The Disruption Moment 🤯 — NFTs, Crypto and DAOs

Katie Burke and Mark Curtis lead Accenture Interactive’s Global Innovation Network. This network embraces the power of ground-up innovation — supporting those that are playing at the edge of what’s next.

Did you know that the acronym “NFT” is the word of the year according to Collins Dictionary? It has seen an 11000% increase in use in 2021, with “crypto” and “metaverse” as runner-ups. When a technological breakthrough occurs at this speed with this much hype it is normal to feel like you are caught off guard.

We have been saying this since we established our innovation network within Accenture Interactive that we believe our people are already playing in these spaces and we need to learn from them.

This latest newsletter of The Edge spotlights some new faces within Interactive as leading voices on how the world of NFTs, crypto, and blockchain technologies are changing the way the world works with focused thinking on how value for brands and customers emerge. Prakhar, Kirill, Yelena, and James are all part of our series that share how these technologies will likely trigger radical changes.

NFTs are the new atomic unit of how the web will be organized in the future and the use cases are being developed right now. They are the most powerful use case to emerge from blockchain technologies and its impact on content in the future. The creator economy is thriving because it takes us from influencers that have been highly dependent on policies and algorithms from tech platforms to an unfettered, low-friction economy based on NFT, crypto marketplaces, and decentralised finance (DeFi). (Source: Verizon).

But more use cases are emerging. For example, customers can put their NFT assets up as collateral for a loan, or offer loans to other users on their NFTs (known as NFT Finance — “NFTfi”). NFTs are being used for access to events and ticketing that provide perks and exclusive access at the in-person events — all while cutting out the middleman that processes the payments. One surprising use case is how websites can sell NFTs that can give people certain rights to media spots. (Source: Coindesk)

DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) are another thing to watch for brands. These are crypto-communities and they are powerful. They typically organize on Discord. The DAO is an organization created by developers to automate decisions and facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. These “crypto-communities” are set out to accomplish certain goals like developing software, investing, or community-building (often all three). They are purely democratic with no hierarchy and every member has a voice. They can form quite quickly, sometimes a bit like a virtual flash-cryptomob, as demonstrated by the 17K people that pooled money together to try and buy one of the original versions of the U.S. Constitution at Christie’s Auction House.

The coming together of DAOs and NFTs creates a new form of decentralized media and investment available on the internet. This will be one that is owned by NFT creators and operated by DAO token holders. Just like a shareholder of a company owns a part of the company, similarly, a token holder of such a DAO owns a part of the DAO. (Source: Interaxis.io)

This stuff is not easy to wrap your head around. We know…but digital assets being controlled by decentralized communities smells of disruption and new opportunities. This is a space to watch and open your mind.