Can the hot NFT bring a “second spring” to giants with weak growth?
According to Unshared News : Whether the Web3 technology based on the decentralized blockchain is a utopian idea or a Ponzi scheme has always been debated. But a company seems to be able to “refresh” as long as it involves Web3.
This explains why Meta, Twitter, Youtube and other technology giants have recently announced their move to enter NFT. On January 20, Twitter launched Twitter Blue, a premium paid service that allows users to change their profile picture to a proprietary non-fungible token (NFT) — NFT is the crux of Web3.
On the same day, it was reported that Meta is also preparing to introduce NFTs to Facebookand Instagram user profiles. Meta will also develop a tool that will allow users to create their own NFTs on Meta’s platform. As early as last December, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri publicly stated that Instagram was exploring the possibility of introducing NFTs.
On January 25, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said that it is exploring providing NFT functions for video creators. Although no details were disclosed, this marks a sign that GoogleFirst foray into the digital cryptocurrency collectibles market.
Web3 and NFTs are hot in the market, with OpenSea, the biggest player in the NFT market, raising $300 million earlier this month, valuing the company at $13.3 billion. Therefore, it is natural for the Tech  giants in the Web2.0 era to invest in the NFT market one after another.
Giants that support centralization also start to fry the concept of “decentralization”?
The NFT plans of giants such as Meta directly contradict the original intention of NFTs. While they both believe that a few powerful companies should have centralized control of key digital services, the vision of Web3 advocates is the opposite, and they want decentralized digital services. In the past, both Meta and Twitter have made a lot of money by offering centralized digital services.
At present, the field of Web3 and NFT seems to be the wild west of yesteryear, full of scammers and bandits, and lack of supervision. Web3 is now largely associated with online fraud and so on. In recent months, there have also been a large number of copyright disputes in the field of NFT art market. But now, here comes Meta and Twitter, who want to re-centralize Web3 and regulate the space. So, what exactly reminds these tech giants to take the initiative to take on the heavy responsibility of regulation?
Right now, Meta and Twitter are being hit hard by regulators and caught in a polarized political wrangling over whether they are at all responsible for online violence and the spread of extremist ideas? So at this point in time, it seems a little ill-advised for these big companies to step into the Web3 space in a high-profile way to give their critics an excuse.
Twitter’s hexagonal NFT avatarTwitter’s hexagonal NFT avatar
In the virtual world, copyright issues are real
PJ Cooper, founder of the currency circle company Pandimensional Trading, said: “Although NFTs are very popular, there is a serious lack of trust in the circle, mainly because of the anonymity mechanism of key artists and influencers, as well as too many scammers in the circle, they bring Many damaging consequences.” It is reported that Pandimensional Trading will launch its own NFT collectible later this year. Despite his reservations about NFTs, Cooper supports Twitter’s entry into the NFT space. He said that when Twitter rolls out NFTs in the UK, he will choose an NFT as a profile avatar.
But Cooper is also worried that people with intentions can right-click to save his NFT avatar and make it their own NFT version. In response to this issue, OpenSea spokesperson Allie Mack (Allie Mack) said that Twitter’s personal NFT avatar will be verified through the company’s website. In fact, Twitter uses the API, metadata and information provided by OpenSea to verify the authenticity of the user’s NFT avatar, and embeds the verified avatar in a “soft hexagon”. But in a closed beta, as Twitter launched its NFT feature, OpenSea’s verification platform crashed, so it had to temporarily interrupt service to Twitter. OpenSea said the closed beta failure “has no impact on Twitter’s NFT integration efforts” and that there has not been a similar outage since Twitter publicly released NFT functionality.
Some experts believe that it is not a wise decision for big technology companies to rely on third-party companies to provide NFT services, because OpenSea is not too reliable, and technology giants need to solve this problem before fully introducing NFT.
OpenSea’s platform is itself controversial. Some artists have pointed out that the platform is flooded with pirated images of NFTs of their work, which many unsuspecting social media users have paid for these pirated NFTs. Piracy is rampant, and art hosting site DeviantArt has even developed a blockchain scan tool designed to check if the artwork it manages has been misappropriated and notify creators of the scan. The OpenSea platform also provides a process through which artists can request to take down pirated NFT works, but even so, the problem of piracy is still repeated. A recent survey found that some of the world’s largest brands (including Microsoft, Disney, Amazonand adidasetc.) have been misappropriated.
Piracy is tricky, but giants have bigger problems
In the NFT world, piracy can be a long-term, less easily solved problem. But for big tech companies like Meta and Twitter, more important than piracy is regulatory power and the ability to sell in the secondary market. Currently, neither company has NFT regulatory authority, but they should assume regulatory responsibility.
NFT veterans welcome Twitter’s adoption of a set of official NFT certification standards. Many Twitter users found it difficult to prove ownership of an NFT artwork avatar after they had an avatar because someone specifically liked to right-click to save their avatar and steal it. If Twitter can provide official certification of ownership of NFT avatars, it would be great for digital property protection.
Some people think that Twitter and Meta’s entry into the NFT field is well understood. This is the staking action of large companies. For Meta, it will thus have a key technology that could be involved in the construction of the company’s metaverse. For Twitter, it’s a way of building an industry reputation around a forward-looking technology. But some experts say that when the technology giant’s NFT plan is actually implemented, it may face potential risks such as commercial disputes.
The involvement of big tech companies could be a big plus for NFT advocates, but in the long run, it could also be the death knell for NFTs’ demise. One of the features of NFTs is that people can exchange NFTs anywhere, but if a company is involved, will it change the taste?
Tech giants have assumed that social media users generally want to buy, sell, and display NFTs, but this assumption is not supported by evidence. So far, the NFT market has generally been considered incomprehensible, niche, and proprietary. Once large social media launches NFT functions, the public will be brought into this market for the first time, and the public’s reaction is unknown.
In short, it is not enough to be too optimistic about the future of NFTs. Some experts say that there are many unrealistic fantasies related to NFTs, but no one can see the prospects of NFTs clearly. It is difficult to say whether everyone has the same views on NFTs. Tech giants have entered NFTs largely because of “chasing hot spots”, but when social media giants control this trend, they may just use NFTs as a tool to attract new people and retain them.
