But more specifically, let’s talk profile picture projects (PFPs). If you are “surfacely” familiar with NFTs, then you’ve likely seen media coverage that includes illustrations of Apes with price tags you could never justify. You have likely asked yourself, “what’s happening here” or “why are people spending so much money on a picture”? If you have ever been curious about the answer or if you’re at least open to the perspective of those actively participating in the space, then this might just be the blog post for you.

So… what’s happening here?
Well in short, blockchain technology has brought scarcity to the internet – and where scarcity exists, there is opportunity. Creators, entrepreneurs, and the like are actively seeking to harness this idea to create value, and so in many cases make “limited offerings”. When we think of “limited editions”, we oftentimes affiliate this idea with collectors’ items which could include anything from clothing to albums to trading cards. We see items worn once by Madonna, albums signed by the late Michael Jackson or sports cards of your favourite athlete in their rookie season sell for obscene amounts of money. The idea is rooted in the most basic of economic concepts – supply & demand.

Now, back to PFP NFTs.
Those monkey JPEGs leveraged blockchain technology to make them scarce – a limited collection of 10,000 PFPs; and through their own efforts and the magic of community driven markets, they managed to generate demand in excess of the size of their collection. So, you see, blockchain brought the familiarity of market dynamics/price action affiliated with shortages in-real-life, to the abundance of the internet. In our next blog post, we’ll discuss exactly how blockchain made all this possible. But before we close, ask yourself – if there really is a way to make items scarce on the internet – the question is not, what the hell is happening here – it should be, what the hell could be happening here? At Yaad Labs, we obsessed over this question, and we believe we found the right answers.

Follow Yaad Labs on social media, pay attention to our website, as well as the blog and you will see a live demonstration of how asking the right questions, led to the international success of this Caribbean based start-up.