NFT issues and opportunities dominate the Web3 summit at MIT

On the heels of NFT.NYC’s 15,000 enthusiast, three-day event in Manhattan, a small gathering of top NFT, blockchain and crypto, movers and shakers gathered in Cambridge at MIT’s Media Lab on June 30 for an intense day of panel discussions and networking at Imagination in Action Web3 Summit founded by Link Ventures CEO John Werner. Despite a generally enthusiastic mood, much of the NFT (non-fungible token) discussion revolved around intellectual property and copyright and other issues faced by an industry that is still in its infancy.

Although Reach CEO and Founder Chris Swenor believes that “no one has actually added value to the blockchain yet,” he admitted that NFT’s power lies in the fact that they provide “self-sovereignty with the ability to create your own rules,” a panel on Web3 innovation.

NFTs are often associated with artwork and profile picture collections (nicknamed PFPs). But panels covered a number of applications beyond art – games, entry into the meta-verse and NFT use in the sports sector.

The gaming industry in particular seems particularly ready for NFT adoption, albeit a little reluctantly. Gaming NFTs reached a total of $ 5.17 billion in 2021, according to a report from Nonfungible.com. Interactive and world-building games in Web2 have already created environments where users own and exchange tokens in the game. Combine this with Web 3 and blockchain technology, and we’ve seen the rise of games to earn blockchain-based games.

“You have trained an entire generation to build and train in these virtual worlds. It’s a bit like the training wheels for the meta-verse, “said co-founder of the Animoca brands Yat Siu. Animoca hosts some of the most popular blockchain-based games, including The Sandlot and REVVVV
Motorsport.

In sports, NFTs were discussed as a major tool for fan engagement. Major leagues, both in the United States and globally, have used the technology to build bridges between fans, teams and players. The NBA’s Topshot collection is ranked as the best collectible collection and has a volume worth over $ 951 million, according to DappRadar. The NHL, MLB and NFL have all partnered with various marketplaces to create their own NFT collections, while Formula 1 teams have launched limited edition NFTs with their respective crypto and blockchain sponsors.

“A passionate fan is a profitable fan,” said Todd Cooper, CEO and co-founder of NuArca Labs.

The big question for the panel centered on potential Web3-led team ownership structures. By integrating NFTs with DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations, speakers were careful not to give too much decision-making power to the fans.

Moderator Khalid Jones jokingly pointed to the “cost of cheerfulness” as the main reason for limiting out-of-chain decisions to experts. “I think what we want to see is something more like small ‘d’, small ‘a, big’ o ”,” he added, referring to a team structure that would include partially decentralized ownership.

However, the main panel in NFT focused on the legal aspects of token ownership. Creators and legal researchers discussed the current rights of NFT creators, owners and marketplaces.

“How do we actually encode the IP rights into the token?” asked Primavera de Filippi, NFT artist and legal researcher. At present, intellectual property rights vary from token to token and are not always clearly defined in smart contracts.

The issue of legal ownership of digital assets is now central to the NFT world, as YugaLabs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the largest NFT collection by floor cap (862 828 ETHETH
) is suing critic and self-proclaimed “conceptual artist” Ryder Ripps for trying to devalue the brand. The case alleges that Ryder used original BAYC artwork and marketed the “RR BAYC” NFTs as BAYC products. BAYC has one of the most generous approaches to ownership rights, giving owners unlimited commercialization rights to their Bored Apes, including the rights to create derivative works.

Following YugaLabs’ acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits, other popular NFT collections, Yuga Labs grew to have a market value of $ 8.1 billion in March, according to Dapp Radar.

However, this generous approach to NFT rights is not the norm. Other large NFT collections often adhere to restricting ownership rights to licensing, if any explicitly at all. CryptoKitties and Doodle allow owners to commercialize their NFTs for merchandise, but limit revenue to $ 100,000 per year.

“Neither rights nor no rights are inherently good or bad,” added NFT artist Nacho Gonzalez, reiterating the ambiguity about what rights are transferred during NFT sales as a concern for the industry.