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NFTs and Blockchain: a revolution or a bubble?

The blockchain industry with the addition of NFTs has taken another huge jump in terms of market capitalization

By M ABUBAKAR LALA |
Creative: Ibrahim Yahya
PUBLISHED July 11, 2021
KARACHI:

Revolution or Bubble? We have heard this statement over and over again in the past one hunderd years or so and once again the question is to be answered about blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital assets (Non-Fungible Tokens - NFTs). Although I will try to provide insight on the topic during the course of this article, let me make one very obvious statement before we go on; 'History teaches us lessons and only a fool would not bring into consideration, the past to predict the future or analye the present'.

NFTs are unique art pieces that can be in the form of image, audio, video or text that one can own and the blockchain ledger technology has enabled us to prove its authenticity and track it back to the real creator. People like Eminem and Beeple and companies like NBA and Twiiter have also jumped into the NFT boom and we have seen sales in the millions of dollars with pieces like a simple tweet and pixelated images to very high definition graphic and digital animations. The blockchain industry with the addition of NFTs has taken another huge jump towards a positive in terms of market capitalization. The terms blockchain, NFTs and bitcoin are almost on the mouths of every individual and we have seen such hype in the recent history during the DOTcom revolution/bubble.

The DOTcom revolution or bubble (depends on how you look at it) was when the internet was taking over the world and companies literally multiplied their stock prices overnight just by adding '.com' to their names. As we all know that hundreds of companies went bankrupt and thousands lost their jobs when the industry collapsed. On the other hand, if we look at it, Dotcom was the best thing that ever happened to us and most of the top companies in the world are still dotcom companies. So, was there a problem with the movement and technology or was there a lot of greed and misuse involved. We know for a fact now that the crash was created due to the focus of companies in creating a hype to multiply stock prices and not focussing on real profits and the companies that did focus on real numbers are now the largest companies in the world and their founders the rishest in the world.

We have seen the same pattern in multiple technological revolutions in the past where there was a time when the market collapsed and filtered out the fakers and misusers and left us with the cream of the industry and those companies ended up shaping the world we live in. I believe, if we learn from history and it's patterns, we can expect the same from the Blockchain revolution. The problem lies in people, their way of looking at things and the usage, not in the technology itself (if one kills using a knife, the knife is not the problem, it could have been used to cut fruit).

No matter how we look at it, there is one thing we all know for a fact, the technology and its applications are revolutionary and it is here to stay like the rest of the things from the past that are still here. What we need to do is work towards becoming those who benefit from this technology by positively improving it and figuring out ways for it to benefit the world. We have started such a project with 'The BIG. Ventures' where we are working to improve, innovate and positively develop the technology and use the potential of digital assets and NFTs to benefit deserving people from developing countries like Pakistan, Ghana and Sierra Leone (NUDA - NFTs for Underrated and Deserving Artists).

We also believe that this revolutionary technology has the potential to solve major world problems like scarcity of water, poverty, malnutrition, war side effects, etc and we have started working to installing tube wells in the water deprived parts of the Thar desert in Pakistan (declared as the sixth most water deprived part of the world).

So, I believe the question has been answered. There is an ‘and’ rather than an ‘or’ in it: A part of the Blockchain revolution will indeed end up as a bubble because of greedy parasites out there AND it will also end up being a revolution and changing the world because of the people who truly believe in its potential to benefit the World!