The early pandemic years (2020/2021) have proven to be a fertile breeding ground for picking up the pace on further digital transformation of companies, but even deeper in society.

Where NFT pre-pandemic was rather obscure, I am certain that last Christmas many people debated if it was worthwhile buying a JPG that you can also download.

We can safely say that in ‘21 NFTs have been pushed atop of the hype cycle, NFTs rank at 'Peak of Inflated Expectations', as the bold and the beautiful try to make a quick buck.

NFTs are more than JPEGs, but it is, however, a polarizing topic. Whichever side you are on, certain technologies and adaptations thereof just have ways of being inevitable (more on that here), and the market just exploded into existence.

The wealthy and influential are quick to rush for ownership in this and adjacent (web3, dare I say, metaverse) space. Jack Dorsey complained about it, and a16z (Andreesen Horowitz’s VC Fund) produced an aptly named report on the topic: How to win the future.

Hype needs caution. Everything was better with AI ™ in recent memory. And there will be a wave of swift marketing folk that will be quick to enhance everything with NFT to make it seem ever more valuable and desirable. This will create some cool new experiences, but there will be newly minted experts gunning for your money. Tip: don’t trust anyone who claims to be a specialist in a space that's about two years young.

Regardless of that, I think there is real opportunity. The rules aren’t laid out yet and a lot of novel use cases remain to be discovered. In some ways all the activity brings me back to the early days of the internet (webrings anyone?) and I am cautiously excited to see what comes next.

PS. Can we please educate people to not confuse the general concept of the metaverse with Meta (formerly known as THE FACEBOOK)?

This is crossposted from Kasper's substack, where he posts reflections on whats happening around us on the internet.