2021 has been a landmark year for NFTs and Sorare.
If you had asked me this time last year, I must admit I couldn’t have predicted such a breakout for NFTs this year. NFT sales surged past $10B in Q3, and we can expect close to $25B of NFT sales for 2021. Behind these numbers, two strong narratives shaped the year:
- Art: The art world discovered NFTs through Beeple’s $69M NFT auction on Christies, smashing misconceptions that digital art couldn’t be owned or valued like traditional art. Simultaneously, the entertainment world discovered NFTs with PFP (profile pictures mainly on Twitter) through Cryptopunks, Bored Apes (BAYC) and countless other interesting projects that one can find on OpenSea these days, proving that even the average consumer found value in owning digital works of art, and opening up a new channel for creators and artists to get paid for their work on the internet.
- Gaming: The incredible success of Axie Infinity (with more than 1 million Daily Active Users) and the rise of “play-to-earn” has shaken the industry. Instead of paying for in-game items that have no real-world value, NFTs will bring back power to the gamers, as they will be able to freely trade and use their gaming items all over the internet.
At Sorare, our thesis has always been that NFTs can bring the cultural masses to Web3, doing this specifically through the passion of sports. We want to build the next sports entertainment giant, by helping the billions of sports fans own their game and become stakeholders rather than stay spectators.
As we head into 2022, I find it useful to think about what we’re in for. It helps us define our roadmap and think about how to build a better sports gaming ecosystem for all. Here are my top predictions for what is going to happen in the 3 industries that Sorare sits in: NFTs, Gaming and Sports.
1. NFTs to unlock experiences
Non Fungible Tokens can be used to represent anything: art, gaming items, tickets to games, access to social experiences. Next year, we’ll be seeing more NFTs in our everyday life, helping owners of these NFTs unlock physical experiences.
Right now, if you own a Bored Ape, you are part of a club that can participate in certain events. On Sorare, if you own a LaLiga Ticket Edition NFT, you can physically attend a LaLiga game with it. If you owned the Gerard Piqué LaLiga Ticket Edition, you were able to attend the Clasico as a VIP, tour the stadium and go behind the scenes. In fact I predict we will see one major sporting event next year, be it the Super Bowl, UEFA Champions League Final or FIFA World Cup Final, to use NFTs as tickets.
The opportunities are endless and I expect NFTs will help create connections between the digital world and the physical world, ranging from sports with Sorare, to music and concerts and many different industries. We intend to invest in this area and build NFTs that can unlock sport experiences.
2. 50% of decentralised apps will run on zk-rollups by year-end
Rollups are poised to be the scalability solution for all blockchains. With an increasing number of users, scalability is one of the biggest roadblocks to mainstream blockchain adoption. Rollups are hybrid solutions in that they move transactions outside the main “layer 1” blockchain but still keep some data per-transaction on it. It is first being implemented on Ethereum but I expect all blockchains will start to adopt rollup technology, including Solana, Flow, Cosmos etc. in order to achieve greater privacy and scalability, a prerequisite for any application that targets billions of users.
An increasing community of decentralised apps, or “dapps”, are now live on rollups (see here) but I believe that 2022 will be the breakout year for ZK technology. This is a long-term infrastructure trend that will help bring blockchain applications to hundreds of millions of users. For more context, our lead blockchain engineer Pierre explained why we chose rollups and Starkware to build our infrastructure.
3. Legacy gaming studios will dip their toes in NFTs
With the rise of crypto games, I’m expecting to see much more action from traditional gaming studios in the world of NFTs. This could be a top gaming studio launching NFTs in games played by tens of millions of users, or increased M&A between Gaming Studios and Web3 games. It could also very well be more Web3 Studios like Sorare investing in traditional studios to help further build interoperability between games or acqui-hire some talent. My belief is that crypto-native gaming studios will be able to move faster than others. If you’re from a traditional gaming studio looking to build the future of gaming, join us, we have more than 50 positions opened.
Down the line, I think we’ll see more interest from traditional gaming studios in experimenting with interoperable games, bringing external IPs into their universe and seeing if there is a path for interconnected games that puts the gamer at the center of the experience. It may take years but interoperability is a worthwhile pursuit for gamers and developers. Being able to take earned or purchased gaming assets from one game to another provides players with much more value, and for gaming studios each new gaming use case adds value to the underlying asset, increasing the asset’s desirability and liquidity all over the internet.
4. NFTs will be the bricks of the Metaverse
If a big part of our future lives are spent living in global, virtual, interconnected worlds (the metaverse), then NFTs are some of the primary building blocks for everything in that world.
With the development of centralized Metaverses vs decentralized Metaverses, users will further realize the value of truly owning their assets. With a centralized Metaverse, people will create content and games that the centralized entity behind the Metaverse will own. With a decentralized metaverse, any content and game built by people will be owned by these same people. The difference will be obvious. I expect more social platforms to adopt NFTs as they shift to the metaverse, which requires a functioning economy that works across platforms.
5. The rise of NFTs will help boost Women’s Sports’ fanbase
Women’s sports have been historically underrepresented, underappreciated and undervalued. We believe that NFTs can significantly accelerate the development of women’s sports by giving fans a direct line of support to the teams and players they care about, while also bringing in the broader sports and NFT communities who understand the value of these collectible items.
At Sorare, we’ve been lucky to see how leagues around the world have expanded their fan bases thanks to our engaged community — while typical sports fans mostly cheer on their home team, Sorare players get invested in their favorite players all around the world as they build their fantasy teams (see examples here). We expect to see the same broadening of engagement happen here, with players engaging in women’s sports that they previously may have ignored. At Sorare, we’re committed to changing the tides by investing in women’s sports and working on the inclusion of women in the three industries we sit in: the NFT, Gaming and Crypto space.
6. The Top 10 Sports Organizations will develop sophisticated NFT strategies
2021 saw a lot of excitement in sports about crypto and it has been the fastest sponsorship category in sports. However, crypto and NFTs are different. And NFTs are not a market but a technology.
2022 will see the excitement from this year channelled by sports organizations into developing a more sophisticated understanding of the power of NFTs in 2022, to connect with fans, add value and unlock experiences. With that understanding will come specialist hires (think Head of Digital Assets) but also a deeper grasp of the differences between the different sports crypto business models, as well as between which are the legitimate players and which are the unproven ones.
7. Most NFTs will go to zero
Yes, 2021 has been a crazy year.
Yes, most people still think NFTs are a fad.
Yes, like any ground breaking technology such as the internet, there is irrational exuberance.
As we’re entering the possibilities offered by Web3 — the decentralized, ownable and programmable web — we have seen hundreds of new projects popping up every day. But it’s important to remember that Web3 is not about specific NFTs, it’s about what you can do with it, be that providing access, social capital or utility.
I expect most NFTs will go to zero the same way most .com companies went to zero — the hype does not negate the underlying trend, and if you choose projects that build for the long-term, you will find the Amazon of the .com bubble. NFTs help you own a piece of the internet and as our good friend Alexis Ohanian explains, the internet is a culture machine and is a community connector. Ultimately, NFTs are now a part of the culture, and while not every NFT will survive, we will absolutely see projects that will retain value for centuries to come.
While some of these predictions may seem bold or out there, I’d say that it’s not a matter of “if” but rather “when.” If 2021 taught us anything, it’s that the power of NFTs are being embraced even faster than even those in the industry would have expected, and I can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store. If you’re excited about NFT technology and its impact in Gaming or Sports, we have many open positions here
Predictions for 2022 was originally published in Sorare on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
