Session 3-1: This article is a thread originally posted on Twitter (linked here) summarizing study notes from the Fall 2022 semester of the University of Nicosia’s online course, META-511: NFTs and the Metaverse. Course materials can be found at the UNIC META-511 github account here. The author is not affiliated with University of Nicosia or the META-511 faculty.
1/ Summarizing my notes from session 3-1 of @unicmetaverse META-511✍️
Profile pictures (PFPs) are fundamental to how we organize ourselves in social media, and @punk6529 illustrates how our innate need to express ourselves seems to fit well with the technology of NFTs🚀
2/ PFPs are essentially how we choose to present ourselves to the world. They are highly contextual, as can be observed by how the same person may have different PFPs depending on the social media platform.
We show different dimensions of ourselves on LinkedIn, Facebook, Tinder.
3/ People use a variety of PFPs, which can be pictures or drawings of something important to them. Starting in 2021, more and more people could be seen using NFTs as their PFP.
Such NFTs can either be from PFP collections, or (non-PFP) artwork.
4/ PFPs pre-date the internet. The yearbook is an example of how PFPs are used to organize the social landscape of a school. This was the basis of Facebook, which brought the concept online.
PFPs are key to social media because they represent users, which are the product itself.
5/ Social media differs from other applications such as Google or Microsoft Office because it does not function alone. Rather, social media captures the value that was latent and pre-existing in humans; the need for connection and attention.
Social media platforms need people.
6/ PFPs as virtual identities come in many forms. They can be 2D pictures or 3D avatars. Even before NFTs existed, there has been a desire to express one’s self in digital settings, which is why there is a market for gaming skins.
This is because we need to express our identity.
7/ Identity is the most important term in this particular session. It may consist of the following;
Personal: Who you are
Community: What you consider yourself to be a part of
Branding: A cognitive shortcut of recognizing values or characteristics
8/ Personal identity … Who you are, what you believe, and how you want to express it to the world. This can consist of what you like, your hobbies, your vocation, etc.
It is how you define yourself as a person.
9/ Community belonging … What you consider yourself to belong to, or be a part of. You could be a member of a local community, a particular nationality, or an alumnus of a university.
If you are a fan of a particular sports team, you may indicate by wearing a jersey or a cap.
10/ Brand or Recall … Being recognizable to stand for certain characteristics or affiliations. A brand is a cognitive shortcut used for social signaling. Like the Swoosh symbol is automatically associated with Nike, logos can condense information.
Brands can tell stories.
11/ You likely have multiple identities. Who you are in a work context may be very different from when you are at play.
It may make sense to keep your identities separate. If you are a doctor who plays games online, your identity as a doctor may not benefit your gaming persona.
12/ People can also have pseudonymous identities. The benefit of a pseudonymity is that there is no “baggage” from aspects of your other identities.
The Federalist Papers is an example of where pseudonymity was effectively used to focus on the message being conveyed.
13/ Our relationship with our PFPs and avatars may also be bilateral. In a study using VR goggles, participants showed increased strength when using more muscular avatars than when using less muscular avatars.
The only difference was in the virtual representation of self.
14/ While CryptoPunks are now thought of as the first PFPs, that was not their original purpose. As a free-to-claim Ethereum project in 2017, they were an innovative collectables project in the beginning.
The mental model centered around whether they were art or collectables.
15/ There was a shift in 2021 where CryptoPunks began to be used as PFPs, followed by other collections. The birth of @punk6529 was at this time, where rather than relying on their existing reputation, they created a new reputation using an NFT PFP to advocate the Open Metaverse.
16/ It is not difficult to imagine that people will want to have a personalized, customized digital representation of themselves that reflect their values and how they want to be seen online.
NFTs likely have some degree of product-market fit.
17/ How an NFT PFP builds social capital can be illustrated by a CryptoPunk.
To own a CryptoPunk indicates you were early enough, or cared enough about Crypto to invest significant capital. It is also highly unlikely the holder would dislike Crypto, or not believe in it.
18/ As CryptoPunks were characterized by a lack of initial utility, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is characterized by utility given to holders, the first of such use case in NFTs.
Holding a BAYC token granted admission to IRL parties/events, airdrops, and commercial rights.
19/ Many PFP projects continue to experiment with utility. Some offer branded physical goods (Moonbirds), access to market reports (Degenz), or access to services (WAGMI. io).
In such a new industry, we do not yet know what is the right approach to create long term value.
20/ Nouns PFPs are taking a different approach, being a CC0 project in the public domain. Owning a Noun grants access to the @nounsdao, which controls a community treasury that can be used for open source projects.
The project uses virality of CC0, rather than commercial rights.
21/ One of the under-explored use cases of PFPs is the open social database concept. Token holders are effectively an open database, upon which anyone can build anything, permissionlessly.
Token gating, access to financing, and sub-licensing are all possible, using PFP tokens.
22/ (post-it note from Semui👋) If you're curious about examples, I came up with a few in the thread below👇
https://twitter.com/iamsemui/status/1579833568775192577?s=61&t=TW2pv3lBHyEAog6n2Iq90A
23/ PFPs may be viewed as expensive by the public, but it is still too early to value them.
There may be an aspect of speculation, of an asset bubble, but there is also actual demand for something that can represent someone.
PFPs are ecosystems still in development.
24/ And that concludes notes from session 3-1!
While the concept of PFPs is not new, the practical ability to separate our multiple identities is a game-changer.
Everyone using an NFT PFP now is part of the digital frontier. If you don’t have one yet, what are you waiting for?
25/ If you missed the session, the replay is available here 👇
https://twitter.com/unicmetaverse/status/1582631112618164225?s=61&t=TW2pv3lBHyEAog6n2Iq90A