Rhythm NEXT | Dialogue with Dapper Labs, WhaleShark and New Star: Looking for NFT investment logic

On January 28th, the ninth phase of the "NEXT" series of activities launched by Rhythm and KuCoin has been successfully carried out. The guest of this dialogue is the recently popular Flow blockchain development team Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, WhaleShark, a well-known collector of NFT and the founder of the social token WHALE, and the founder of Mynft, the rising star of Flow Chinese Ambassador.

This event has attracted widespread attention in the NFT community. Roham introduced the vision, development process and goals of the Flow chain . At the same time, Roham, WhaleShark, and New Star also revealed some of their standards when investing in NFT.

The following is the text version of this live broadcast:

Moderator: Welcome to the NEXT event, first of all, please introduce yourself to the three guests.

Roham: I'm the founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, the team that created Enigma, Flow, and NBA Top Shot. My work experience before founding MysteryKitties was also a developer, at Axiom Zen, which was a big development project on Github. I started my first startup at the age of 14 and have since funded and started more than a dozen companies. Dapper Labs was formed in February 2018 as a spin-off from studio Axiom Zen. We know very well how to make developers more comfortable to develop.

WhaleShark: My stage name is WhaleShark and I am one of the biggest collectors in the NFT space. I entered the crypto space in 2012 and have been an avid investor in blockchain companies, tokens and digital assets ever since. I started collecting NFTs in August 2019, and since then I have amassed some of the largest and most valuable NFT collections in the world.

In 2020, I founded WHALE, which is not only the largest social token in the crypto space, but also the most One of the active communities of NFT collectors and creators. Besides that, I'm also the founder of E1337, the world's first luxury esports apparel brand, launched in December 2020.

New Star: Hello everyone, this is Rising Star of Mynft. When he entered the encryption industry in 2017, he was in charge of market activities at Babbitt. In 2019, he co-founded CDOT, a technology development company focusing on the cross-chain field, with his friends. In March 2020, he returned to Hangzhou to start research in the NFT field. At that time, it was judged that the development of NFT in China was two years slower than that of foreign countries, so the main goal of the entire 2020 is to "connect the top international NFT projects and the Chinese market".

I am also a partner of WHALE and an ambassador of Flow in the Chinese area, mainly helping them expand cooperation in the Chinese area. After nearly a year of precipitation, we have gradually found NFT entrepreneurial opportunities and product forms suitable for the Chinese market. I think NFT is the most likely track for Chinese companies to produce unicorns after "mining machine manufacturers". Enterprises can Realize profitability through compliant commodity production, sales and scene integration, and reach the widest range of users and consumers.

Host: In terms of trading volume, NBA Top Shot is the hottest NFT game now, with a daily trading volume of millions of dollars. Can you introduce this game to everyone first?

Roham: Of course, we launched NBA Top Shot in October last year, and it has been 3 months now. It is now one of the largest and most valuable encryption projects in the NFT field. The secondary market sales of NBA Top Shot have exceeded 30 million US dollars. In fact, it should be 35 million US dollars now.

NBA Top Shot is actually a very magical tradable digital card mode. Basically, each Package is limited and is a digital type of card, and these NFTs are recorded on the chain. It can be exchanged with friends or traded in the secondary market. And many times, in fact, users don't even know that this thing is circulating back and forth on the blockchain.

Every single new user has a blockchain wallet, which can be easily and smoothly online Buy, sell and collect digital football cards.

Host: I know WhaleShark and Rising Stars are also paying attention to NBA Top Shot, especially WhaleShark has bought Moment worth more than 10 million US dollars, How do you guys rate this game?

WhaleShark : As a collector, I am passionate about both collectibles and investment aspects of collections. When evaluating NBA Topshots, there was almost no threshold for this project to enter, which led to many unimaginable results behind him. I evaluate all projects and assets in an evaluation matrix that I will be happy to share with you later.

NBA Top Shot is run by Dapper Labs, one of the most professional and innovative teams in the NFT space. Taking the traditional trading card model and pushing the evolution of the collector experience to "Moments" is not only an innovative approach, but a necessity for the new digital medium they're taking on.

NBA Top Shot team not only captures the fun of collecting traditional sports cards but leverages blockchain to solve There are many disadvantages of collecting physical items: for example, physical items take up physical space. The actual product may also be damaged and so on.

In NBA Top Shot, not only will Top Shot moments live forever on the FLOW blockchain, but they will also Always in pristine condition, the tokenized nature of collectibles opens up countless gamification use cases beyond simple collectibles.

New Star:This is a A phenomenon-level application that sets a benchmark for IP+Blockchain. Many people have imagined the combination of big IP and Blockchain, but only Topshot has made products and achieved business growth and user growth. It is Dapper Labs' focus, professionalism, spirit of exploration and openness that realize this "Lead, not follow" product.

From the data point of view, Topshot’s daily transaction scale is 5 million US dollars, with around 5,000 transaction users and 30,000 transactions Pen, the total number of market participants has exceeded 10,000 people.

This data has actually far exceeded the most active NFT application on ETH, and the total historical transaction volume has also exceeded CryptoKitties ——The Dapper team has surpassed its own glorious history, and Topshot is currently only a Beta version, and its growth has just begun. There are hundreds of millions of NBA fans around the world, and we are only the first 10,000 early users.

On the other hand, I think the volume of Topshot will surpass the physical star card market, when the availability of on-chain products Combination and cross-scenario integration (such as NBA mobile games) have begun to appear, and its application scenarios will be broader, and its value capture will be more specific.

Of course, Topshot still has some problems that need to be improved, such as: how to balance ordinary users and professional arbitrageurs (robots) ) equity needs? How to balance the crazy influx of purchasing power and the supply and demand demands of primary market issuance? How to make the product more stable, the deposit and withdrawal and purchase experience smoother, so that regional users can also participate? That's right, these are the stages that must go through for the most consumer applications, bear the most love and hate and continue to grow.

Moderator: Can you introduce the Flow chain to everyone and what problems it solves? What is the function of the FLOW token?

Roham: Flow is first and foremost an application Blockchain platform design, we think of it as the "iPhone in the blockchain", because providing a good customer experience has been our main focus from the beginning. Flow is the first blockchain that can scale without sharding, and can also implement complex layer-two solutions at decentralized scale.

Moderator: How do the three view the current development of NFT? Now NFT is mainly encrypted art and applications (such as tickets), and there are some Yield Farming similar to DeFi. Is it still a niche? How do the three think that the NFT field should acquire a wider range of users?

Roham: I think 2021 is the year of the NFT. Everyone from top brands to artists and creators sees the potential and is relentless. Top Shot is one of the fastest growing marketplaces ever, and the art market is taking off too - from blockparty and async, to viv3 which launched two days ago on Flow and sold out in 24 hours.

Furthermore, NFTfi and even insurance contracts use NFTfi as tradable loans. The reality is that most things in our lives are "non-fungible", so most things on the blockchain will eventually be as well.

WhaleShark: NFT is growing rapidly . If I compare the market 12 months ago to the market today, the infrastructure development, the number of items, the number of collectors and independent creators have all grown exponentially. I believe that as humanity continues to evolve further into a digital lifestyle, the growth of digital assets and methods of determining the provenance and rarity of those digital assets is inevitable.

Like all the successful fields that appeared before NFT, such as mainstream encryption and DeFi, I think NFT is still a very Niche market, we're only just beginning to be adopted by the mass market. Dapper Labs and the NBA Top Shot team have done an amazing job of becoming a gateway to mass market adoption by creating an accessible experience for non-crypto-native users to use NFT technology to collect data without their knowledge.

I have always believed that cryptocurrencies are the better option when evaluating the crypto space. DeFi is better financial services. However, NFT is an important evolution in the ownership and management of digital assets. There is no better way.

When the project can create a hassle-free experience for users, this ensures that the blockchain is only an invisible entry layer , Mass market adoption happens when customers and users need to learn the barriers. NBA Top Shot once again proves this thesis, their collectors are not only avid crypto users, but more importantly, mainstream collectors who can participate without weeks or months of education.

Nova:The impact of the epidemic sweeping the world The impact of people's lifestyles and business digitalization has far exceeded the past decade. The boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds have gradually blurred, and people's awareness and needs for digital life are booming.

Cryptocurrency is a better value storage target, DeFi brings more permissionless financial services, and NFT is a circulation Better digital goods - the user group of NFT is consumers. As NFT practitioners, we should consider what consumers need in digital life, why they will pay, how big is this market, and whether NFT can be used to solve digital problems. Whether the issue of asset ownership can reduce learning barriers and transaction costs, and whether it can bring about a more liquid and open on-chain trading market—rather than telling consumers in turn: Your problem can be solved by issuing a coin first .

In 2017, CK launched NFT1.0, and Flow and Topshot launched NFT2.0. There will be a large number of developers, users, and applications migrating to Flow in the encryption circle, and many Internet giants will begin to explore the combination and commercialization of NFT and platform users-Open World & Virtual Economy is a broader new world, borrowing Roham A sentence I once said: "NFTs are helping Blockchain permeate culture."

Host: In your eyes, what kind of NFT project Is it a good project?

Roham: 1) Community, 2 ) economical design, 3) utility/functionality/aesthetics of the asset

WhaleShark: Much like standard traditional investing, I invest in NFT projects and NFT assets in a disciplined manner. The investment matrix I use is as follows:

1. Concept——Whether I can compare it with the traditional world in parallel , found that there is still a lot of room for growth in this matter

Team - background, success, failure, expertise, passion

3. Project - roadmap , Competitor Landscape, Potential Demand

4, Assets - Use Cases, Project Alignment, Scarcity

5, Financial Sustainability ——Funds, Investors

Rising Star:I think a good project should have the following characteristics:

a)      Product: market space with dreams, clear usage scenarios, even fools Useful, Open and Connected

b)      Team: Love, Focus, Persistence, Honesty, Professional

c)      Growth: capital growth, user growth, leadership growth, network effect growth

  ;

Moderator: Will there be a trading platform as large as Binance in the NFT field in the future?

Roham: I think so Yes, as these economies get bigger, there is so much rich data to mine.

WhaleShark: Due to the irreplaceability of NFT, I think NFT markets such as OpenSea, Cargo, etc. will continue to develop, not like we have in many other parallel As the industry has seen, there is a winner-take-all situation.

In many projects, we have seen ways to eliminate the non-fungibility of NFTs, making them easy to "trade" , including WHALE tokens, as collectibles are tokenized and even pegged coins. WCK (Wrapped Crypto Kitties), WOA (Wrapped Origin axis), NFTX, B20 are all examples of how innovators in the space are introducing homogeneity, thus making market liquidity easier.

Nova: I don’t know. There should be opportunities for the scale of users, but no chance for the scale of transactions. After all, the business logic of the two is different. It is impossible for Taobao + Xianyu + Bilibili + Cultural Exchange to compare the transaction scale with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The milestone of the former is the double 11 sales Breaking through 200 billion, the latter advocates a single-day transaction scale exceeding one trillion.

But also because of the cultural diversity of NFT, the trading platform will evolve into a completely different pattern-different art Trading platforms of different styles, trading platforms in different games, trading platforms of different collection markets, maybe the trading platform will eventually evolve into a three-dimensional shopping space. Let me give you an example: CryptoVoxels is a virtual world built on ETH. You can bring any NFT in your Metamask wallet to this virtual space to display and use—whether it is artwork on MakersPlace, game props or Collection.

Users can click on the item in your virtual space, jump to the purchase link of Opensea to complete the order, all The interaction is completely realized by smart contracts, completing the transaction experience in the virtual world on the chain. On the other hand, the localized trading platform may shine brightly—asset issuance that is close to consumers’ cognition, sales strategies that conform to consumers’ transaction behaviors, scene experience that satisfies consumers’ emotions, and social networks that connect consumers to interact .

Moderator: Can you provide the audience with some investment advice for NFT?

Roham: Favorite things you like , so that you will be happy no matter what.

WhaleShark: with Crypto or DeFi Differently, the non-fungibility of NFTs means that if people use NFTs as an investment, they must exercise caution. Unlike Bitcoin or ETH, a Bitcoin is equal to another Bitcoin, and a non-Bitcoin is not equal to another non-Bitcoin.

I have always been outspoken in saying that when the NFT financial services industry starts to flourish, there will be buzzmakers , there will be losers. Not all NFTs are profitable.

I would like to give three pieces of advice to those who want to invest in NFT:

1. Do your due diligence. There are pumped items all over the place and you have to look at all the opportunities with a cynical eye or you end up playing a game of hot potato.

2. Invest in long-term projects instead of pursuing short-lived ones. The only people who can make money from these 3-6 month short-term projects are the developers and their friends. Ironically, they will put 2 of your money into long-term projects.

3. Buy the rarest assets if you can. Like all collectibles, assets that have withstood market volatility and are expected to appreciate in value are the rarest and scarcest of items.

New star: I will have a few A suggestion:

1. Pay attention to the news feed of Rhythm BlockBeats, one of the reporters named 0x13 has a very broad vision;

2. Join the WHALE community and read a Vault audit report intensively , communicate all your questions with the community;

3. Enter the Flow ecosystem to participate in the construction, and never miss an early participation opportunity for a Top10 project;

4. Don't be a gambler.

Moderator: What is Dapper Labs’ future plan in the NFT field? What's next for NBA Top Shot?

Roham: Our focus now Getting NBA Top Shot to be the best product first, and getting outside developers to launch successful products on Flow - that's going to keep us very busy! Our Chainmonsters are also coming soon with some branded projects we haven't announced yet . We're going to be working with a lot of people later this year, like Genies, and I'm very interested in that.

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