These ten innovators paved the way for others to follow, revealing vast prospects in the NFT sector
NFT pioneers have changed the landscape by pushing the limits of accepted wisdom and exploring unknown waters. These pioneers have shown the revolutionary power of NFTs via their breakthrough work, which includes Meni Rosenfield’s groundbreaking work on colored coins and the NBA’s introduction of NBA Top Shot.
1. National Basketball Association: Brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s often capitalize on consumer interest in NFTs by creating their collectibles. However, the NBA was the first company to see the value of providing fans with digital assets. With the assistance of Dapper Labs, the NBA released its NBA Top Shot line of NFTs in October 2020, demonstrating to other companies that they were missing out if they didn’t provide an NFT collection.
2. Meni Rosenfield: The initial steps toward creating NFTs were taken in December 2012, when Meni Rosenfeld, a mathematician and President of the Israeli Bitcoin Association, wrote a paper titled “Overview of Colored Coins.” The paper described a way to distinguish certain Bitcoins from others. These “colored” currencies might be used to construct apps, transforming Bitcoin from a coin to a development area.
3. Joel Comm and Travis Wright: Joel Comm and Travis Wright, well known for their podcasts The Bad Crypto Podcast and The Nifty Show, which teach blockchain and NFTs to a general audience, chose to mint many successful collections on the WAX blockchain, a quicker and more cost-effective alternative to Ethereum. Their Blockchain Heroes digital trading card series cleared the road for hundreds of NFT developers to enter the WAX arena. The partnership is credited with launching the first actual product as an NFT “Kickstarter” and pioneering many of the gamified components NFT artists now enjoy.
4. Kevin Mccoy: Kevin McCoy, a digital artist, created the first NFT art, which addressed the main topic that has motivated NFTs ever since. McCoy and his wife Jennifer produced Quantum, a piece of code-driven digital art, in 2014. McCoy intended to sell the art but required proof of its authenticity. He registered Quantum on Namecoin, a Bitcoin spinoff, with the help of computer entrepreneur Anil Dash and demonstrated that digital artists can sell unique works online.
5. Matt Hall and John Watkinson: John Watkinson experimented with a pixel character generator in 2017 that uses random sprites to create characters. Although he produced intriguing figures resembling massively pixelated punks, he was still determining what to do with them. Together with Matt Hall, a friend of his, they decided to create CryptoPunks on Ethereum. It was unclear if customers would be interested in purchasing and selling basic, randomly altered photographs. Since numerous CryptoPunks fetched millions of dollars on the secondary market, it is evident that there was a demand for even basic collections in the NFT sector.
6. Cyrus Adkisson: NFT art and NFT land in virtual worlds have found markets. Etheria was created by Cyrus Adkisson in July 2015, not long after Ethereum went live, and it served as the model for expansive worlds like Decentraland and The Sandbox. Only 33 x 33 hexagonal tiles made up the planet, on which owners might erect structures using connecting bricks. The assets were transferable, and all information, including owners, bricks, and even brick color, was kept on Ethereum.
7. Wylie Aranow, Kerem Atalay, Zeshan Ali, and Greg Solano: Wylie Aranow, Kerem Atalay, Zeshan Ali, and Greg Solano demonstrated that ownership of NFTs could serve as the cornerstone of communities while other pioneers demonstrated how the blockchain could demonstrate the provenance and ownership of digital art and that consumers would buy such works even when the art was essential. Their Bored Ape Yacht Club, which featured cartoon simians resembling sluggish, wealthy tech investors, sold for millions of dollars and sparked actual meet-ups. Although NFTs appear to be entirely digital, the Bored Ape Yacht Club demonstrated that actions taken on the blockchain may impact outside of it.
8. Mike Winkelmann: Few individuals owe Kevin McCoy more than Mike Winkelmann, best known as Beeple, the digital artist. Winkelmann used McCoy’s provenance-proving combination of art with blockchain to become the inaugural digital artist to sell his work through Christie’s. Not only did he demonstrate that digital art supported by NFTs could be traded comparable to mainstream art, but he also demonstrated that collectors could afford a high price for that art. His 5,000-image collage cost more than $69 million, making it the most pricey NFT.
9. Roham Gharegozlou: Not every blockchain art is as profound as Quantum or Beeple’s Everyday: The First 5000 Days. In 2017, Roham Gharegozlou intended to illustrate the blockchain’s attractiveness by leveraging it to create something enjoyable and mainstream. He directed his business, Axiom Zen, to create a game involving cartoon cats using Ethereum smart contracts. To breed and exchange digital kittens in CryptoKitties, participants have to purchase Ether. The game was a big success, demonstrating that the blockchain could be used for more than just sending and receiving money.
10. Bas de Gruyter, Daniel Kraft, and Andrew Colosimo: NFTs are now transforming the gaming industry by enabling players to profit from their efforts and acquire ownership of in-game assets. However, the blockchain gaming platform Xaya’s Andrew Colosimo, Daniel Kraft, and Bas de Gruyter were instrumental in making it happen. They published their game, Huntercoin, as a one-year experiment, in February 2014. Hunterworld, an entirely decentralized independent gaming world, is still operational and lets players combat one another in search of resources.
