Blog post: NFT - trends and applications - experts guide

 The hype around Non-Fungible tokens (NFT) innovation is not going to stop as its sales volume is climbing year on year. NFTs come with excellent opportunities for the digital content authors to make profits while safeguarding intellectual property. They do so by representing unique intangible items in the form of 3D models, songs, videos, memes, images, GIFs etc. This has resulted in creating an increasing number of NFT creators and growing number of customers for the same. 

Considering the growing popularity and prominence of NFTs, eminent brands are focusing on having their own non-fungible tokens. Companies like Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola, Pepsi have already released their own NFTs. 

Recent statistics of NFT market

According to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company, the NFT token market accounted for 41 billion dollars at the end of 2021. Capitalization of NFT transactions experienced a tenfold increase between 2018-20 from 40.96 million dollars to a little more than 338 million dollars. The value of NFT sales in 2021 went beyond 4 billion dollars according to Yahoo Finance. The NFT market witnessed a big boom in the second part of 2017, prior to which its sales were just 100 per week. Last year the number of active electronic wallets via which NFTs are bought and sold rose to 1.976 million. 

Hope this provides ample proof that NFTs are here to stay and it can really transform many business processes especially those who are into creating and delivering pictorial or decorative content. Now let us look at some of the popular trends which are making dreams a reality.

Key NFT trends in 2022 and beyond

Tokenization in gaming: Among the main NFT market trends in 2022, tokenization in gaming is one of the prominent ones. Gamers can buy different assets such as characters, virtual land, weapons and clothes for their avatars in the form of NFTs. In the current digital environment powered by blockchain, an increasing number of gaming projects are expected to introduce NFTs for improving user engagement, attracting the audience and promoting their services. 

Evolution of music: This is another top NFT trend for 2022 and the coming years. Influenced by non-fungible tokens, the music industry globally is experiencing massive transformation. Music NFTs capable of delivering transformative experiences can expect a surge in 2022. Using this innovative technology, it is possible to release soundbytes, lyrics and songs as NFTs. Additionally NFT creators can blend digital art with music in different forms like JPG, PDF, GIF to design exclusive artwork pieces. 

Intellectual property issues are addressed by NFT market places now. Content makers currently often have to waive their rights to audio streaming platforms. This is because it becomes challenging to track the sequential distribution of artworks. NFT allows musicians to protect their intellectual property rights by containing a record of ownership in their metadata. With royalties from secondary and subsequent purchases, NFTs often help musicians with fair compensation.  To stand out in the current competition, many musicians are joining the NFT music platforms based on blockchain. 

Audius, established in 2018, is a decentralized service for music sharing and streaming with social media features. It has its own cryptocurrency token called Audio which represents an analog to apps like Spotify and SoundCloud. 

Pace for Web 3.0: Web 3.0 known as the next phase of World Wide Web is based on blockchain technology. It includes concepts like decentralization and tokenized economics which are used by enthusiasts to describe the 3rd and improved version of the internet. It encompasses diverse components which involve cryptocurrencies, NFTs, decentralized autonomous organizations and in some instances AR and VR. As everything on the internet gets stored on the blockchain distributed ledger, people are bound to have a better control on their intellectual property and data. 

Unlike Web 2.0 which was more of watching and reading content, Web 3.0 relies heavily on monetizing assets, having asset ownership and receiving rewards. 

Metaverse: With non-fungible tokens as the heart of it, Metaverse ranks as one of the top trends in 2022 and the coming years. The term metaverse refers to interconnected virtual worlds where NFTs are seen as elements which can reduce barriers from entering it. Using NFTs people can create or buy persistent items like clothes, characters and weapons to be used in different worlds. For example in the form of an NFT, an avatar can be employed by a player in various games. 

Personality NFTs: Self isolation especially during the ongoing pandemic has compelled people to enhance their presence digitally for entertainment and social connectivity. Individuals including celebrities can come up with their own avatars in the Metaverse. For instance, artists and musicians can have new opportunities to interact with their audiences via game changing user experiences. Teflon Sega, a musician, exists only in the Metaverse as a digital persona. 

Conclusion: NFTs representing a new age digital entertainment and art are experiencing rapid growth in sales amounting to billions of dollars. NFT marketplace platforms in the coming time are expected to enable artists make profit, enjoy a transformative user experience and trade tokens. With the growth and maturity of the NFT network, digital content will be appreciated more and new brands will join this trend to promote their services and products.