But Can I Invest in NF-Trees?
Exploring Our Role in the NFT Narrative
Woowee! Look at humanity reinventing the economy!
Checking the news, Bitcoin hype soars as it gains 7%, value tops $40,000, mining is more difficult since China’s crackdown, and Amazon is still not accepting it. Crypto-enthusiast Paris Hilton is oh so excited about it, with laser eye focus on getting that price up to $100,000 per BTC (unit of Bitcoin).
When it comes to world of financial speculation on an ecologically, economically, politically and monitarily unstable planet, insecurity reigns. Add new technology to mixed bag of insecurity and economic trauma, layer in obscene amounts of money that seek new ways to grow, and what emerges are NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. NFTs convert cash into cryptographically unique data points forever linked to the purchaser. The data point, or NFT, has value by communicating two pieces of information: 1.) an amount of money, and 2.) an entity, usually a person, who formally owned that amount of money now owns the data point, or NFT. The technology is being successfully tested as a promising hoarding tool, attracting $2.5 billion dollars in investments in the first half of 2021 alone.
The next most important ingredient of an NFT is the narrative. The value of storytelling and emotional persuasion have always been the crux of human surviving or thriving. Generating interest and hype in creating iconic stories that connect to these data points is the only way to attract interest from others, with the hope that enough people will literally buy in to the hype, and affirm the NFT’s value later on by repurchasing it for more money, trading it for something else of perceived equal value, or leveraging it, like a home equity mortgage, for a liquidity loan.
Take a gallery walk! The digital images below are free to copy, share, blow up, screen print on underpants and sell. Unless you can outbid the current owner, what you do not have access to is a unique cryptographic data point that links the image with the owner and record of the amount of money relinquished. You can get as creative as you like with this image, but what you do not have the legal right to do is brag about how much you spent on it.
We can also get creative about what other stories we could bake into an NFT contract. With a quadrillion dollars tied up in the toxic cloud of the financial derivatives market, earning interest on being nothing more than a non-blockchain based data point, NFTs are comparatively benign. Could they in fact, be a possible tool for Economic Drawdown?
What harm is there really in a silly stock of NFT-backed digital art? Have we found an answer to future economic security and the pro-generation of art that appeals to a popular, albeit pessimistic, aesthetic? Or, as we follow the story, seek out the origins, get to know the characters, the archetypes, the metaphors, the intertwined relationships, and foreshadowing, how do we relate to it? What is our role in the story? What role does Economic Trauma play? What is the broader narrative that we are co-creating that goes beyond hype, beyond fear, toward a greater purpose? How can we weave in the intelligent voice of nature into story? Can we regenerate the planet with an NF-Tree?
To re-cap, some people have a lot of money right now and are desperate to find ways to store and grow the excess fat. The solutions that are currently being hyped-up are purposefully edgy, ironic, and grotesque. A short gallary walk through the hall of speculative mirrors reflects the collective consciousness born of a pathogenic economy.
Let’s invite all voices to dream a new narrative together.
For now, art, and ideas are meant to be shared and enjoyed together. Tour the online NFT galleries with your friends and family. Notice what feelings and questions arise for you. Feel free to make note of your observations in the comments below.
