Can NFTs Be A New Monetisation Model For Creators?

Last week’s interview: We spoke to Sam Lessin, General Partner at Slow Ventures, and writer at The Information covering creators, platforms, and startups writ large. Check it out on as a podcast or on YouTube! 

And now, onto the news…

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Top Stories in the Passion Economy, 02/24/21Can NFTs Be A New Monetisation Model for Creators? 

What Happened?

• NFTs have been all over the news lately! Here’s a small sampling of some of the highlights:
• NBA Top Shot, a blockchain powered marketplace for collectible highlight videos generated $53.9 million in sales.
• Popular creator Logan Paul raised $3.5 million in one day through NFT sales. 
• Art auction house Christie’s is accepting NFTs for an upcoming auction. 
• A limited edition version of iconic GIF ‘Nyan Cat’ was auctioned using NFTs and sold for $482 thousand dollars. 
• Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, announced that he will be minting his YouTube content as NFTs. 
• Overwhelmed? We strongly recommend reading this primer written by Jesse Walden. 

What this means:  

Li: 

• I'm excited about this from a passion economy perspective because it represents a really interesting way for artists to monetize, and for their fans to profit from supporting them.

Nathan:

• Agree! NFTs have created a mechanism to buy equity in creative content. If you're an early fan of a creator and you love their content, you may want to support them by buying into a piece of it, which could potentially appreciate in value. 

Li:

• Historically, people have collected art for different reasons: for aesthetic reasons of course, but also as a financial investment. 
• NFTs offer a way to invest in digital content as an alternative asset class. They also have a lot of advantages compared to physical art: first, liquidity—no need to ship things across the country and store them in temperature controlled environments. And second, artists have the ability to capture a percentage of secondary sales.

Nathan: 

• I agree, but it's important to separate the temporary hype from the longer term effects. 

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