the nft bubble might burstingw

 

The new food trend is taking over the world faster than you can say 'avocado toast'. And it is a trend with staying power. Veganism has become all the rage, as well as healthier eating, fresher ingredients and a strong preference for organic food. But now there are signs that we might be peaking on this trend - in other words, the nft bubble might bursting.

   Image source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/13/22832146/bored-ape-nft-accidentally-sold-300000-fat-finger                           

News reports suggest that in recent months sales of ready-to-eat frozen meals have fallen for the first time in two years and supermarket chains are abandoning their healthier ranges because they're not moving enough stock to justify stocking them all of the time.

The frozen vegan food market has become the fastest growing sector in food, according to one industry analyst. But while supermarkets are selling more of these products, they are also selling more fresh vegetables and fruit.

After years of rising prices a vegetable glut means that the price of fresh produce is starting to fall. For example, potatoes have dwindled by up to four per cent in the past year alone - and prices for other vegetables like carrots and cabbage have fallen by an average three per cent over last year.

There are even anecdotal reports being circulated on social media about vegans 'literally starving' because their diet has become too expensive.

 

 Image source: https://womanofsolana.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Untitled-design-9.png

Experts have suggested that cutting back on such a diverse diet can lead to more health problems. Vegan nutritionist Victoria Taylor told The Daily Mail: "If you cut out the carbs, you cut out all the B vitamins, which are so important for our wellbeing."

The growing backlash from the cold war between vegans and meat-eaters among their families and friends, coupled with increasingly volatile global food prices, has led a number of supermarkets to begin giving away free vegan products as part of their 'buy one get one free' promotions.

 Image source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jan/04/bored-ape-nft-art-eminem

But these deals don't seem to be lasting all that long - at least in some areas.

A representative of a large supermarket in the south of England said: "We are doing one deal that works for the region and not nationally. People saying they are starving - it's not true."

While such deals may be countered by consumer panic in some markets, industry experts say that overall sales of vegan food are growing and there is no sign of the bubble bursting.

"The numbers tell us there is a move toward more plant-based foods," said Ben Wood, chief retail analyst at Coresight Research. "Retailers need to react to that growth or else risk losing out on business to non-traditional competitors like internet retailers. It was once the nft bubble might bursting, but it continues to grow and get bigger. The nft market is up over 2000% in the last year."

The NFT bubble is growing so rapidly that analysts are calling it a potential threat to stability. Does this mean that our "crypto-societies" are going to cease to exist? We hope not!    

 

Image source: https://www.ft.com/content/e5298295-8e79-411c-a054-a58f639ea8fa

There's no denying that this recent uptrend has been beautiful for a lot of people - there will be plenty for everyone, as long as you know where your next meal is coming from. But we feel like things may not be all rosy in the NFT market after all...

A long time ago, if you wanted to transfer value, you needed a third party - a bank or paypal or visa. They would stand between the two parties in the transaction and verify that it was legitimate.

But now we have something better - the blockchain! It's a network of computers around the world that are all keeping track of how much everything is worth. We don't need banks any more because now we have "smart contracts", "trustless exchanges", and "decentralized currencies". And all without an intermediary!

 

Image source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59638565

The problem with this (aside from faulty code), is that we still need a trusted third party for most of these things.

Take EOS, for example. It is a blockchain where anyone can create a new "dApp" that has the same capabilities as Ethereum's smart contracts. There is no need to trust any person or company to keep it running, because the users can delegate that responsibility to other users.

Now, let's say I want to move some of my EOS tokens around. I want to move them from my account staked in a "pool", over to another account on the network. There is no fee for this transaction and there are no intermediaries - it's just me sending tokens directly from one account to another on the EOS blockchain.