The digital flex. Are virtual biceps ever going to be cool again?
The trembling
Can you feel that? It’s the sound of a trembling. A volatile beast is awakening after a bearish two years. Q4 has arrived and the United States has hit its old, senile head on the debt ceiling, paying 5.5% on 33 trillion dollars. Gold has hit a tremendous low, building up a foundation for a rebound. Bitcoin is eyeing a glorious pump into the inevitable quantitative easing.
Portfolio managers are leaving the beach to go back to work, but they’re waiting for the traffic jam to die down. Codec avatar Lex Fridman is talking with codec avatar Mark Zuckerberg Metaverse-style about blending physical and digital realities. A US congressman absolutely slams ol’ Gary for destroying digital asset innovation to desperately protect his own job as a bankman middleguy dude.
Overall, a beautiful series of happenings for a bull market. A bull market straight into a digitalized, decentralized economy. An economy that is going to need art, music, and collectibles.
Rose petals
Flexing wealth has been a topic of human civilization since its origin. Let us explore one that is on my list of personal favorites. The rose petal in Roman times. Associated with luxury and opulence, this aromatic flower leaf was used by elite Romans to cover their beds in anticipation of successful dates, to cover their tablecloths for impressive dinners, and to create perfumes meant to spread an odor of abundant cash.
During his reign from 54–68 AD, Nero created the Domus Area, or the Golden House. This magnificent building included a ceiling resembling Heaven, getting churned around by slaves to give it a moving effect. This effect would make it possible for these rose pedals to make their way through the cracks and descend on the guests below. An effect unknown to its time, signified Nero’s obsession to be considered of artist-like status.
In the bull market of 2021 and the first half of 2022, NFTs gave you this exact opportunity. Flexing the amount of wealth you had built up through the Covid years of quantitative easing. Many participants took this opportunity with both hands, skyrocketing the price of NFT projects that had but a simple goal: create artificial scarcity with verifiable profile pictures for people with an interest in art- and internet culture.
During the second half of 2022 and all of current 2023, despite vast amounts of digital collectors remaining belligerent, the prices of the most notable collections dropped 90–95%. Doodles from 23 ETH to 1.2 ETH. Moonbirds from 32 ETH to 1.4 ETH. Bored Apes, advertised by Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon, Eminem, Tom Brady, and Madonna went from over a 100 ETH, to a current 27 ETH. Important reminder, during the skyrocketing, one Ethereum went for $3k, while it is currently shy of $1.6k.
Plenty of hurt throughout the bear market, as early participants gained wealth over the backs of the ones holding the digital bag. NFT lost their cool edge. Instead of it being an online flex, its only use case currently, is a similarity to being overweight in a roast battle.
Path to redemption
2024 lies just around the corner. The market’s been tough on NFTs. The world does know what they are but largely have a negative connotation. But hype cycles that do not die down, end up working in cyclical motions, and turn into trends. The obnoxious hype cycle we’ve had could be the first stepping stone for a digital economy where NFTs do find their place.
As soon as tech-savvy brands realize that the real innovation is not in exploiting fans by selling them overprized JPEGS, they’ll find a way to twin merchandise to persistent digital property. Not a digital flex. Not a physical flex. But a flex in a blended reality. Extended ideas of this are music and charity.
If there’s a song on the radio playing, you could casually drop that you own a token representing a couple seconds of the song, including the revenue you just received from the radio playing it.
A, God forbid, natural disaster in the world? You’ll be able to show your selflessness in the form of a token as proof of donation. The extra benefit? Money you’ve sent is traceable on the blockchain.
Conclusion
After Nero’s suicide, the Domus Area became an embarrassment. Emperor Vespasian demolished huge parts, replacing them with the Baths of Titus, the Baths of Trajan, and the Flavian Amphitheatre.
Similar to the slap non-fungible tokens have seen in a single year, so was the Golden House destroyed within forty. These brute attempts by the successors of Nero ironically turned out to save a vast majority of his paintings. The buildings built on top ended up being a protective foundation for dampness throughout the years.
May non-fungible tokens currently be buried under more effective ways to create and preserve wealth, there is an argument to be made that, conserved in the deep-down dungeons of Opensea and Blur, they may once rise from the ashes and turn into a 1/1 pixeled phoenix, that’ll probably also get sold for millions.
Thanks for reading,
Bod
