NFT Projects (Day 532)

I reviewed three different NFT projects. Two are from non-tech founders and one from a tech founder. Let's call them projects 1 & 2 and project 3, respectively.

Project 1 comes from a team with an industrial background, has stunning mockups and designs, a well-thought roadmap, and artist support. What they don't have, is a strong value proposition. It is great that they are trying to remove the middlemen and benefit the artists and fans directly, but just by introducing NFTs, in this case, more like a "gimmick" than a value, cannot entice anyone to switch platforms. And focusing on reproducing a lot of well-done existing features will be very costly to implement as a startup. It is better to focus on the value proposition introduced by NFTs and implement an MVP with only the relevant feature.

Project 2 is another NFT project focusing on benefiting the artists by removing the middleman. However, it has very little to offer to the users. It failed to generate value that'll make users want to switch, and NFT was only a means of payment, which falls short of generating value for artists either.

Project 3 is from a tech founder with extensive gaming background. Over a month, he learned how to code Solana and all the complicated steps by reviewing different open source projects. He tries to make one differentiation--most NFTs are only for collectors with no real functions--he wants to make a game to make the metadata on NFTs meaningful and fun.

All three projects are against the odds. NFT hype may not last too long, especially with the recent news on some NFT rug-pulls happening on Solana (Google it). But I think project 3 has a good chance of making it, with a low ceiling. Project 2 & 3 require an overhaul on their product design even before spending any money on implementation. Project 1 needs a shift in priority to make things work, and project 2 needs to hire a product manager! ;-)