NFTs are driving the second bullish wave of 2021. Blockchain's ability to create unique digital units capable of supporting multiple characteristics, from the color of a work of art to the right to collect of a rent of a tokenized real estate, finally knew how to attract the attention of the public. The appearance of the first NFT-related projects such as Enjin dates back to 2018. The NFT sector is becoming more and more distinct. It now has protocols, exchange platforms and a market of its own, with a continuous appearance of new sub-sectors.

NFT protocols and platforms

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A number of projects have focused on the development of tools adapted to the world of NFTs. First of all, there are the protocols, which deploy blockchains and standards adapted to the world of NFTs. Projects like Enjin date back to 2018, and others like Flow and Gala unveiled in 2020/2021. These blockchains have their own technical specificities, and their targeted use makes it possible to avoid the congestion encountered on more general blockchains.
Many platforms have for their part developed marketplaces, similar to those dedicated to the exchange of crypto-currencies, in order to facilitate the purchase and sale of NFTs. We can notably cite OpenSea (which has more than 20% of the volumes), Magic Eden or even the space dedicated to Binance NFTs.

The Metaverse

Revelation of the end of 2021, the metaverse or “virtual reality” has been a subject addressed by the blockchain for several years, with projects such as Decentraland (2017) or The Sandbox (2018). The creation of a virtual, open source world, where everyone has all the objects, land, clothing or rewards acquired during the gaming experience is a more than attractive subject. Facebook, through its redesign in Meta, openly targets this alternative digital world of tomorrow.
The major difference between Meta and projects like Decentraland lies in data management. For Meta, the data is centrally managed by a select group of individuals, while for projects like Decentraland, their possession is unique to each person, backed up by the blockchain.

Streaming

Live streaming is a sector today largely owned by Amazon and Google, through their respective platforms Twitch and YouTube. Some blockchain players like Theta are attacking this sector of activity, by disintermediating the supply of bandwidth, via peer-to-peer sharing of the latter. Any entity wishing to provide its excess bandwidth in order to allow the broadcasting of live content is then remunerated in cryptocurrency. This also makes it possible to better reward content creators and introduce NFTs into them.
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Video games

The world of games has already been turned upside down by NFTs. Like this quote from the director and founder of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot, a world-famous French video game publisher: “This is the industrial revolution of tomorrow. With tools like the blockchain and the development of cryptocurrencies, we will be able to create new rules that apply worldwide”. The development of play-to-earn games has allowed projects like Axie Infinity, a battle card game in which players fully own their cards and can trade or sell them at will, to see its capitalization appreciate by several billion in a few months. The revolution lies in the full appropriation by players of the digital content acquired during their gaming experience, which gives rise to an economy specific to the world of video games.
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The sport

The sports world has quickly taken advantage of the opportunities offered by blockchain and NFTs. These include, for example, the sale of short video clips of exceptional moments, the distribution of digital cards like baseball card collections, or the creation of "fan tokens" allowing everyone to participate in decisions made by the club. This effervescence was the opportunity for Sorare, a French company that creates football cards, to carry out a major fundraising of 600 million euros in 2021 and for Chiliz to reach a valuation of more than 2 billion euros.
The impact of blockchain in the sports world is only in its infancy and many promising projects seem ready to disrupt this sector of activity.

Our position in this sector

NFTs are shaking up our notion of digital ownership. They make it possible to make intangible goods unique. They open up a world of possibilities for many sectors that have suffered the brunt of the Internet revolution, losing the interest of content producers or users.

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The point of difficulty lies in the real value that the various specialized protocols in the field will be able to capture. The current involvement of centralized players (Google & Facebook) in the digital world could be a significant barrier to the development of its decentralized version, as banks have repeatedly blocked the development of Bitcoin. The demand will therefore have to come from users, who will choose to favor content of lesser quality, but of which they will be the sole owners.

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Faced with this observation, it is important to observe the reaction of centralized players to their new competitors. For example, rather positive signals are beginning to emerge within the video game sector. Meta, on the other hand, went on the offensive in a particularly pronounced way to try to eliminate all competition, leading to an explosion in the valuation of its decentralized competitors, by indirectly validating their value offer. It is also essential that this sector offers real interoperability between the different digital properties in order to ensure a smooth user experience and a sufficient level of liquidity in its market.

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