The way I see it, there are 3 reasons why people don’t buy more NFTs, neo-pop-culture has created a certain stigma surrounding NFTs, NFTs are something new and people are always scared of change and there are a few genuine concerns as to why some people seem to be skeptical when purchasing NFTs.
When I say neo-pop culture, I really mean meme culture. I remember when NFTs first started popping into the mainstream. My Instagram feed was full of memes surrounding NFTs. ‘What if I screenshot it seemed to be the main joke. This joke would have and should have died out, if it wasn’t for the reaction of some NFT holders, getting extremely frustrated with people screenshotting their NFTs and this created a stigma around the community. This stigma gave way for more memes, with more even more frustrated NFT owners and this created a cycle that is still going on to this day. However, an educated person could see through this and ignore the stigma because NFTs are genuinely a good opportunity for, artist programmers and entrepreneurs. So why is it that people aren’t buying more?
Another point could be made that, just because NFTs are new, the general public is scared of them. Deep down we are all conservatives (as in we don’t like change and not the political stance) and we seem skeptical, before jumping head first into something. Then the stigma is also a deterrent from people entering the market. One thing to point out is that the main demographic for NFT investment is millennials and the millennial generation is generally a skeptical bunch, even with the stock market. Only 23% of those aged 18 to 23 think that the stock market is a viable investment. They much more prefer cash investments.
However, both these arguments can be disputed with simple logic and opportunist thinking, so again, I ask myself why not? Why don’t people purchase more NFTs?
Well, there are some real concerns when looking into NFTs. The main concern has more to do with the cryptocurrencies used to buy them. According to Adam Bluestein of Fortune magazine ‘Currently, a single Ethereum transaction consumes as much electricity as an average U.S. household uses in a workweek — and has a carbon footprint equivalent to 140,893 Visa credit card transactions or 10,595 hours of watching YouTube.’ Do take this with a grain of salt as this does not mention the size of the transaction. However, Ethereum 2.0 and most new tokens promise to either reduce this number significantly or irradicate it completely.
So, a well-informed person’s reason to not invest in NFTs should be because of environmental concerns, right? Well, unfortunately, the internet is a very ill-informed place, and if we were all honest with each other maybe we could all be rich and happy with our little ape pictures.
