Visa Further Empowers NFT Communities With $150,000 CryptoPunk Buy

It’s easy to see why Visa’s purchase of CryptoPunk #7610 is a big deal if we take a step back and look at what NFTs represent, not just what they are.

NFTs can come as single, unique pieces made by artists with a wide range of interesting effects, aesthetic and if you purchased one then the experience is like owning a piece of the aesthetic - the mood, voice, style and mindscape of the artist you resonate with. It transforms the way we connect with artists into a heightened experience. This is one of the reasons why NFTs are all the rage.

They are not just mere jpegs or animated videos. They can also be much more  with unhackable, embedded code that dictates the rarity of the item, authenticates their exclusivity to the owner, and enables artists to set terms for royalties for their hard work.

NFTs can be keys to net-worth changing and social status upgrading communities.

You may have come across one of those aesthetically interesting NFT collections like The Bored Ape Yacht Club, Pudgy Penguins or even CryptoPunks. The first thing you’ll notice is a set of NFTs that look similar and exist in a limited number.

Buying one of these from the set makes you a member, and entitles you to certain perks.

For many, the most exciting thing about these community NFTs (or NFT clubs) is that the value of your seat at this exclusive member’s table can increase, and when it does, so does your net worth and real life social status.

How A Community NFTs’ Value Rises

Kevin Roose recently described these community NFTs in the New York Times as “a kind of digital collectible that combines the get-rich-quick appeal of cryptocurrency with the exclusivity of a country club membership.”

What happens first is, a group of artists and developers package a set of NFTs (also called tokens) and make it accessible on the blockchain. If they do it right, there’d be a twitter storm of excitement before the launch day. If you’re among the first buyers you might get caught into the buzz of belonging to a club with pretty energetic individuals. You might change your profile picture everywhere into the image of your NFT, and wait in anticipation for the value of your NFT to rise.

There are different ways this can happen.

A celebrity might join the group, and suddenly demand goes up (the network effect). Certain perks or gamified utility might catch on and become popular with more people wanting to try out - again increasing demand. Anything that can make the deck of NFTs feel like an exclusive experience, like positioning them as being the first and only set made by a well-loved designer, can increase the perceived value.

When this happens, you suddenly own an NFT you can hold on to for street cred, or list it on marketplaces like OpenSea at a price much higher than when you first got it.

This is the reason why some people treat NFTs as an asset class for investment, and why NFTs are seen by artists and creators as a way to more fairly earn from the value that their art creates in society.

How Visa Further Empowered NFT Communities

Visa’s purchase of the CryptoPunk was a bold endorsement of crypto as a legitimate way to do trade. Cuy Sheffield, their head of crypto, told the media "We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce,"

This not only just upped the perceived value of NFT communities in society. By being one of the first large corporate entities to invest in such a way, they pave the path for more corporations to follow suit.

Each NFT community has its own quirks and sense of identity. Some of them surround themselves with unique subject matters and concepts, like how Yats are all about being a novel way to protect your identity in the digital space by simultaneously converting yourself into a set of emoji and owning your own web address without giving any domain name conglomerate your private information.

Companies can see Visa as a real-world case study of how to associate with NFT communities and create new value for themselves and directly connect with those in that community with relationships that were previously very expensive to create.

Because anyone can have access to a crypto wallet, NFTs have enabled ways for not only artists, but also corporations to directly connect with and add value to the lives of individuals on an equal footing.

A Friendly Way For Fashion Lovers To Enter The Crypto World

For many fashion lovers that are increasingly curious about the crypto world, there are possible barriers to entry that NFT communities help to overcome.

For example, opening a crypto wallet might seem daunting, and finding fashion NFTs that you’d actually like might seem like a challenge (one that we are taking on here at Brand New Vision).

However, if seen as a medium to long term investment, it starts to make sense. The gains range from expanding network, possible collaborations and even direct monetary returns when the time is right to flip.

NFT communities can also be very welcoming to new members. Earning exclusive access to their discord, for example, can feel very special, and everything you might want to know is readily available from enthusiastic individuals, and now corporations and brands that are invested in community success.

Get a crypto wallet. It’s not that difficult!