NFTs offer a new way to ‘store culture’ says Animoca Brands CEO

NFTs offer a new way to ‘store culture’ says Animoca Brands CEO

Co-founder and chairman of NFT Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, has said he believes nonfungible tokens (NFTs) offer a new way for culture to be encased in the virtual sphere.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, game developer Animoca Brands Chairman Siu has argued that while the technological underpinnings of NFTs as an art form may be new, the passionate desire of humans to “store culture” has long been a case in history.

Siu said that NFTs are described as “stores of culture”, solely for the reason that they “embody a moment in history.” 

Siu also added that the whole purpose of art is that “art stores culture.”

Siu is based in Hong Kong, where he is known as a tech entrepreneur, having previous work experience at Atari. Siu has also been the founder of another gaming company called Outblaze.

Established in 2014, his latest, Animoca Brands, is known to have launched notable NFT projects, including F1 Delta Time, The Sandbox, and MotoGP Ignition. The brand has also invested in OpenSea, Dapper Labs and Axie Infinity.

Animoca Brands has completed an $88.88 million capital raise in May 2021 based on a valuation of $1 billion.

Siu expanded that culture is not just the monetary value of any art form or artwork, but also the human emotion of having keepsakes, collecting memories and so on make it so cherished. He gave an example of his daughter, who is a fan of the music band BTS, saying she would not be willing to take autographs of the famous K-pop artists only to sell them for a quick profit.

Siu explained that most of the paintings in the world are not worth even a ton, but they are in reality just “owning culture,” where a vast majority of art collectors aim to keep it as culture or history souvenirs. “That’s not how we engage with culture,” he remarked.

Speaking about advice for a newcomer in NFTs, Siu urged that the younger generation starting out in NFTs should not run after fast profiteering, but rather immerse themselves in revolutionizing their utilities through the application of technology.

Siu has also argued in the interview that NFTs actually represent a “dialectic shift” in data rights and data ownership as the most interesting thing about this kind of ownership is that people are “able to create” and that it doesn’t come from any sort of a diggable resource.

Siu added that data is the world’s “most valuable resource”, pointing to the biggest tech companies like Facebook and Amazon. They are trying to mine “every skerrick of data” from their users for making advertising more personalized and customizable for every individual user.

 Siu also said that data has now become “the source of absolute power.”