What NFT Collections Could Learn from LEGOs

There’s truly nothing simple about NFTs. Everything from creating a wallet to doing due diligence on NFT projects to getting on a whitelist to minting the NFT. Every step of the way has friction that acts as off-ramps to becoming a part of the NFT collectorship. LEGOs, on the other hand, are dummy-proof.

An orangutan can play with LEGOs but can’t mint an NFT.

A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from Li Jin discussing what NFT collections could learn from LEGOs. The theory caught my attention, as LEGOs aren’t often used as a growth case study.

Li parlays three concepts that LEGOs embodies:

1. Network effects – Each new user who buys them & each new collection purchased ADDS value to existing owners because they’re all interoperable and composable.
2. Hand-me-down acquisition – New generations of Lego players often get bootstrapped via hand-me-downs, making it easier to be inducted into the community.
3. Price tiers – There are different price tiers of Legos, so price discrimination can happen among superfans vs. casual fans, but importantly there are low barriers to entry for newcomers.

In the video below, I rebuttal Li’s argument with a few thoughts of my own.

Truthfully, all three of her lessons for NFT collections are valid. I look at a project like BYOPills which has collaborated with a number of blockchain games, creating utility for their NFTs in numerous other metaverses. They’ve achieved a level of network effects through interoperability.

But I also think that before we get too deep, we’re still desperately needing to improve the accessibility of NFTs. We need to make it easier for people to test the waters. It’s why we see companies like Coinbase and YouTube announce marketplaces or NFT plans. They realize that it’s a perfect time to come in as the easiest option for NFT participation.

This concept was featured on Episode 25 of the NFT QT Show – 6 Ideas that Will Influence the Future of NFTs – which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/bBPOJbyDErw?

For more information on the topics discussed in this newsletter, head over to https://NFTQT.com

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