The founder behind the game studio that developed Fornite sees promise
in NFTs, but says for now there's more speculation than substance.
Tim Sweeney, the co-founder of the studio behind titles such as Hitman, Gears of War, and the wildly popular Fortnite
said in a Tweet today that non-fungible token (NFT) tech and the
‘metaverse’ it one day may enable are “going places,” but due to factors
such as transactions costs and the “wild, speculative mess” that makes
up much of crypto today, the dream of “a persistent, live digital
universe” might be far off.
Sweeney made his comments in response to a blog
titled “Into The Void: Where Crypto Meets The Metaverse.” Written by
blockchain consulting, research and investment firm Delphi Digital
partner Piers Kicks, “Into The Void” is a sprawling essay that dives
into the history of digital connectivity and in-game economies,
ultimately arguing that blockchain-based metaverses will not be a simple
improvement over previous virtual experiences, but will instead mark
the start of a new human epoch:
“In the coming decades, a
new era of virtual existence will be ushered in marking our next great
milestone as a networked species.”
In a short Tweet
thread Sweeney praised the blog post and acknowledged that blockchain
tech and NFTs are the “most plausible path” towards a fully emergent
metaverse, but also indicated that these developments may be far off and
that investors should be cautious with their money:
“It's immensely exciting to see recognition of the potential of these
technologies from Tim, who is undoubtedly the leading pioneer of change
within the game industry and beyond,” Kicks said in a statement to
Cointelegraph. “[...] Almost everything out there right now is not yet
ready to be mainstream consumer facing. It's not just scalability that's
a bottleneck, there are still major UX frictions across the board.”
“It
may well be largely speculative right now, but for those willing to
engage it's a very exciting time as the market hunts for viable,
scalable business and incentive models. Where mainstream perceptions of
crypto are concerned, the tides do appear to be gradually changing,” he
added.
Speculation Swirls
Sweeney isn’t the only big-name
entrepreneur to dip their toes into NFTs in recent weeks. On Monday
Mark Cuban released a run of 10 limited-edition NFT animations of himself dancing.
All sold out within hours, and on-chain sleuths identified two wallets
associated with Cuban that contained dozens of small cryptocurrencies,
as well as significant holdings in DeFi projects such as Aave and
Sushiswap — all of which lent credence to Cuban’s prior statement that he likes to “try this stuff out.”
Shortly
after the drop, however, Cuban said in a television interview NFT
prices are “inflated” due to low interest rates, indicating that his
interest in NFTs might be purely exploratory.
Both Cuban and Sweeney have good reason to question the sky-high valuations currently overtaking the space. Last weekend a rare CryptoPunk sold for 605 ETH, or over $750,000 at the time of the sale, and prominent collectors are being quoted on the evening news.
However,
as is often the case in crypto development carries on apace regardless
of if there’s a bubble or not, and a blockchain-enabled metaverse may be
closer than even these founders and investors realize.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/fortnite-founder-says-nft-tech-going-places-but-currently-speculative-mess
