Home World “In the NFT world the biggest barrier is access”

“In the NFT world the biggest barrier is access”

“In the NFT world the biggest barrier is access”

The NFTs sector, or what is the same Non-Fungible Tokens, for its acronym in English, is booming. Celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Shakira or even large companies such as the American AMC Networks, owner of the BBC, have joined the fever of this new technology, but do we really know what NFTs are? What are they for? How are they used?

Its prominence is such that the Collins dictionary named it word of the year in 2021. Although so far it is in the world of art where it has acquired the most presence – according to the report Art Trade Report 2021prepared by Hiscox, to date the works of art have reached 3,025 million euros in sales and, currently, 14% of online art platforms already offer NFTs on their websites –, it is beginning to have relevance in other sectors such as fashion, the video game industry, the real estate sector or the world of marketing and finance.

What exactly is an NFT

“Throughout history, human beings have tended to own things and brag about them, from clothes to a house. To understand us, an NFT is a certificate of ownership of any digital asset, that is, you can acquire any good in the digital world and what the NFT certifies is that this good is yours“, Explain Mario Fueyo, co-founder and CTO of NFTespaña.

“The other day, talking to my father, I gave him a very simple example so that he could understand what we do and I think it can help everyone. When you buy a house, people obviously know it’s yours, but how do you legally justify it? By writing. That would be the NFT.” Fueyo adds.

Javier Molina, economist and producer of the BlockchainRadio program also comment, “At the moment we are talking about 2D NFTs, but with the Metaverse we are going to talk about 3D NFTs because we are going to be able to move and interoperate with different virtual spaces.” On the other hand, it ensures that “The next great revolution of NFTs beyond art is going to be in the world of tickets. We will see how when you go to a soccer game, or a music concert or the theater, that ticket will be an NFT. And the same will happen when you buy a second-hand product, for example, a smartphone or a bag from a luxury brand, the NFT will serve as a certificate of authenticity.

Current situation of NFTs

According to Google Trends, search volumes around this technology increased significantly throughout 2021, peaking between January 16 and 24, 2022. Since then, it appears that interest has been waning and, as we can extract from NFT Market Quarterly Report Q1 2022, prepared by NonFungiblethere are several reasons that explain this downward trend:

  • Media saturation around the issue and speculation decline after the losses recorded by many buyers of NFTs.
  • The start of the Ukraine conflict has grabbed quite a few more headlines than this new class of digital assets.

We can see the evolution of searches in the following graph:

Source: Google Trends

One of the main problems that has affected the NFT market is that it continues to be an environment that is still unknown to most. In this sense, experts such as the economist Javier Molina are very blunt and give key advice to anyone who intends to enter this world: “Do not invest in what is not understood”.

It is precisely this need to make NFTs accessible to all audiences that led to Mario Fueyo, Martin Agudo and Gonzalo Ladreda to found NFTespaña, the first Spanish-speaking company that allows you to buy NFTs without using cryptocurrencies. In this way, the purchase of the most fashionable digital good may be available to everyone, regardless of their economic or technological knowledge. The objective of the company, of Asturian origin, is to translate the language of blockchain into a known language, facilitating the understanding of this new world.

NFTs for all audiences

NFTespaña is the first Spanish company that will allow you to execute the transaction with a credit or debit card. One of the main handicaps that existed when buying an NFT was the form of payment. The cryptocurrency used to be the most used system when buying NFTs, but the company has reinvented this model and now it is also possible to do it through euros.

“The idea came up precisely on a trip to Madrid. I had already been in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for a couple of years and Martín told me that there was a very empty niche within the world of NFT marketplaces in Spain. There was no one who would be in charge of making visible the usefulness of transforming the sale of NFTs. I did some research and he was indeed right, so we started working on developing the idea in January of this year. Today we are 16 people in the team”.

When asked what the main difficulties they see are, they answer “In the NFT world the biggest barrier is access. In order for you to have NFTs you must buy in cryptocurrencies and this is a problem for the majority of the population, especially for people over 40-45 years of age. For this reason, we offer the possibility of buying in euros that can later be associated with NFTs. In this way, everyone wins: the buyer, who can acquire a good; the company that reduces transaction costs; and we also gained in security, because this technology is one of the safest on the market”.

NFTespaña will have collections of NFTs from verified artists, including NFTs on art, sports, events, fashion, gamers, gastronomy or music. The first collection, already available on its website, comes from the hand of María Emegé, better known for her watercolors for the NBA or illustrations for different video games, although the organization does not rule out expanding to other sectors such as the hotel or the events. In addition, another of its features is that it allows users and creators to connect through specific content.

Will any artist be able to break into this market? Will all brands enter the NFT industry? Will NFT communities become the center of the cryptocurrency ecosystem? Will we see trading tickets in NFTs format? We don’t have the answers yet, but we do know that non-fungible token transaction volume hit a new record in January up to 6,860 million dollars. Their future remains uncertain, but companies are increasingly looking towards NFTs with greater enthusiasm and, without a doubt, they will have a fundamental role in this 2022.

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