Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
A look at the popularity of NBA Top Shot on the Flow Blockchain and why the mainstream media is not the tech’s friend.
When NBA Top Shot burst onto the scene in 2021, it was hailed as the future of collectibles.
The platform allows users to buy, sell and trade officially licensed NBA highlights in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Some of which sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at the time.
But as the hype surrounding NFTs and NBA Top Shot itself has died down, the question on everyone's lips is: Is NBA Top Shot still popular?
In this blog post, we'll explore the popularity of NBA Top Shot and why it has become a lightning rod for media criticism by ill-informed baboons.
The initial popularity of NBA Top Shot
NBA Top Shot has become a cultural phenomenon, with fans and collectors alike clamouring to get in on the action.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, NBA Top Shot is a digital collectibles platform created by Dapper Labs.
Yep, the same Dapper Labs that were behind CryptoKitties, one of the first blockchain-based games to achieve mainstream success and bottlenecked the entire Ethereum blockchain.
This ultimately led to the team launching the tailor made Flow blockchain (FLOW) to house NBA Top Shot.
The Flow blockchain was designed by Dapper Labs to be fast and scalable.
Making it well-suited for use cases like digital collectibles that require high transaction volumes and fast processing times.
By using blockchain technology to create unique digital assets that were verifiable, traceable and scarce, NBA Top Shot created a new kind of collectible experience that allowed fans to own a piece of NBA history in a way that was never before possible.
A few key factors drove NBA Top Shot's popularity:
- Exclusive content: NBA Top Shot offers access to rare and exclusive moments in NBA history that fans can own and display in their collections.
- The allure of digital ownership: NFTs offer a unique opportunity for fans to own a piece of the action in a way that physical collectibles can't match.
- Social media buzz: NBA Top Shot has generated a lot of buzz on social media, with influencers and celebrities touting the platform's potential.
When it comes down to it, the sales figures for NBA Top Shot have been nothing short of staggering.
According to DappRadar, the platform has generated over $680 million in sales since its launch in October 2020.
Some of the most expensive NFTs on the platform have sold for six and seven figure sums.
With one LeBron James highlight fetching a record $387,600 in February 2021!
In saying that however, it's worth noting that sales on NBA Top Shot have slowed considerably since the platform's peak.
Natural hype cycles are natural…
Nonetheless, NBA Top Shot remains one of the most high-profile, successful NFT projects on the market today and continues their official relationship with the league.
The negativity toward NBA Top Shot NFTs in the media
It's frustrating to see journalists venture beyond their field of expertise to trash NBA Top Shot.
I mean lets be honest here.
Who in their right mind would take tech advice from a sports journalist?
Especially when it comes to investing in digital assets like NFTs.
It’s ridiculous.
Many sports journalists seem to have a limited understanding of what NFTs actually are, yet feel compelled to and are actively encouraged by their mastheads to write negative pieces about them.
This bias is likely fueled by financial incentives, with media outlets jumping on the negative bandwagon for clicks and the journalists happy to oblige.
It's disappointing to see this kind of uninformed and biassed coverage, as it only serves to misinform.
While it's true that there are valid concerns about potential for scams and fraud in the space, these issues are not unique to NFTs and should not overshadow the many benefits that NFTs offer.
NFTs have the potential to revolutionise the way we think about ownership, value and creativity in the digital age.
In my opinion, it's important that the media covers this emerging technology in a fair and balanced way, rather than resorting to the fear-mongering and sensationalism we continue to see.
(I’ve written this section with journalists from The Athletic in mind as their biassed garbage ranks P0 on Google for the search term.)
The future of NBA Top Shot and NFTs
Despite some of the criticisms and challenges facing NBA Top Shot and NFTs more broadly, there are many reasons to be optimistic about their future.
For one, the initial popularity of NBA Top Shot and other NFT projects demonstrates a clear demand for unique and collectible digital assets.
This demand is likely to continue as more people become aware of the potential of NFTs and as new collections emerge.
Moreover, the NBA has shown a strong commitment to NBA Top Shot, with plans to expand the platform to include more features and content in the future.
This investment in the platform's growth is a good sign that NBA Top Shot will continue to remain popular going forward.
Best of probabilities to you.
PS. If you jump into the comments, please don’t link the Athletic article or any of the other scummer journos I’m talking about.
They don’t deserve the link or the clicks.