YouTube Embraces NFTs
Good morning.
With media monolith YouTube acknowledging that NFTs will play a role in their platform in the future, we are preparing to enter a seismic shift in the space.
With mainstream adoption from a major player like YouTube, the shockwaves will be immense. Until now, internet users could choose to avoid NFTs and simply spew hate and misinformation about them on Twitter. When YouTube integrates NFTs into their platform, there will be nowhere to hide. It will go a long ways towards educating the mainstream on what NFTs actually are and what opportunities they present.
People will be able to see that NFTs are not just weird drawings of giraffes and dismissible "JPEGS." People will come to see that NFTs are simply code, much like HTML that will open the possibilities around all types of use cases. We are simply too early for people to make an educated opinion against NFTs. With YouTube adopting them into their strategy, they will spread awareness and larger appreciation for the emerging technology.
While YouTube hasn't outlined their next steps, you can imagine what integration could look like. It probably won't fundamentally change the YouTube experience, but rather give creators and viewers an additional way to be connected and support each other. Think of it like Patreon or other crowdfunding services, but natively baked into the YouTube experience. Hypothetically, every view could turn into a token. The more views/tokens you earn, the more crypto you accumulate. YouTube could also introduce a staking scheme, similar to crypto-powering blogging and content creation services like Hive. Here, users could be incentivized to stake their YouTube tokens to earn more tokens and provide stability to their favorite creators.
Adding NFTs to YouTube could also provide a monetization scheme that could overtake those annoying pre-roll ads. If enough engagement and royalties were generated by NFTs, that would be the monetization scheme and you potentially could see the end of forced ads on the platform.
If YouTube really wanted to pivot to web3 with a splash, they could airdrop tokens to all of their users based on retroactive usage of the platform. What if everyone received tokens proportionate to how much they'd watched YouTube up until now? An airdrop equalling many thousands of dollars in value could be one way to turn skeptics into believers. NFTs aren't just a tool for cryptobros to get rich quickly as some of critiqued. If a massive ecosystem like YouTube implemented NFTs, it would stand to benefit everyone who engages with the platform. It sounds good in theory, but until people experience the unexpected personal gains, they probably won't be able to see beyond the hypey headlines clouding the mainstream view of NFTs.
The ball is in YouTube's court, but if they do this in a right and meaningful way (not just pumping out and shilling random NFTs from YouTubers) it could stand to be a major pivot point in mainstream adoption and understanding of web3, blockchain and NFT technology.
