NFT.

A topic that can cause delight in some.
And sheer hatred in others.

In the red corner...

... you have fans buying NFTs from whichever project has its 5 minutes of fame.
Then there are marketing and ad people talking about how this will change everything.
And every brand under the sun frantically dropping their own collections to get a slice of the cake.

And like clockwork, whenever there's hype there will inevitably also be a counter-movement.
An opposing force. To balance it all out, kind of.

In the blue corner...

... you have those that dismiss it as a fad.
Marketing people that call bullshit and that everyone's who's into it is an idiot.
Schadenfreude with every spectacular failure or scam revealed.
Comparing it to the hype around clubhouse at the start of the pandemic.

It's good vs evil.

And therein lies the problem.
Or at least my problem.

It feels as if there's no in-between, any common ground.

Those that are into NFTs shut anyone down who critiques the space - even though many points are completely valid.
The other side is reducing a complex topic to a bare minimum: expensive jpegs. Without the will or open mind to understand the technology behind it.

Full disclosure.

I hold crypto. And I have a few NFTs.
Will I buy a jpeg for $ 1,000, $ 10,000 or $ 100,000?

Hell no.

But what I'm doing is taking this space seriously.

Whether it's NFT projects.
Running around in a "metaverse" or reading up on blockchains.
It's me discovering how it all works and trying everything out.

Because I'm the curious type.

I believe it's a great trait to have for someone who gets paid to be creative.
NFT, blockchain and the metaverse won't change how people are.
Humans are incredibly consistent in their behaviour.

But what we are seeing is a shift in how we interact with each other digitally.
Similar to the rise of the internet and social media.

Many dismissed those as well.
And at first, it looked like they were right.

But things evolve.
And where a site like myspace ultimately failed, others will come and take its place.

Is the space a bubble? Yes.
Is it artificially inflated? Yes.
Are NFTs just the newest way for the rich and entitled to brag?

A huge YEEEEEES.

But will it go away? No.

It will surely not look like what we have today.
It will be different.
But it will also be built on what is being developed today.

All I'm asking is to keep an open mind.

No matter if you're in the red or the blue corner.