NFT

In March 2021, when Jack Dorsey’s first tweet auctioned as a NFT (non-fungible token) for approximately 2.9 million USD, it heralded a new era in digital economy – the market for digital collectibles had come of age. The transaction volumes of NFT’s in Q1, 2021 were more than 1.5 billion USD, representing a growth of more than 2600% over Q4 2020.

NFT’s are digital tokens. They are recorded in a global digital ledger so everybody knows who owns which token. What makes them unique is that each token has a digital asset assigned to it. The digital asset can be an image, an audio or a video to name a few. Our creativity is the sole limitation on the type of digital asset.

The NFTs allow artists to create collectibles. Their fans can own these collectibles. Investors buy and sell them at appropriate prices. 

But most important for me, they allow new marketplaces to emerge. Companies like OpenSea and rarible have emerged as digital marketplaces where NFTs are bought and sold. 

All these companies were formed in the last few years and of course, they use cloud computing technologies and services. At the core, NFTs are cryptoart that are transacted in cryptocurrencies. And cryptocurrencies are built on the blockchain database. The technology and the pace of innovation dictates that it runs in the cloud.

I am sure the digital natives will soon follow suit. Companies like soundcloud and spotify that are already providing digital marketplaces for artists, who have the tech infrastructure as well as the skills to innovate and bring digital collectibles as additional offerings on their platform.

What I do not understand is that some players in the entertainment ecosystem are still arguing about why they should invest in cloud computing infrastructure because apparently their current infrastructure serves their current business just fine. I can see Blockbuster written all over their future.

Success in the digital era requires one to build digital muscles. Cloud computing is the bench press that helps you build that muscle.