"The Only Thing That NFTS Give Back Is a Hyperlink That Will Expire One Day"

As the subtitle suggests, this story is a rather personal one. I've left out some details, but I really wanted to give my own personal experience with NFTs. I decided to write this piece because of an interesting conversation I had with someone who was very much opposed to NFTs. At one point they made the remark that "the only thing that NFTs give back is a hyperlink that will expire one day." 

There's a lot of hate for NFTs. Some concerns are valid. There are a lot of scams related to the technology. The same can be said about email. It's energy intensive. So is email. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? A person could write entire research papers on the topic. However, one thing is for certain: there are those who benefit, and not just big players, project leaders, etc. 

I've seen plenty of big success stories. I've seen people get incredibly lucky and end up a teenage millionaire because they bought into some NFT project that blew up. I never got lucky like that. But I'll say this. I'm a lot better off now than I was a year ago, and that's because of NFTs. Over the last few years I've played a lot of web3 games. These games have their assets in NFTs. I did spend money on them, as many people do spend money on in game assets. The difference is that web3 projects often give back to the community through airdrops. And that's what happened to me.

Early last year, I was at my wit's end financially. Things were a real mess. So much was going wrong and I was lost. And then, throughout the year, these projects that I had "invested" in, simply because I liked the games, airdropped their governance tokens to their communities. Governance tokens are used for a number of things, including guiding the direction of projects, and even directly influencing them in many cases. The airdrop amounts were set using the number and type of NFTs held. I ended up receiving significant airdrops from Gods Unchained, Immutable X, and Splinterlands.

How much? Over the course of the year I was airdropped probably close to $70K worth of governance tokens. I kept some, but sold a bunch off. I was able to do much needed repairs to my family's home. I was able to support my fiancée with her expenses. She lives in the Philippines and was hard hit by Super Typhoon Rai/Odette. I still of course wish I could do more, but I am so thankful to NFTs for giving me the resources to help as I could. 

I'm also integrated into the VTubing community. I'm only a part time VTuber, but I have a lot of friends who are VTubers, and I always want to support them. Of course, money being tight, I always felt guilty doing so. With the money I received from the airdrops, I was able to subscribe to my favorite channels, cheer with plenty of points, gift subs to other fans of the channels, and donate to many fellow VTubers. 

I also was able to give thousands of dollars to charity, commission friends for art, and treat myself to nice things without feeling bad for spending money on self care. As important as self care is, I always felt guilty because the self care that worked for me often costs a lot of money, and I didn't have as much as I should to be spending as much as I did. That guilt was finally resolved because of the earnings I've received from web3 projects.

So yes. There is a lot of NFT hate, and there are a lot of shit projects. But I am living proof that "the only thing they give back is a hyperlink" is simply not correct. There are NFT/web3 projects which give back to the community. And that's very often the case, especially when there is a real product, like a game, connected to it. Of course, everyone's experience is different, and I'm not going to give any investment advise. I also don't seek out web3 projects just to invest, or primarily to invest. I seek out projects that have a solid core and that I want to utilize.