The founding fathers of NFTs must be proud. The NFT boom of 2021 was a historic year for NFTs, and many experts wonder whether that kind of exponential growth is sustainable. Even if NFT sales slow down significantly in 2022, it’s clear non-fungible tokens are here to stay.
We know there are NFT artists who created NFTs and have sold them for millions of dollars, and NFT influencers with millions of followers. What about the people who paved the way for non-fungible tokens as we know them? Here are five founding fathers of NFTs.
Kevin McCoy
While he might not be on current lists of the “biggest NFT artists,” Kevin Mccoy is certainly a part of NFT history forever. That’s because he’s responsible for creating the first NFT ever, called “Quantum,” in 2014. Even though it was minted back then, it sold for $1.4 million dollars at Sotheby’s years later.
How was Quantum minted before Ethereum? It was actually minted on Namecoin, a cryptocurrency modeled on Bitcoin. Quantum also became the subject of some controversy, since McCoy and Sotheby’s were later sued for the sale.
Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin is undoubtedly one of the founding fathers of NFTs, given that he’s a co-founder of Ethereum and arguably the most significant individual in the cryptocurrency world. NFTs are primarily possible because of Ethereum, although other blockchains are constantly competing for NFT dominance.
While there is some question about whether Ethereum will lose market share to other blockchains, it is still largely responsible for NFT sales. Specifically, Ethereum is currently responsible for around 84% of the NFT market. Technically, anyone who created NFTs on Ethereum owes Vitalik a thank you
Matt Hall and John Watkinson
Many NFT collections have gained traction since their launch, but few have affected the crypto community like CryptoPunks. CryptoPunks was launched in June 2017 thanks to Matt Hall and Watkinson. One of the most interesting aspects of the CryptoPunks collection is that anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim a CryptoPunk for free.
Before influential NFT projects like CryptoKitties or the Bored Ape Yacht Club, there were CryptoPunks. Within hours, every “Punk” was sold. It might have been several years before the mainstream NFT boom, but Hall and Watkinson weren’t just two people who created NFTs; they also understood how to launch an NFT collection successfully.
Hall and Watkinson remain massive NFT figures, thanks to the fact that they own Larva Labs. However, the CryptoPunks IP (intellectual property) was sold to Yuga Labs. Even though new interesting NFT projects are coming in 2024, the CryptoPunks remain the first NFT collection that caused a “buzz” in the cryptocurrency sector
Cyrus Adkisson
Some founding fathers of NFTs might never get their just due. They may have played a pivotal role in its history, even if they aren’t considered a major entrepreneur or influencer in the NFT space. That description would fit Cyrus Adkisson.
Adkisson is the creator of Etheria, an NFT game that is almost as old as Ethereum itself. Etheria is incredible because it was ahead of its time in two ways: NFTs and virtual worlds. Before virtual land was selling for millions of dollars, Adkisson was frustrated at the lack of Etheria’s success. He abandoned the project after the game was unable to build a following.
The project resurfaced in 2021 when the NFT boom inspired Adkisson. On Twitter, Etheria even markets itself as “the first true NFT project” in its bio. In fact, the above photo is actually the world’s first “digital NFT house,” created in 2015.
Jason Bailey
Sometimes, the founding fathers of NFTs are people who genuinely knew what was coming long before the rest of us did. Jason Bailey would fall under that category, considering he wrote about how blockchain can disrupt the art industry back in 2017 with his famous article, The Blockchain Market Is Here, on his blog, Artnome.
Bailey, whose nickname is “Artnome,” also has the distinction of being the first NFT collector on SuperRare. He’s also been active in the sector as an advisor to various NFT marketplaces and co-founder of ClubNFT, a startup meant to protect collectors of non-fungible tokens.
Could the founding fathers of NFTs have predicted this?
There’s no question NFTs have revolutionized digital art forever, but there are new questions about its future. Will tokenization and NFTs begin disrupting industries like real estate, the supply chain, and fashion? It certainly looks like it has already disrupted the play-to-earn gaming sector.
The founding fathers of NFTs may not have envisioned it becoming a market worth billions of dollars, but here we are. Now it’s all about the innovators and visionaries who will determine new use cases for non-fungible tokens. Over the next several years, expect NFTs to be implemented in ways that you never might have imagined.
About the Author
Michael Hearne
About Decentral Publishing
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