Thread by @punk6529

1/ On Institutions & Corporations in NFTs

The short answer is that "yes, in fact we want them to come, so long as it is on decentralized blockchains"

I know this is going to disconcert some of you, but bear with me for the thought process.

2/ Let's start by going to the future.

In 10 years, we will have digital objects all around us - in augmented reality, in virtual reality and on 3D (and 2D) websites.

It would make a lot of sense for those objections to be persistent and cross-application.

3/ In other words, it would make a lot of sense to be able to take your, say, Fidenza or Toadz from one application to another:
- galleries
- metaverses
- social networks
- marketplaces
- valuation sites

and so on

4/ In other words, you need persistent, cross-application ownership of digital objects

The good case for innovation and freedom is that this ownership is on a public blockchain

The bad case is a FB/BigTech database with applications getting API access

There is no 3rd case.

5/ In that world, ten years from now, when everyone has *hundreds or thousands or more* persistent digital objects, NFTs will NOT be limited to cryptoart or gen art or PFPs.

NFTs will represent the whole gamut of human existence in some way or another

6/ There will be NFTs issued by schools, by universities, by sports teams, by religious organizations, by communities, by interest groups, by clothing brands, by consumer product companies, by groups of friends, by games, by endless artists, BY EVERYONE

7/ Remember what we said, checks notes, 3 tweets ago.

Ownership of these NFTs can be managed either by:

a) A decentralized blockchain or
b) Facebook/BigTech database

There is no third choice.

Which one of the two is better? a)

So where do we want them issued? a)

8/ There might be some thoughts in the back of your minds of "but I hope that Adidas or Proctor & Gamble or Google or The State of Illinois do not issue persistent digital objects"

I can save you some brain cycles.

It is 100% inevitable that everyone is going to do it.

9/ I have had no doubt from Day 1 that everyone was going to want to have a metaverse with persistent digital objects.

In the 6 months I have been here, it has gone from an occasional mention, to being discussed all day along, across the whole of society.

10/ The metaverse is coming, the metaverse is real, the metaverse is going to reflect the whole of society and the whole of society includes, well, many big organizations.

They are going to create digital objects. Do we want them here or on Facebook? Is this even a question?

11/ "But 6529, I support independent artists, not Adidas"

OK, sure. I also support independent artists. I have spent more than almost anyone in the world on independent NFT artists.

But I also have a pair of Adidas in the closet. So what? I still need shoes.

12/ The vast majority of consumer spending, including of almost everyone reading this, except the very rich, is *not* going to be on art, but on life essentials - clothing, housing, education, entertainment, etc - most of which will come with digital objects soon

13/ The vast majority of the people reading this thread spend lots of money on brands offchain - you fly on Delta, you own a Toyota, you have Nike shoes, you party at the Cosmopolitan, you buy a Samsung TV, you eat Krispy Kreme donuts.

It is fine.

14/ 6529 is absolutely positively not going to shame you in how you spend your money.

Effectively, everyone enjoys goods and services from corporations.

I made a pork roast and roasted veggies tonight (home-cooked, delicious); I also just nibbled some very corporate Cheetos.

15/ "But 6529, this corporate drop was boring, lame, no diverse set of outputs, I prefer independent artists"

Well there is a super easy solution if you believe this, which is do not press the buttons on your Trezor, and do not buy the drop, and head over to @withFND instead.

16/ "But 6529, I did not buy this drop, but other people did and that money should have gone to my preferred artists"

This is weird. I did not spend the last 8 years on decentralized systems in order to force people to spend their money on things they don't want to buy.

17/ I believe in freedom and I believe in permissionless systems.

Permissionless systems means people are allowed to buy what they want, even if it is not sufficiently tasteful for our, umm, refined* tastes

* Says the guy who just stole some Cheetos from the pantry

18/ I kindly remind you that a lot of the "enemies" (or "future frens") of NFTs say the same thing about us.

People should buy genuine independent artists, not this "not real art", "buying to flip", "ponzi scheme" NFT stuff that is "not really about art"

19/ Look, let's be completely practical.

Some day, Chipotle is going to issue your "buy 9 burritos, get 1 free" coupon as an NFT and you are going to want it because "free burritos"

Better that it is on your crypto wallet and you don't have to open a Meta account for it.

20/ For me for corporations and organizations minting NFTs, the answer is crystal clear. We want them on blockchains, I am 100% sure of this.

Does this mean they are above reproach? No, feel free to criticize (or love) the drop on its merits, like we do with each other.

21/ Is the contract published? Is the data decentralized? Are the terms and conditions community friendly? Is the art any good? Does it reflect somehow our values?

All of these are fair game, just like any regular NFT drop.

The only sure thing is just "better on a blockchain"

22/ There is a special case for platforms.

Theoretically, it is good if Web2 companies integrate NFTs.

It all depends on the details. If it is integrated with non-custodial wallets, then I will support even FB to do so.

But there might be tricks, we have to see.

23/ But what about "SEIZE THE MEMES OF PRODUCTION?"

Yes, we should seize them. We win however by being appealing, not by whining. Nobody likes whining. Nobody likes being shamed. People like going where they have fun and good times.

24/ @Vince_Van_Dough is off doing performance art against the RTFKT terms and conditions, "seizing the memes of production" in his own words, helping reinforce some community values but, guess what, it is fun and amusing.

And he is not saying RTFKT should go off-chain.

25/ @punk4156 and @supergremplin are doing vastly interesting experiments with Toadz and Nouns.

They are seizing all types of things over there.

And I am pretty sure that when Chipotle drops a Burrito NFT it is not going to stop them

26/ What is great about open protocols and decentralized systems is that everyone gets to use the same platform, has the same access to the same services and same applications as everyone else.

I think this is still somehow underappreciated

27/ I would much rather compete against any BigCo on an Ethereum layer where neither I nor they have any platform/rails advantage.

The alternative offchain is that BigCo is advantaged, not me, because they can call and make a biz dev deal with a media company or tech platform.

28/ And here on our turf, we have other advantages.

We live and breathe it, we understand the space natively, we have gone through learning curves.

They will learn too however. They will adopt the easy things. So we have to keep moving, keep getting better.

29/ And think about what really happens? We get better, they get better, more people come in, more orgs come in, we get better, they get better.

What is happening in the background? We are onboarding society to decentralized digital rails.

30/ I have one and only one mission. I think our digital society should run on decentralized rails.

I think it is as important as, say, making humans multi-planetary.

A fully digitized, fully machine learning, centralized society risks being an Orwellian nightmare

31/ I care secondarily about many other things, but the main mission is the main mission.

We have a once in a generation chance to pull society back in a better direction, a safer direction.

In this context, a big 'competition' for attention is great!

32/ It is super interesting and super fun for big, probably more boring, corporations to compete with independent, hopefully more interesting, artists and teams for attention.

So long as every victory for either side, moves another 1, 10, 1,000 people to decentralized rails.

33/ NFTs are a Trojan horse of fun to get people comfortable being digital sovereign, as opposed to being digital serfs on someone else's property.

This is my goal. Everyone is welcome to the decentralized party.

34/ Also, let's not forget that Ethereum is permissionless.

Permissionless is not just for "edgy artists"

McDonald's can also use Ethereum permissionslessly.

So no need for "get off my lawn"; better to say "welcome and let's have a dance-off"

35/ If you just came here from this thread, there are many more about the open metaverse here:

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1429399888786333697

And a game plan, here:

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1445468399656595456