As major football clubs like Manchester City embrace NFTs to engage its growing fanbase and musicians begin to make waves with the technology across the music scene, innovators across the North are keen to demonstrate the transformative impact NFTs could have despite public skepticism.
“At the moment, people want to use NFTs for the wrong reasons,” Jamie Mcmullan, Managing Director at Manchester-based software company Silverchip, told Prolific North.
People want to be involved in NFTs because you can make money out of them, but it’s not about that.
“It’s about the use case and how they can change the way the world is operating.”
Early adopters and supporters of NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens – see our explainer here) are keen to battle against the on-going negative narrative.
“One of the biggest barriers to mass adoption of NFTs is the public perception of it,” explained NoFace, the anonymous non-binary founder behind alternative NFT brand Goth Girlfriends.
“I think a lot of people are skeptical and that’s people’s first reaction to any new technology. I remember them saying the same about DVDs. I remember them saying the same about the internet, Amazon and Netflix.”
According to research by YouGov, 48% of global consumers still have no idea what the term is and 25% of consumers have heard of NFTs but don’t understand what they are.
“They are definitely part of the future of the web,” added Mcmullan. “The current implementation and the current public perception of them is very limited in terms of the use case at the moment with art and pictures.”
As familiarity with NFTs grows, we found out where and how they are being used across the North from music, games, sport and beyond.
“That shows how far we are away from having a serious conversation around NFTs”
Software and app development company Silverchip, which was recently acquired by CTI Group, has been working on a range of NFT projects but there are some more bizarre ones they’ve had to turn down.
