The NFT world is gradually closing the gap between niche and mainstream

Whether it’s celebrities, big brands, or corporations, the NFT space is going to have more eyes, which is leading to its mass adoption.

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It’s no secret that unusable tokens are still a niche topic. Despite its soaring popularity in 2021, there is still a significant percentage of people who don’t know what an NFT is. As reflected in the graphic below, it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done to make NFT truly mainstream.

However, over the past few months it has become clear that this is likely to happen, and there have been many tell-tale and pertinent signs that I will discuss in this article.

Famous people

Celebrities were major proponents of the development of NFT. Originally, the NFT room began with artists, creators, and vendors who all laid the foundation for what is now the NFT room. Since then, well-known personalities have also entered th\e room, be it through their own projects or simply by collecting. The influx of celebrities in recent months has been extremely valuable in expanding the reach of the NFT, but in the NFT space everyone starts with the square of one and the value doesn’t come from influence. For the many celebrities who have created NFT collections without paying attention to the long term, their NFT has not held up its worth, which makes this point even worse.

There is a difference between celebrities who have provided value and those who have tried to take advantage of the space. For example Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon, Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Post Malone, The Weeknd, Stephen Curry, Lil Baby, Timbaland and DJ Khaled. They are all celebrities who shopped into the collection and displayed it as their profile picture.

These celebrities were certainly the main catalysts for the growth of NFT space, and with the number of celebrities in space being snowballs, their influence will undoubtedly help fuel preculture. Electronics is going mainstream. But most importantly, they join us – they don’t change the dynamics, nor do they make the rules. The NFT area is a joint effort and we create value together.

Related: Celebrities are strongly adopting NFT

Adidas

Perhaps the most important bridge by far is the collaboration between Adidas and Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney and PUNKS Comics. In a move that shook the NFT world with excitement, Adidas launched a new Twitter account with these new partners, Adidas Originals, to discuss their plans.

In this room they announced some important things – firstly, their plans to enter the Metaverse, a digital world that will allow users to interact virtually in the future. To illustrate their concept, they released a trailer showing Adidas’ Bored Ape and representatives of their new partners traveling seamlessly through the sky and into the Metaverse.

https://twitter.com/adidasoriginals/status/1466443459951271939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener
Related: Just buy: Nike wants to bring sneakerheads to the Metaverse

The Adidas Originals account also changed their profile picture to the newly purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT # 8774, a very specific blue monkey they called Indigo Heart with heart glasses and a hat that will be the face of their brand on Metaverse.

Why is this groundbreaking?

Previously, the room consisted of individuals. Whether it’s casual retailers, creators, or even celebrities, it’s the individuals who have propelled the space. Join Adidas now, a traditional and mainstream brand with four million followers on Twitter and 26 million followers on Instagram. The presence of this one brand has the potential to add more looks to the space than all the individuals put together, fueling the significant growth of NFT.

Related: NFT as a Micro-Social Network: The Way to Introduce Cryptocurrencies

To continue this vision, Adidas also has cooperate with Coinbase, the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform. In addition to this, it also works with The Sandbox, one of the most popular Metaverse games. In a tweet, Adidas presented its very own sandbox storyline, an official digital swath that solidifies its place in the blockbuster.

https://twitter.com/TheSandboxGame/status/1462871109821419523?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is the next big company to take the Web3 route this week when it announced that Ubisoft Quartz will be available on the Tezos blockchain. The premise of the platform is that users can buy and sell in-game items called “digits” using cryptocurrency. This is important as it gives players ownership of their in-game items, which in normal games would only be available in-game and would be dependent on the game’s individual ecosystem, which, unlike blockchain, allows for completely independent ownership of the game in the world.

Why does that make so much sense?

Ubisoft is one of the 25 largest gaming companies with more than $ 5.8 billion in capital. If this is just the first step in NFT, things are sure to get a lot more complicated in the future. Compared to Adidas and other big brands that have entered the field, both manage to focus more on the perspective of NFT as a respected technology.

https://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/1468264199876923394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener
While Ubisoft’s entry marks a huge step forward in making NFT mainstream, its announcement has not met with criticism. In fact, their YouTube video received over 20,000 dislikes within the first hour, and the company received a huge backlash on their social media forcing them to remove the video.

Looking at the comments, it becomes clear that the hatred is from a number of sources that users:

• I don’t like the company regardless of NFT.
• Don’t like the payments; The cost can be out of reach for many.
• I don’t like the power consumption that NFT uses.
• I don’t like NFTs in general.

This consideration certainly confirms the fact that NFT requires a lot of work before it is accepted and adopted by a large audience. But it’s not just individuals – some of the top gaming platforms like Steam have completely banned blockchain games from their stores. It remains to be seen whether Ubisoft will pursue its plans. However, their early beliefs also indicate that NFTs are growing rapidly, especially when a billion dollar company is considering adopting them!

But why are so controversial and how does this keep them from becoming more mainstream?

What is preventing NFTs from joining the mainstream and what improvements can be made?

Stigma and lack of trust are two of the most fundamental reasons NFT has been prevented from going mainstream. To some extent, given those who have been victims of carpet traction, some signs of discrimination are legitimate. In addition, many people are already at increasing risk of phishing and hacking. You may also have heard that “NFT is a scam”, “NFT is for money laundering” and “NFT is a pyramid scheme”. But that’s not representative of the whole picture.

In fact, there are bad players in the room who will engage in this behavior, just like in real life, there are cheaters too. But that doesn’t take up all of the space. In addition, your NFT can be fully protected with a hardware wallet, also known as a cold wallet. It is stored on the blockchain and only you have the private key to access it.

To further prevent fraud, NFT users need better communication methods and more secure platforms that keep users safe. Pulling carpets is a problem, but not in the entire room. There are still serious and legitimate projects out there. Rather than forcing NFTs to use a broader label of “fraud”, a better understanding of the groups behind it and more research is required before investing.

Related: Inedible tokens: how to start using NFT

Another barrier to mainstream adoption is that setting up a Coinbase account and MetaMask wallet can be extremely confusing for newbies if you don’t know where to start. Every step comes with fees, referrals, and difficulties, making this a serious barrier to entry. For ordinary people, this would prevent them from even thinking about entering space. So, if NFTs are to go mainstream, there has to be an easier process to get started.

Assistance is required. Don’t expect to simply create a wallet, initiate transactions, and make transfers yourself unless you are extremely dedicated. It is a noble task for everyone and so we need guidance, a helping hand, and a way to support everyone throughout the process.