Why many NFT projects keep failing
The blockchain doesn't forget and neither does your community, so think before you mint.
Last week one of my favorite sci-fi writers, Pierce Brown, announced he was shutting down the NFT-project he had been working on for months.
The project was a PFP-project (profile-picture à la Bored Apes) inspired by the characters from his Red Rising series (seriously, one of the best sci-fi series I've ever read!)
He took his time to map it out, he commissioned artists from the community, and all art was based on the fucking cool world he'd created.
On top of that, Brown is very approachable and, up until this project1, absolutely adored by his community.
So why did it fail?
Only crypto communities care about NFTs
NFTs simply didn't fit the culture of his community.
There are many successful NFT projects with thriving communities, but almost every one of them has been built around a shared interest in crypto, digital art, or digital fashion specifically.
This is in stark contrast with the majority of the pop culture communities where NFTs have been almost universally rejected.
Whether it’s Ubisoft’s attempt to introduce NFTs to their popular Ghost Recon franchise or Paramount’s vision to create an NFT-powered Star Trek Metaverse, I have yet to see a non-crypto/finance community embrace NFTs.
As someone who’s spent most of his life on the internet, I know how disproportionally vocal, and sometimes, wrong, communities can be. Moreover, new technology will always meet some form of resistance.
Yet, in all my time on the internet, I haven’t seen a technology that has been met with such intense opposition or hate as NFTs.
And I don’t think many brands understand the permanent damage pushing NFTs can cause.
NFTs reduce interactions to transactions
The biggest promise of NFTs, according to their proponents, is their ability to give communities financial freedom and unlock a wide array of “utilities“, ranging from completely owning your digital identity to being able to seamlessly transfer your digital outfits from one virtual world to another.
So far, though, “being able to speculate and potentially earn money with it”, is all the utility most NFT projects have been able to offer.
Indeed, despite the many promises, most NFTs right now, to put it bluntly, are just glorified financial assets.
And that’s where the heart of my concern lies.
Not necessarily with the general concept, though, because I do believe in tokens and decentralized technology2 and their potential to change the internet for the better.
Especially in a world dominated by monopolistic platforms whose greed knows no bounds, I genuinely applaud efforts that rethink the business models for creators and communities.
Furthermore, with the ever-rising advertising costs and the general fatigue of social media, I also understand why brands are looking for alternative ways to monetize their audiences.
The reason why NFTs are dangerous is that they reduce each interaction to a transaction.
One of the most important aspects of a community is its dynamic which is the intangible force that organically flows from the interactions between its members and keeps it balanced.
While it’s a very powerful aspect, it’s also very fragile.
Communities like Red Rising’s hate NFTs because the speculative, transactional tokens totally fucked up their dynamic.
Most communities just want to share their passion, find like-minded people, and occasionally show off their newly acquired merchandise, limited edition book, or piece of clothing.
Turning all these genuine interactions into speculative assets isn’t just cheap, it’s also destructive to the dynamic and culture of a community.
Culture before currency.
It’s true that many fandoms have a thriving economy of people buying and selling merchandise.
So on paper, a technology that allows you to verify ownership of said items and even receive royalties on its secondary sales definitely makes sense, right?.
Even I can agree that some communities could definitely benefit from the technology behind NFTs3.
The reason why so many people reject NFTs is because of what they represent.
For many developers, web3 consultants, and marketers this opposition doesn’t seem to make sense.
But for people who approach NFTs from a digital culture & community perspective, it’s clear as day:
Communities don’t like to be tokenized because it goes against the very spirit of their dynamic and culture. I know I’m repeating myself here, but I really cannot emphasize this point enough.
Beyond that, the NFT space has been scammed so hard in the last few months, that any trust people had, has almost completely evaporated.
Some people blame “the media” for focusing so much on the negative sides of crypto, but I actually hold the consultants who never seriously spoke out against the scams accountable for web3’s current bad reputation.
Framing the thousands of scams as “growing pains” and ignoring the gripes of many communities, is exactly why so many people distrust web3 as a whole, and why even the most honest NFT projects can’t seem to get off the ground.
The last part is also the main reason why I decided to write this article.
Who really cares about ‘proof of ownership’?
If you’re creating an NFT project targeted at crypto enthusiasts I don’t really care if you’re scamming them. These people know the risk and mainly participate in NFT-projects to earn money anyway.
However, if you’re planning on introducing NFTs to a community that doesn’t have a dynamic or culture centered around speculation, you can bet others and I will speak out.
Not only because I deeply care about communities, but also because it truly pains me to see well-intentioned people and brands destroy the goodwill and relationships they have cultivated with their community over the years.
And with ‘well-intentioned’ I don’t mean brands or people who just have a fancy roadmap or promise vague utility in the Metaverse, but rather those who have a thriving community, a well-developed storyline, and truly creative art.
Which is why I’m kinda sad Pierce Brown had to shut down the project he had worked really hard on because his universe ticks all these boxes.
The brutal, visceral world Pierce Brown has created with Red Rising, where humanity in the far future has reshaped our Solar System in the image of the ancient Roman Empire, is truly one of my favorite fictional universes,
Ever since the books came out, millions of fans like myself have been dreaming of seeing Red Rising’s characters, worldbuilding, and storytelling expanded to other media like movies and video games.
Excerpt from Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2): "It - he - runs at them from behind as they prepare to make entry into the bride - an Obsidian, but larger than any I've ever seen. But it's not just hiz size. It's how he moves. A dread creature stitched from shadow and muscle and armor. Flowing, not running. Perverse. Like looking at a blade or a weapon made flesh. This is a creature that dogs would fear. That cats would hiss at. One that should never exist on any level above the first tier of hell."
Brown and his team probably hoped, and maybe assumed, the community would’ve reacted to the NFT project with the same enthusiasm.
If you’re willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars for a high-quality action figure or signed art piece, why not for the exact same things but linked to a technology that verifies your ownership, and allows you to receive a percentage of any future sale?
Because communities like Red Rising’s don’t care about any of these things.
No roadmap will save you
Beyond the moral objections, many people don’t care for crypto and NFTs because the technology is still both frustratingly un-userfriendly and needlessly expensive.
Sure, setting up a crypto wallet and buying NFTs is much easier than it was a year ago, but it’s still way more cumbersome than buying something via Paypal.
Also, the fact that every transaction on the blockchain incurs a network fee (gas fee) that can sometimes exceed the price of the actual thing you’re trying to buy, is simply insane.
I know gas fees are generally much lower, but that doesn’t change the fact there isn’t a single compelling reason for communities to embrace a system that’s much more expensive than Paypal or VISA.
Moreover, if you buy something simply because you want it, and don’t really care about selling it, why would you care about a digital certificate?
Verifying transactions on Ethereum, the most popular blockchain, exacts a very high ecological cost as well, and while the energy cost should see a drastic reduction sometime this year, I don’t think this will influence the success of NFT projects.
Solana, a much cheaper and more eco-friendly blockchain, has been touted as the superior version of Ethereum, but this platform has yet to get any significant traction.
Don’t believe me? Just look at Tomorrowland Festival and their NFT project “A Letter from the Universe.”
With high hopes, they launched this project in March on the Solana blockchain, so no gas fees and a negligible ecological cost, but so far only managed to get 2563 of the 6500 unique artworks minted.
Tomorrowland is one of the best EDM music experiences in the world with the best storytelling and worldbuilding in the industry.
Their NFT roadmap is also something they’ve worked really hard and passionately on, and the art they’ve created really blows any other project out of the water.
But to no avail.
Which begs the question: if one of the coolest brands in the world that did everything right, not even managed to sell 6500 NFTs to its community of millions of ‘People of Tomorrow’, what hope should any other brand have?
I want to believe
You may be surprised to hear this after reading this piece, but I actually want to believe in NFTs and see my favorite authors and brands like Tomorrowland succeed.
I remember talking enthusiastically about it in my classes back in February of 2021, and I even developed my own NFT-project last year.
In fact, this NFT project has been one of the most personal things I have ever done because it finally provided me with the context to bring everything I’ve been working on with Voidwalker together.
You can view the full roadmap here, but the gist of it was that I wanted to create a collective of fellow Voidwalkers/Navigators who would join me in exploring our Internet Society and beyond.
One of the reasons why I choose ‘navigation’ as my main leitmotif is because my dad is a sea captain, just as his dad was, and through this project, I wanted to follow in their footsteps in my own way.
Every visual you see in this roadmap has been hand-drawn and painted by the incredibly talented Margo De Weerdt, and the idea would be to use the same approach for this project, so we would never forget our link to the physical reality.
To help us navigate through the unknown regions of our Internet Society, I commissioned 3D designer extraordinaire Aaron Vergult to create a series of digital compasses inspired by the Voidwalker visual language:
While many aspects of this project still had to be designed and developed, I commissioned every single piece of art in that roadmap and compensated both Margo & Aaron fairly for it.
I’m obsessed with making sure creators are compensated and valued fairly, and this project was also a way of elevating them:
Through the power of smart contracts and secondary sales, I saw a way for everyone who ever contributed to Voidwalker and Starhaven to benefit financially for years to come.
Important to note is that most of the visuals created by Margo were originally developed for Voidwalker, but since Starhaven is an extension of Voidwalker I consider all art as part of the same universe.
I ultimately choose not to go through with it, because the more research I did about NFTs the less comfortable I felt with its principles and implications on communities4.
Even though I knew my NFT project would be different from all others, it just didn’t feel right, for all the reasons I previously mentioned.
I also understood I had to promote the shit out of this project to ‘create’ or find a community if I were to sell any of my NFTs, which totally went against my own philosophy and that of Starhaven’s.5
Some part of me is sad I didn’t get to see this project unfold, but I still believe shutting it down was ultimately the best choice.
But more importantly, experimenting with NFTs also allowed me to better justify to my clients why I didn't want them to create NFTs.
The internet isn’t a vacuum
Through Voidwalker I help brands and agencies understand and engage with the communities, culture, and currencies of our Internet Society, which includes the emerging web3 and Metaverse.
Consequently, I regularly get asked to give my advice on NFT projects or help build them. So far, I’ve successfully convinced all of my clients not to go through with it.
NFTs and the Metaverse might become more relevant in the future, but right now I think brands should be focusing on understanding internet culture, and what implications this has on their communities.
I don’t believe brands should approach every platform as a battlefield or every community as an army, but everyone building a community strategy on top of our current internet landscape should understand that the rejection of NFTs is part of a larger dynamic and cultural struggle6.
And whether you like it or not, we are all part of it.
We are a forgiving fanbase, but if he had pushed through with this, he would’ve irrevocably damaged our trust. Hic sunt leones!
In my opinion, trading card games is the application blockchain would make the most sense for, provided they aren’t just a cash grab and respect the community.
The analyses of Molly White, Dan Olson, and many others have been crucial to my understanding of the dangers of NFTs, crypto, and web3.
I don’t mind promoting stuff, but the way you’re expected to shill your project on Twitter by begging with all the big NFT accounts is way too cringe for me.
While I’ve always been interested in Internet Culture, journalist/columnist Taylor Lorenz has been my single greatest source of inspiration. Her coverage of the internet and all its aspects is unparalleled.