than 20,000 dislikes within the first hour, and the company encountered strong opposition on its social media, forcing it to take the videos off the shelves.

When defining the scope of comments, it is clear that hatred stems from multiple sources, among which users:

  • No matter what NFT is, I don’t like this company.
  • Don’t like payment; for many people, the cost may be unaffordable.
  • Don’t like the energy consumption required by NFT.
  • Generally do not like NFT.

This reflection certainly reiterated the fact that NFTs require a lot of work to be accepted and adopted by a wider mainstream audience. But it’s not just individuals-some leading gaming platforms, such as Steam, have completely banned the sale of blockchain games in their stores. Whether Ubisoft will continue its plan remains to be seen. However, its original belief also highlights the fact that NFTs are growing rapidly, especially when a $1 billion company is considering adopting them!

But why are NFTs so controversial, and how does this prevent them from being more widely adopted?

What is preventing NFTs from entering the mainstream, and what improvements can be made?

Stigma and lack of trust are the two most fundamental reasons why NFTs are prevented from entering the mainstream. To some extent, some stigma are effective when considering those who have become victims of carpet pulling.In addition, many people are easily threatened scam And more and more hackers. You may also have heard of “NFT is a scam”, “NFT is used for money laundering” and “NFT is a pyramid scheme.” But this does not represent the entire picture.

Indeed, there are bad players engaged in this kind of behavior in this field, just as there are liars in real life. But this does not take the entire space into consideration. In addition, you can use a hardware wallet (also called a cold wallet) to completely protect your NFT. It is stored on the blockchain and only you have the private key to access it.

In order to further prevent fraud, it is undoubtedly necessary to introduce better communication modes and safer platforms for NFT users to ensure the safety of those who use them. Although carpet pulls are a problem, they do not occur in the entire space. There are still serious and legitimate NFT projects that can be trusted. Instead of forcibly labeling NFTs with broader labels such as “scams”, you also need to have a deeper understanding of the team behind them, and more research is needed before investing.

related: Non-fungible tokens: how to start using NFT

Another obstacle to mainstream adoption is that if you are new to the field, if you don’t know where to start, setting up a Coinbase account and MetaMask wallet can be very confusing. Each step involves costs, transfers and difficulties, which make it a serious barrier to entry. For ordinary people, this even prevents them from considering entering the space. Therefore, if NFT wants to attract the mainstream, there must be a simpler entry process.

Need support. You cannot be expected to create a wallet, start trading, and transfer money yourself, unless of course you are very invested. This is a daunting task for anyone, so we need guidelines, helping hands, and ways to support people throughout the process.The complexity of entry is a serious barrier to entry, although The guide is very helpful, Need more comprehensive things to make each participant’s life easier. Before this, it is difficult to say when NFT will be adopted by the mainstream.

move forward

NFT has a long way to go before it is adopted by the mainstream. However, as this article outlines, there are already many important signs that they will do so in the future. Whether it is a celebrity, a big brand or a company, there will be more eyes on this space. As time goes by and consumers realize this, thinking may change. However, before that, a lot of work needs to be done in education and accessibility.

related: Decentralization and Centralization: Where is the future?Expert answers

Supervision and decentralization obviously have their pros and cons. The centralized platform allows for framework and security. On the contrary, decentralization provides innovation and free governance. But the downside is that regulations will prevent ownership and free governance, and decentralization will breed crooks and malicious actors.

What we do know is that NFT is a new technology that is still in the experimental stage. But we have seen the appeal of mainstream companies and brands. The adoption of NFT is inevitable, whether it is slow or fast.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading action involves risks, and readers should research on their own when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are only those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Insight Is an NFT writer and community manager for a project called The Boring Ape Chronicles. In addition to his passion for Web3, he is also an avid football fan.