Throw Bored Apes in the trash
It’s time to move on from Bored Ape Yacht Club. It is bad for non-fungible tokens (NFT). It gives critics ammunition and distracts from the technology, which is where the real value lies.
To those on the outside looking in, NFTs are nothing more than overpriced monkey JPEGs – or whatever choice of animated animal profile picture is in the firing line.
Of course, NFTs are much more than that.
But because of Bored Apes, and the countless imitations they’ve spawned, NFTs get a bad rep. “Bubble”, “money laundering” and “fraud” are all terms associated by critics with the new “Beanie Babies craze”.
It’s a pejorative distraction.
Related: Bored Ape Yacht Club Is A Big Mainstream Hit, But Is Wall Street Ready For NFTs?
Yes, Bored Apes are still priced at more than $100,000 (a fifth of what they were worth at the market’s peak). But they are linked to the tumult of cryptocurrency volatility and market sentiment, which has coincided with the falling crypto market.
You also have Ape-backed borrowers on the brink of liquidation and 143 Apes already stolen, including Seth Green’s Bored Ape, which he was forced to pay to get back. And of course, there are also the fans who slammed Eminem and Snoop Dogg when they performed as their Apes at the last MTA Video Music Awards.
Bored Apes is the face of the NFT hype cycle. They may be the closest thing to the aforementioned Beanie Babies in the NFT space due to their status. But it is a categorical mistake to paint an entire industry with the same brush: The hype is not the technology.
If you look beyond what’s on the market, you’ll find unique ideas with real value.
Here’s one: carries medical data. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have suggested that NFT ownership powered by smart contracts could give citizens control over who gets access to their personal health records. Citizens already give up their information to medical applications, but smart contracts could allow them to sell their data as NFTs if they choose.
Hospitals and private institutions routinely sell patient data via so-called data brokers to companies such as Pfizer — it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. This may seem harmless, but you never agreed to it. Maybe you wouldn’t if you knew how much your data was worth.
Related: A cure for copyright problems? NFTs promise to strengthen creative economies
Selling or securing your data as an NFT can become a real option, as long as the right hack prevention measures are in place. Adding encryption to NFTs can keep their content private while allowing it to remain in public storage.
Another service NFTs can perform: streamlining royalty payments. Artist resale rights have not been codified in US law, only suggested. The EIP-2981 royalty standard made this a code choice on Ethereum, leading the way for Polygon and other chains.
With improved security and the versatility of NFTs, private documents can be sent into users’ wallets. These can be legal documents served by law firms or deeds to properties. Hypothetically, we could see a labor contract on the blockchain, interfacing with decentralized financial payment protocols to provide wages based on tasks performed.
Despite the endless cries of “wen utility” that have echoed through the NFT community, the utility was always there: A token on the blockchain is verified, promising interoperability via a self-enforcing hardcoded agreement. It is the gateway to digital and physical property and gaming experiences in the chain or whatever content your digital identity unlocks.
Related: Get ready for the feds to start prosecuting NFT traders
It is still growing. On the trading platform NFTGo, 10 times more Ethereum wallets have an NFT compared to August 2020. Doodles just raised $54 million to strengthen the intellectual property. Creators are building, and many talented underground artists are creating more now than ever before.
NFT art has turned the traditional art industry on its head – not just because of the headline-grabbing numbers, but also the promise of provenance. Although profile pictures stole the show, technology came first and will thrive without its Bored Ape colleagues.
It may also be better to leave the term “NFTs” in the past as a genre defined only by a limited boom-and-bust cycle and to move forward with “digital collectible”, a term that some have begun to use.
Some sort of split is inevitable – and healthy – to free builders from the burden of overinflated expectations, market collapse and celebrity money.
If you still don’t see the value, you may still have Bored Ape glasses. Take them off. There is a whole range of use cases for NFT technology on the rise.
OC Ripley is the lead content creator for Curio DAO, an NFT community on the Ethereum blockchain. He is also the editor-in-chief of Tech & Authors and has been active in blockchain since 2017.
The author, who disclosed his identity to Cointelegraph, used a pseudonym for this article. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
