Shark Tank star and billionaire investor Mark Cuban is sharing his perspective on what use cases will push crypto projects to the top of the industry.
In an interview with Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, Cuban explains how the current state of the crypto market is reminiscent of the internet in 1995.
“There was a transition back then from analog to digital. And now, it’s a transition from digital to distributed and decentralized and secure. The way people looked at networking, whether it was streaming protocols, or JavaScript, as a platform to transition businesses towards digitally based businesses, we’re seeing that same opportunity with smart contracts.
We’re seeing a rush where there’s a lot of different blockchains competing. But like [back] then, it’s going to come down to applications and implications and integrations, so that when companies start to put smart contracts to work, that’s when we’ll start to see things really level out.”
Cuban goes on to say how the best real-world use cases for decentralized applications (DApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are yet to be seen in crypto.
While NFTs as digital collectibles are a proof of concept, he thinks business applications will unlock the real value of smart contracts and NFT technology.
“It’s hard to separate the signal from the noise. But it goes back to just what you’re saying, I couldn’t agree more, it comes down to utility. When people create these applications, who’s using them and how?
And we have yet to see the gold rush, if you will, for business applications. An NFT as a collectible is great, and it’s fun and it’s entertaining, but that’s just a proof of concept. Smart contracts with or without NFTs for insurance applications, for medical applications, for textbooks, for any number of things that you can think of – those are the holy grails.”
Cuban does note, however, that certain crypto models like the current play-to-earn model could become a great method for charity fundraising.
“The play-to-earn model of crypto potentially has a chance to be a model for charity, because you can find ways to allow people to participate. To not necessarily become self-supportive, but where you can create a whole ecosystem and economy that brings in third-party revenue because there’s so many participants.
You can sell advertising, you can sell a lot of things that in turn go to support the people who are participating to earn.”
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