[팩플 레터] Twitter founder’first tweet’… 15 years ago, this single line was sold for 3.3 billion.

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is emerging as an irreplaceable’one-pick’. His first tweet (written in 2006) published by the Twitter founder Jack Doss on NFT was auctioned off at an auction on the 22nd for $2.91 million (3.2 billion won). A lifeless 55kb digital file containing the sentence’just setting up my twttr’. However, after being issued as an NFT, its value jumped 2.91 million times from the starting price ($1). Earlier on the 11th, the NFT work “Everyday: The First 5000 Days,” produced by digital artist Biffle, at Christie’s auction in New York, also won a bid for $69.34 million (783 billion won). What the hell is the NFT raising the price of digital files that are infinitely’overlapping’?

NFT, in a word, is the digital world’copy of the register’. FT (Fungible Token), such as Bitcoin, is mainly used as a means of exchange. On the other hand, NFTs, each with their own value, are used to prove ownership. It appeared like a’salvation pitcher’ in the digital market where it is difficult to prove the original by’paste’. Issue a set of NFTs for digital images and NFTs to prove that they are original. Transactions are also possible. Since it is based on blockchain technology, some people have already used it for several years, but the potential is exploding after the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). Four factors of NFT’s popularity are:

① Corona 19 : The spirit of the era of AC (After Corona 19) is offline online. As the time spent online increases, digital assets such as game items and online travel tickets are rapidly increasing beyond imagination. There is also a growing room for digital ownership. Last year’s NFT transaction amounted to $250 million, a quadruple year-on-year.
② Diamond more expensive than water : The “water and diamond paradox” of economics (the situation where useless diamonds are more expensive than water) applies equally to digital assets. ‘Scarcity’, which is said to have been issued as an NFT, is the driving force that has raised the value of digital files to tens of billions. The British Guardian analyzed that “NFT is based on the psychology that people value it more than its real value.”

③ FOMO sung by celebrities : The’fear of missing out’ sentiment is also one of the reasons. IT celebrities such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk ignited NFT interest.
④ Big picture of NFT big hands : The Financial Times (FT) reported that “Metacoban, who bought NFT works at Christie’s auction, is the founder of the NFT Fund.” It is an interpretation that the NFT launching forces are raising prices through an auction event. Sina Estabi, who received a successful bid for Jack Doggie’s tweet, is also the representative of Bridge Oracle, a cryptocurrency-related company.

① Game: The game ecosystem and NFT have similar properties. Game companies also actively use NFT. Mainly, it is a direction to NFT items in the game and bring them to the ecosystem outside the game. Seok-Hwan Kim, CEO of Wemade Tree, a blockchain subsidiary of Wemade, explained, “The’incentive-based economic system’ and NFT in the game are similar to the’incentive-based economic system’ in the game where people who receive rewards (items) for their efforts and exchange items among those who recognize their value. .
② Art: The art world with a long history of forgery is also actively attracting NFTs. World-renowned auction companies Christie Sotheby are in charge of auctioning NFT works, while Seoul Auction has also announced its entry into the digital asset market. On the 17th in Korea, NFT art works were auctioned off for 288 Ethereum (about KRW 600 million). A plan to convert existing art works into NFT is also discussed. However, in the event of a dispute, it is unclear whether such attempts will be recognized by the existing legal system.

‘Metabus’ is a virtual world where avatars exchange and economic activities in a three-dimensional virtual space. In order for the metaverse, which has emerged after Corona 19, to develop, a combination with the NFT is essential. This is because NFT can be a reward for creators who create content in the virtual world. Even now, there are reward systems for each metaverse platform, but the process is complex and it is difficult to use outside the metaverse. The prospect that NFT can solve this problem. “If you combine NFT with the metaverse, the transaction cost is greatly reduced in the process of rewarding the creators,” said Kim Bum-joo, head of the game production platform Unity. “The metaverse can be activated only by establishing a fair compensation system.”

There is also a view of concern. It is because of the memory that countless investors plunged into the rosy prospect amid the cryptocurrency craze in 2018 and lost money. The Wall Street Journal of the United States ranks it as “the biggest internet craze in recent years.” Kim Jin-hwan, director of the Blockchain Research Institute at Youngsan University, said, “It is a problem that price volatility increases in the words of celebrities rather than the value of the essence of technology.”

However, it is not easy to argue that’you shouldn’t be afraid of maggots so you shouldn’t be able to soak in the sauce’. Yoon Seok-bin, a professor at the Intelligent Blockchain Research Center at Sogang University, said, “Just because there was an Internet bubble, can Internet technology be meaningless?”
Reporters Park Min-je and Jung Won-yeop [email protected]