Devin Finzer: NFTs and the Great OpenSeaScape
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Episode Summary
As of late, other than the (unfortunate) plummeting prices of cryptocurrencies, OpenSea has been perhaps the biggest news story in blockchain tech. The world’s largest NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace has just raised a new series C venture funding round, valuing it at $13.3B dollars. If you’re skeptical about its new colossal valuation, here’s a stat for you: the platform experienced $14B in trading volume in 2021, which is more than a 40,000% increase from a trading volume of $33M just a year prior in 2020.
If you’re unfamiliar with OpenSea or NFTs, Devin describes it as the gateway to the world of Web 3. You might have seen a surge of bizarre cartoonish looking profile photos on Twitter, or heard mentions of celebrities being part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. These digital ‘profile photos’ are unique and can be owned, bought and sold. Different from digital goods previously, these goods are not at the mercy of any other platform. Even if say, Twitter, went down or decided to remove your profile, you would still be the recognized owner of the profile photo since your ownership is encoded on the blockchain. The new attributes of NFTs have really driven a cultural shift of truly valuing goods online to match the pace of our lives becoming more and more digitally native.
As cheeky as buying and selling Bored Ape profile photos sound, the key thing is that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could be an NFT. Artists, brands and celebrities are embracing it, and as we’ve explored in previous episodes, we are slowly seeing it as a way for games to build open economies, to allow players to bring items from one game or platform to another.
Devin also speaks about the idea of ‘Digital Twins’, which is the concept that a physical good could have an online NFT twin. So for example, you might own a rare and valuable piece of art and instead of needing to physically transfer it immediately to a buyer, you could sell the NFT of (rights to) that piece of art while still having physical custody. Since buyers treat that piece of art as an investment asset rather than a consumable good, the NFT of the art can continue to change ownership without the art itself needing to be transported (which is often a huge hassle).
All this is to say, in the same way Amazon started as an online book seller and no one anticipated the way in which it would completely change our lifestyles and how the world works, OpenSea has the potential to do the same. At the same time, the development of NFTs and the internet architecture to support it is still nascent. Devin is laser focused on making the OpenSea marketplace the best possible experience for its users. Whether that means finding ways to lower or eliminate gas fees on transactions, to building wallets that help interact with centralized applications that people regularly use, to building tools for developers and creators that enable new classes of NFTs.
About the Guest
Devin Finzer is the CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, the first and largest peer-to-peer marketplace for blockchain-based assets. Devin has a background in software engineering at Google and Pinterest and sold his previous company to Credit Karma.
Show Notes
[3:55] Origin of NFT Term
[5:50] The Seascape of OpenSea, who are the users and creators?
[7:40] Fastest emerging vertical
[9:50] Why do people value intangible assets?
[11:50] Technical limitations to current blockchain capabilities
[13:55] Why have Gaming NFTs not taken off yet?
[18:20] How to think about creating digital scarcity?
[21:35] Lending and licensing
[24:20] NFTs for real world things (“digital twins”)
[28:20] What people don’t understand about NFTs?
[29:30] Future jobs and technologies