SMI #013: Build a Portfolio Management Tool for NFT Collectors
Binders and display cases for the metaverse
Opportunity in a Tweet:
NFTs quickly became a means of financial arbitrage, while leaving OG digital art collectors underserved. When it comes to public consumption, NFTs mostly exist on the marketplaces they’re bought and sold on (and rich bro twitter avatars). Similar to how kids collect baseball cards and organize them into binders and cases, there’s an opportunity to create websites that serve as digital display cases for collectors to organize, show off, and swap their digital art.
What This Is:
Digital card binders and trophy cases for the metaverse
Think Pinterest board meets Squarespace tooling meets 11 year old Pokemon card collector
A conduit for people to swap NFTs (sans money / crypto) between collections
Non custodial, need to connect your wallet
What This Isn’t:
A marketplace for buying and selling NFTs
A cold wallet for safeguarding NFTs
Built for trade backs - because they don’t exist in crypto world. Also, Mark Willis from Walpole, MA, I still remember in third grade when I took you for your Ken Griffey rookie card. You cried like a baby and had your mom call my mom to demand a trade back. People don’t forget.
Thesis:
The day-trading NFT crowd is overserved, while the social community is underserved
There’s no where to put your NFTs after you buy them…the best option is to leave them up for resale
According to Chainalysis, so far in 2021, users have sent at least $26.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency to ERC-721 and ERC-1155 contracts, the two types of Ethereum smart contracts associated with NFT marketplaces and collections
Although the artwork and collections are growing exponentially, the shareability and composability for collectors have not come along for the ride
Enabling self expression
People think of their NFTs as an extension of themselves. See aforementioned (big word usage?) Twitter avatars. Like Sex Panther, this signaling tactic is known to work 60% of the time 100% of the time for getting dates
Back of the Napkin Market Sizing
To Get the Ball Rolling, Sisyphus Says
Concentrate on building a web based template for collections before building a mobile app. A mobile app will most likely be used for viewing other people’s collections and maybe trading down the road. But the initial portfolio composition will likely occur from a laptop
Focus on one crypto currency, like Ethereum, before adding support for other blockchains
Kinda Biased Competitive Landscape
How It Makes Money
Waves This Rides
The financialization of culture
Someone smarter than me wrote about it here
Sports legends and leagues are getting in on the action
Tom Brady launched autograph.io which specializes in digital sports cards for athletes like Usain Bolt, Simon Biles and Tony Hawk
The UFC and NFL have signed contracts to work with Dapper Labs to create digital trading cards
Nike just bought a digital shoe company
However, what’s missing in the collector’s lifecycle is a way to organize and trade post purchase
Collectibles boom
Have you seen the prices of baseball cards lately? Rumor is there’s a group of billionaires at a clandestine overlord meeting swapping Honus Wagner’s RIGHT NOW
Why This Might Fail
Platform Risk
The likes of Opensea, Rarible, and Foundation may make it difficult to move NFTs on and off platform, or to share them visually in your personal collection while keeping them up for resale
Downstream Commissions
There may be technical reasons above and beyond my non existent free newsletter paygrade as to why secondary sale commissions are lost if you leave a marketplace
Potentially Reliable Stuff I Read at 3 AM
Irrelevant Post Script No Reputable Business Publication Would Allow
Get Hyped
Get Loud
Get Wise
“The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.”
-J. Paul Getty