Why is NFT just the beginning of the Metaverse social map?

SuperChain Capital
5 min readAug 19, 2022

NFT could be the first step towards a new type of social interaction. Tiktok recently announced an NFT project led by biometrics, Twitter is accepting NFT verification of personal data, and Coinbase is launching the NFT market. These signals point to mainstream users and expand the NFT as an important part of social connections.

NFT creates a platform-free social media model

If you consider social media platforms to be the defining factor of web2, this is a huge paradigm shift. The “social network” has been shut down and mediated over the years, and users are now served by a small management team. NFTs provide the most direct connection to a user or customer base without any middlemen, borrowed platforms, or third-party processors. Additionally, NFTs help capture the value of relationships with users.

Because you create synergies with your users — before NFT, there was no way to associate money with that value. The crypto world introduces the concept of“user’s native capital”. This means that when you start creating NFT series for your project, you can identify users who own the NFT and then continue to provide them with a lot of value by mentioning it. If you can do this in a way that works for your audience, you can unlock user-generated capital, which means the value of the community will be reflected in the pricing of these NFTs.

There are more expected benefits for companies looking to use NFTs as social communities. The ability of NFTs to generate revenue for your business and unlock experiences for your users and give ownership to community members is a huge benefit to users. In fact, we have always known that certain social circles or clubs provide more value to their members because of their membership. With connectivity, content, access and even tools, businesses can unlock this value and sell access or community access. In this way, the market basically finds the price and business, and the customer liberates the social capital behind it. But they are also much stronger than they are now.

NFT becomes a link between Creators and Communities

NFT ownership confers not only status, but direct social authority over the entire Metaverse. In a way, NFTs were born to reimagine the world of the past shattered by the internet and take a giant leap toward an infinite future. 70% of influencers believe the Metaverse can completely replace social media, taking over existing platforms and pioneering new ones. Also, half of them are already thinking about how to make money in the coming digital world, looking for advertising and branding partners.

In fact, 21% of respondents are already profitable in the industry. One thing we can be sure of is that the Metaverse will experience a certain level of popularity and success, and while email seems to be fading away as a medium of communication, for many it will still be used to send and receive messages . We have no way of knowing if or how the Metaverse will completely replace social media networks.

However, Metaverse could unlock social and economic benefits that many users find attractive. Marketing Buzz (especially when influencers start pushing their friends to join) also has the potential to attract new users. Many companies have formed partnerships with fashion brands, gaming companies, entertainment companies, and television companies to expand their real-world presence. We can look forward to immersive experiences that continue to explore the potential of Metaverse.

The fact that we may have to wait a while to see a full-fledged Metaverse isn’t necessarily bad news. Instead, it should give us more time to create stronger systems and products and develop new ways to create profitable systems. Steady adoption rates and dedicated teams and companies should help us turn the Metaverse into a place where we can better communicate and interact with each other.

New social layer product features

Over the next few years, NFTs will likely only become more immersive and inclusive, supporting diverse communities and creators, and forever replacing our most popular social media platform. The best version of every consumer product is a social product. From games to music to e-commerce.

Any product with a social component has a fundamental asymmetric advantage, better growth cycle, better stickiness, better retention, and better defense than its non-social counterpart. Because Social+Company is network and community driven, this advantage builds over time. The key is not the rules themselves, but the impact on founders trying to compete.

Before building a social product, no category was a true winner. Even those who have established themselves in big, attractive areas like personal finance and real estate can be surprisingly vulnerable to aggressive upstart if they can’t make their product social enough. This is opportunity.

Now, not every product category has its social path. Just as every industry has undergone a critical shift from analog to digital, almost all types of companies will eventually undergo a lethal shift from single-player to multi-player, from enterprise-driven to community-driven, and from individual-driven to social. In the inevitable cycle of consuming social, there are huge opportunities for founders who can thoughtfully build Social + Company.

The community experiences of NFT social products

Social + Metaverse + Company combines the community experience of NFT social products. From fitness to gaming, these companies are socially centered. In general, this means that three conditions are met:

1. Social has a unique and proprietary social graph built specifically for the product. The real test is whether the map is unique and inseparable from the product. For a social+ product to explode, it needs to reach a group of people who can only buy together through a specific product experience.

2. The social graph is critical to the product. The social element must be part of the gaming experience, not an afterthought. We’ve all used clunky, poorly designed products that incorporate fun single-player games into social elements, rather than creating annoying “invite a friend” pop-ups. To do social + products, social elements must be the key to the overall product experience.

3. Peer-to-peer social engagement is part of the product itself. Just as it’s easy to confuse media products with social products, it’s easy to confuse audiences with communities. The audience consumes passively, and the community communicates with each other. Social+ products have real interactions with users on the web, not just individual curators or creators.

Large-scale social media will continue to play a role, but the idea of ​​developing within the NFT community highlights a new type of social interaction based on NFTs rather than follows and likes. The NFT community is considering ways to add value to its members through delegation and exclusive access. Membership rewards are a broad opportunity to add new utility beyond non-functional monetary value.

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SuperChain Capital
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SuperChain Capital is a venture capital and investment banking service organization oriented towards ecology and value in the crypto sector.