Social capital (1) What kind of NFT can resist bubbles?

Social Capital is a brand new column with ten articles expected to explore the feasibility of NFTs for nonprofits. If you are interested in this topic, you are also welcome to discuss it directly with me.
My Twitter is @mashbean

Hello everyone, I would like to share with you the topic that I have been working hard to explore in the past two months: donating NFT.

Since the "New Flag" charity auction ended and I donated money, I still have a lot of enthusiasm for this field. In the past two months, I have discussed this topic with everyone, met many great friends, and discussed many insights.

Let me tell you three short stories:

1. Want to donate but don’t know how to donate

I saw a friend's post today that he made a small sum of money in a cryptocurrency exchange and wanted to share the happiness when he was happy, so he exchanged the cryptocurrency for NTD and donated it to the Langlang Association. Similar stories have happened many times in the past few months. I respect them. They can make money and donate money. They are so fierce and envious.

They are old-fashioned and want to donate some of their surplus for public welfare, but there are currently no institutions in Taiwan that accept cryptocurrency donations (even if there are, they are scattered on the official websites of various organizations), so benevolent people first exchange them into NT dollars, and then donate. go.

On the other hand, this Monday, the artist Aran (Wang Xinren) hosted a Clubhouse, which gathered a lot of Taiwanese NFT-issuing teams (referred to as project parties), and I was completely moved, because most of the teams mentioned that some of the surplus would be donated. Use, this may be the cultural gene of this era. Whether at home or abroad, many teams have a charitable component, promising to donate part of the proceeds to specific charitable organizations.

However, we can't actually track whether the money was donated in the end, or where it was donated, because when cryptocurrency is to be exchanged for fiat currency, it must go through a centralized exchange and track it so far. It does not mean that the project party will be evil and betray its trust. I believe that most of the project parties are good, but the problem that the blockchain always wants to deal with is Zero Trust. Relieving the pressure of the project party's commitment, collectors can also trust the event more.

However, at present, almost no public welfare organizations have trusted wallet addresses. Do you think they would want to do cryptocurrency wallets? Of course, let's go to the second story.

2. Want to receive money but don’t know how to receive it

This Thursday, Huang Xin was arrested to participate in the public welfare forum Tech for Good organized by Facebook (Meta). In addition to the application of AR/VR/ Chatbot technology in the field of public welfare, another hot topic is: "Can NFTs be used for fundraising?" Perhaps NFTs have been really popular recently. Being asked a popular question, Tang Feng put forward a preliminary view. He believes that NFT is just a technological reproduction of a player card, and its scarcity value is similar, so the focus of NFT is to carry cultural value to make sense.

This happens to be exactly what I've been doing for the past two months! I call it N2 Project (NPO x NFT).

Can NPOs (non-profit organizations) issue NFTs (non-fungible tokens)? sure!

Can NPO's NFTs be sold? Not easy.

Let’s go back and talk about it. In fact, the application of cryptocurrency donations has been developed for many years. In 2017, there was a big bull market in cryptocurrency, and many solutions for cryptocurrency donations were born. The most famous overseas organization is The Giving Block, which was established in 2018 to help non-profit organizations. The wallet address accepts donations; the domestic Dodoker was established earlier, in 2015, when Ethereum just started! Duduke is a crowdfunding platform that uses blockchain decentralized ledger technology to record donations. It also temporarily accepts cryptocurrency donations, but it seems to have ceased related operations.

In addition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) began to accept bitcoin and ether donations in 2019, and even applied cryptocurrencies to public welfare projects, rather than simply converting them into US dollars. Last month, Mr. Gao Chongjian told me that the OCF Open Culture Foundation in Taiwan has also accepted donations from LikeCoin.

On the other hand, the super popular Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) two or three months ago is also related to charity. Shiba Inu Coin is an air currency named after an animal. When the coins were issued, the founders sent 50% of the Shiba Inu coins to the wallet of Ethereum founder Buterin (referred to as Buterin for short), possibly in order to expose them to a large amount. And in May this year, V God donated trillions of Shiba Inu coins, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to charity units, commonly known as charity smashing? (without this usage).

Going back to NFT, in that future society (whether in the Metaverse, Web3.0, or on-chain world), non-profit organizations must be able to issue NFTs, and I am even more extreme that non-profit organizations are "inevitable" To issue NFTs, not just accept cryptocurrency donations.

Because NFTs will shorten the distance between donors and recipients, similar cases have already appeared between artists, project owners and collectors. NFT is not just JPG, it reconstructs the relationship between people, such as the well-known overseas BAYC club and Taiwan's FOMO Dog chasing high dog club, because of the social NFT token. In addition to being a basic community ticket, NFT also has huge new information, newly formed interpersonal relationships, and collective actions behind it.

Therefore, NFT can be regarded as a new form of organizational operation.

If you simply think that you can make money (or raise funds) by sending NFTs, then you really underestimate the power of NFTs. It can be a novel and powerful tool, but at the same time, publishers have to pay huge blueprints and actions to give value, whether it is artistic value, community value, cultural value, or public welfare value.

Therefore, I think NPO is very suitable for issuing NFT, because the cultural value displayed by NPO is unique, scarce and irreplaceable. Which public welfare actor is not dedicated to the society and pays huge blood and tears. NFT will be a suitable medium, through appropriate planning and curation, to carry these spirits, and to call on those who agree to reconnect to a new online community.

Donate/collect/re-donate.

This is something that pure cryptocurrency donations cannot do.

Two months ago, I put forward the theory of public welfare perpetual motion machine: "As long as NFTs for public welfare purposes continue to change hands in the secondary market, their royalties will be donated back to NPO."

I was too naive at the time. The primary market was difficult, and the secondary market was even more difficult. So I spent two months researching the operation of the secondary market and the collector community. Fortunately, the naive assumption led to a better destination: a public welfare community DAO (Decentralized Governance Organization), funded by donors, recipients It is composed of people and workers. With the sharing of tangible and intangible resources, the perpetual motion machine will be upgraded to Fahrenheit. I'm not sure where this route will ultimately lead, but it may be in line with the working imagination of our generation.

More details will be discussed with you later. (I'm ready for a tirade)

3. Will NFTs bubble?

Will NFTs bubble? Yes, what is the bubble? I spent a lot of money to buy NFTs, but found that I couldn't sell them, and the funds were tied up. You're left with a pile of JPG junk or a screen saver you don't like, turned into a plate.

Then ask, why did you buy junk you didn't love in the first place?

Things flock together, and birds die for food.

Another question, donate money to public welfare units, get NFT, and find that you can't sell it and get stuck, will you consider yourself a plate? Maybe, but a happy plate, right?

This summer of NFTs, I think the craze will inevitably blow into the nonprofit sector. And NPO will be the first line of anti-foam solution.

So NFT needs NPO.

landslide conclusion

Excluding NFTs with practical functions, I think there are only three values of NFTs that can resist bubbles: artistic value, scarce information, and cultural spirit.

The value of art is different (perhaps more inclined to the benevolence and wisdom of powerful people in the future), and it is difficult to judge objectively; scarce information can quickly arbitrage or create new networks; and the final cultural spirit is the food of the non-material world, whether it is religion, charity, Public welfare, culture, ideology.

With only these three, when you believe, you will be happy even if the token value goes to zero.

Because it is priceless. (very slippery)

And my goal is to bring priceless treasures back to real life.

Finally, we are serious about building an organization that helps non-profit organizations plan and issue NFTs, called FAB DAO (maybe A is not so suitable). Thanks in advance to our partners who have helped us along the way, the current structure planning is completed, and everyone is welcome to discuss together.