It’s a great pleasure for me today as I sit with Shukyee Ma, a thought leader, and marketing ninja at Overeality.
In this interview, we aim to dive deep into the world of NFTs and pick the brains of the person who lives and breathes NFTs.
I hope that the audience finds answers to all the questions that they might have when they are considering investing in NFTs or launching a project of their own.
Hello Shukyee, it is lovely to have you here with us for a deep dive into NFTs and communities at large. Before we begin, the audience would love to know a bit more about you and your expertise, if they don’t already. Can you please briefly introduce yourself?
Sure! Thank you for having me here.
My name is Shukyee Ma and I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Overeality Labs.
Overeality is the world’s first incubator that promotes DAO-selected NFTs to bring culture and entertainment to the metaverse.
I’ve always been fascinated by the power of technology to bring humans together and form strong communities. Then, when I realized the potential of NFTs to not only bring people together but also incentivize them to keep innovating and building for a better future, I knew in my heart that this was the way forward!
Thank you, Shukyee. That was brilliant! So, to get the ball rolling, the first question we have is; what are NFTs and why do they even matter for the average person? Can’t we all simply get those images for free?
That is a very common question, and I get it all the time.
The foremost thing to note is that NFTs are not just images. They are tokens on the blockchain that represent other assets. So, in a way, they are proof of ownership of assets. This is facilitated by the underlying technology, i.e., the blockchain.
Since blockchains store data in an extremely secure and immutable manner using complex mathematical algorithms, it is virtually impossible for anyone to manipulate or seize ownership by force.
The art industry is a great example to expand on this. As many already know, artists are often plagued by counterfeit works of art. Sometimes, these counterfeits get passed off as originals and can cost investors large sums in losses. Such a problem would not arise if artwork is tokenized as an NFT.
And these are very relevant in today’s day and age because the newer generation is more connected online than ever before, and this trend is only expected to become the norm.
To shed more light on this, it is no secret that most humans inherently crave social status and try to express themselves by owning assets. As we move towards a more digital world, NFTs help people project their identity for a sense of inclusion and social status.
This ingrained need to identify oneself in a community is one of the key reasons why NFTs would certainly take off, in my opinion.
Wow! That was certainly enlightening. Do you think there are any more use cases of NFTs that are yet to be explored apart from the ones that you just mentioned?
Yes, that is definitely the case. The use cases I mentioned are minuscule, and NFTs extend far beyond them.
For example, real-world assets like houses and lands can be tokenized into NFTs. This means people can bypass the tragic paperwork and condense the entire documentation into the smart contract of the NFT. That way, by verifying the ownership of associated NFTs, the ownership of the real-world asset can also be verified.
Moreover, projects like VeeFreinds by Gary Vaynerchuk are utilizing NFTs as tickets to exclusive conferences.
Crypto Bull Society is another project by a renowned 3D artist, Gal Yosef, that allows the token holders to make their way into amazing networking events and parties.
Interesting! I’ve noticed that promising NFT projects often have a disproportionately high demand compared to the supply because of which several people never get a chance to grab their NFT when the price is at a level that they can afford. So, how can the average Joe quickly spot such good projects?
That is certainly a challenge to overcome.
Ideally, the person has to actively follow the current affairs in the NFT space and also keep tabs on the emerging tech across blockchains. That way, they can get enough time to research the project, its use cases, roadmap, team, and more before deciding to invest in it.
Being active in the community and doing due diligence with research also helps users make it into the whitelist.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of noise in the crypto and NFT space. Often, it can get deafening, metaphorically speaking, and even the best of projects can fade into the dark.
For that reason, a strong network of crypto and NFT enthusiasts is crucial. That is one of the core challenges that Overeality is solving.
Perfect. Can you elaborate more on how Overeality can help individuals identify legitimate projects?
Certainly!
Overeality is an exclusive community-centric platform for everyone. Here, our goal is to make everyone’s voice count regardless of their net worth or social stature.
Overeality’s USP is that it is compatible with different blockchains and is extremely scalable.
Hence, by building a community of like-minded individuals, the chances of spotting a legitimate and value-driven NFT project increase manifold.
What gaps in the current NFT ecosystem would you say Overeality aims to fill? How does this help users?
In the current market scenario, the average person often goes unheard compared to popular influencers who have a much higher following. That, however, would not be the case at Overeality where everyone will have a say.
Further, the rumors, misinformation, and scams around NFTs make it very difficult to filter out the good apples from the bad. And somebody who is researching NFT projects is often bombarded with several new projects and confusing tech.
Overeality envisions closing this gap of research and awareness by building a strong community where the best projects curated by the community come to light to increase the quality of content and research.
Where do you think the world is moving with NFTs and what role would you say Overeality would play?
I think that we are still far from mainstream adoption of NFTs, but are certainly pacing up to get there.
Even small dorm room artists are realizing the potential of NFTs and making a living out of them. Budding musicians are creating music NFTs and sharing the royalties with their supporters rather than sacrificing most of their earnings to ruthless record labels.
I strongly hope and believe that Overeality will be at the center of the transition and play a key role here by bringing people together through incubation and the DAO-governance economy.
That was very insightful, Shukyee. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts. We really appreciate it! We hope you enjoyed this discussion just as much as we did.
Thank you for having me here. It was a great experience and I enjoyed answering all your questions. I hope that the audience was able to take home new ideas and ideologies from this interview.
