SNL, The Today Show, and NFTs

We're reaching mainstream awareness

Yeehaw my friends,

Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live jumped on the NFTs mania with a skit titled “What the hell’s an NFT?”

While the video is funny, it still doesn’t explain what an NFT is, why it’s useful, and how NFTs will fundamentally change the Internet –– especially media and social networking.

Today, I want to give you some context on how to interpret this video and where we are in the NFT multi-decade super-cycle that we’ve just entered.

The Today Show, circa 1994

If you haven’t seen this video, it is an Internet classic.

Katie Couric and Bryant Gumble attempt to explain the “Internet”. They are confused about the “@” symbol, and the phrase “.com”.

Near the end of the video, Katie shouts to an off-camera producer and utters a classic line, “what’s the Intenet anyways.”

The similarities between SNL’s “what’s an NFT”, and The Today Show’s “what’s the Internet?”, are strikingly similar.

What is the key takeaway?

Both videos give the impression that mainstream adoption is underway. But that is not the case.

We’ve entered mainstream awareness for NFTs and web3, not mainstream adoption.

If we’re comparing NFTs and web3 to Internet adoption, we’re somewhere between 1990-1992. Most people still don’t have crypto wallets, similarly to how most people didn’t yet have an email address in the early 90’s.

Over the next 12-36 months though, we’re going to see an explosion of new apps and websites that are all playing by different rules.

The key thing to look for is the “connect wallet” sign-in, versus “log-in” using email and password. This feature will become increasingly important as people begin accumulating 100’s if not 1,000’s of social tokens and NFTs. Websites and apps will react to you –– your experience will be dictated based on the tokens you hold.

Communities will move together across the internet like tribes, linked by their tokens while engaging with each other as though the Internet were a giant super app with multiple rooms to play in.

Web3, NFTs, and social tokens are still too complex for Aunt Peggy to get onboard. This will change soon. The web3 industry is going through a massive UI/UX upgrade that will allow the masses to onboard. And when the masses come, it will be fast. We’re talking 10’s of millions of people adopting new digital experiences almost overnight.

I’m incredibly excited to have the opportunity to watch this space come to life in real-time. In April, I will introduce two native web3 projects that I’m bringing to life. Now is the time to be building, and at the very least, everyone should be paying close attention to new companies that are emerging.

Happy Tuesday, I’ll be back soon with more updates and insights on web3.

-Jeff

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Twitter: @jeffkauffmanjr