George J Chanos; The Futurist Talks NFT

The power of artists is about to change. And it all has to do with three little letters—NFT.

NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. If that means nothing to you yet, it will.

We sat down with George Chanos to discuss artists, NFTs, and more on The Art of Making Things Happen.

George Chanos is an author, speaker, and futurist. But that’s not all. He’s the former Attorney General of Nevada, the CEO of sandwich chain Capriotti’s, and an entrepreneur.

In his new book Millennial Samurai, he unravels the mysteries of trends ready to change the world.

Read on to discover all he had to say about artists, NFTs, broad learning, and the state of the future.

Three Little Letters Will Change the Future of Business

Imagine you could go back to the 1990s when URLs only began. At that time, you could buy any URL you wanted and wait for the money to pour in.

Imagine buying the URL for Coke, Pepsi, Nike, or any other major brand. You’d be rich!

Now imagine you stepped back in time to 2010. Not that long ago, right? Imagine you had the wherewithal to understand how huge Bitcoin would become.

You could have bought shares of Bitcoin for eight cents a share. You’d be filthy rich!

According to George Chanos, NFTs are the URL and Bitcoins of our time. So what are NFTs, and how can you get involved?

NFTs Explained

Non-fungible tokens are like Bitcoins but altogether different.

Bitcoins are fungible tokens. What that means is they operate like money. They have a specific value, like a dollar bill. One Bitcoin has the same value everywhere. Got it?

Non-fungible tokens are unique and have different values. What’s more, the value of the same token can increase over time.

That means a non-fungible token worth eight cents today could be a million ten years from now.

You can think of Bitcoin, or fungible tokens as money, and NFTs, non-fungible tokens as pieces of stock.

That stock could go up, down, or nowhere depending on its value in the marketplace. Your ability to crack the code of what will be valuable is the magic of NFTs.

How The Art Community Is Embracing NFTs

The art community has started to see the value of NFTs and is using them to take back control. One example Chanos highlights is Larva Labs. 

The company created 10,000 digitized characters that were all unique. They minted their artwork with proof of ownership stored on an Ethereum blockchain. They go by the name CryptoPunks.

Then they gave them away for free upon release in 2017. Today, those same NFTs are worth $352.46 million! The lowest price for one is shy of $50,000.

That’s the power of non-fungible tokens.

With NFTs, an artist can continue to receive royalties on artwork every time it’s sold. It’s as simple as stating a royalty percentage on an Ethereum blockchain. Every time it’s traded, the artist would get the royalty.

George Chanos believes this will be the future of business. And not only in art but in many industries.

How NFTs Could Change the Way People Do Business

Chanos states in the future that people won’t need intermediary businesses anymore. People can sell items direct to a consumer through blockchain and NFTs.

He says this will cause economic disruptions in many industries. People will have to pivot and change with the times. He calls this movement a tsunami that’s coming like a freight train.

Once it gets here, it will change everything. While it sounds doom and gloom, he doesn’t see it that way. He sees tremendous opportunities among the challenges.

What Do You Think?

Curious about learning more about George Chanos? Check out his book Millennial Samurai and follow him on social media. Want to read it for free? Download a free copy here.

 For more great content and to hear the interview, go to The Art of Making Things Happen Podcast.