NFTs are dead? Long live NFTs: A technical deep dive and real-world use cases from “NFTs are dead. Long live NFTs!” by Daniel Kreiseder (hilarion 5)

The thesis in one line

“Is this something sensible – or is it nothing?” With that blunt prompt, Daniel Kreiseder from hilarion 5 opened his session “NFTs are dead. Long live NFTs!”. We at DevJobs.at watched with an engineer’s eye: less noise, more architecture, standards, and practical patterns you can ship.

Our takeaway: the frenzy has cooled, the junk gets filtered out – but the technology remains. And it shines where decentralization, tamper-resistance, programmable ownership, and cross-platform composability solve real problems.

What an NFT actually is – and what it isn’t

Kreiseder’s definition is crisp: NFT = Non-Fungible Token, a unique digital representation of “something.” Unlike fungible units (euro, bitcoin, ether), each NFT is unique and non-interchangeable.

• The substrate is a blockchain: many independent nodes keep a shared, append-only chain of data blocks. That’s where bitcoin, ether – and NFTs – live.
• The standard is ERC‑721: “An NFT is a token under the ERC 721 standard.” The spec describes how non-fungible tokens are structured, owned, transferred, and enumerated.
• The language is Solidity: Smart contracts are authored in Solidity and deployed to the target chain. They are the logic layer for minting, holding, and transferring NFTs.

One semantic rule Kreiseder emphasizes: “Minting means creating the NFT.” In practice, people often say “I minted an NFT” when they actually bought one from someone else. That’s a secondary-market transfer, not a mint. The distinction matters for provenance and lifecycle analytics.

Smart contracts: why simple is safer, and OpenZeppelin matters

The session walked through a lean contract design with a mintNFT function and minimal methods. The strong recommendation: use OpenZeppelin – a set of audited libraries and best practices.

Why this is critical:

• NFTs often involve money; weak contracts invite theft.
• With OpenZeppelin’s building blocks and counters for incremental token IDs, you reduce risk and increase correctness. “If you use it, you never go wrong.”

From an engineering standpoint, keep the contract tight, transparent in purpose, and composed of well-tested primitives. Complexity belongs in the product logic surrounding the token – not in fragile, one-off on-chain code.

On-chain identity: contract, token ID, minter

Every minted token references the specific smart contract it originated from. All of this is public on-chain and inspectable via a block explorer. That’s more than convenience:

• Source of truth: the contract address signals authenticity of a collection.
• Minter provenance: who created the token, when – the immutable trail protects against forgeries and copycat assets.
• Token IDs: consecutive IDs (the second, third, fourth token) make series coherent and discoverable.

For product teams, make official contract verification and explorer links first-class citizens in your UI. Everything else is cosmetics.

Metadata: JSON structure, attributes, and the IPFS quality bar

On-chain data is just the skeleton. Each NFT also points to a metadata JSON document. A widely used schema contains:

• Name and description
• Attributes (often under trait_type labels and values)
• A media link (commonly under image)

Kreiseder showed a small internal demo: a Duplo rocket where each brick carries a QR code. Scan it, mint the corresponding NFT. The image shows the rocket and a cat as the “pilot,” with attributes like background color (“Black”) and a rare “Star-Eyed Cat” trait. Value wasn’t the point – format was. Attributes get parsed and displayed by marketplaces automatically.

The crucial metadata line is the media URL. Here, decentralization becomes tangible:

• IPFS is a distributed storage network. Linking to ipfs://… reduces reliance on any single server.
• Plain https://… on a centralized host is brittle: “If they turn off the web server, I have a problem.”

Kreiseder treats IPFS links as a quality hallmark. We agree: durability, verifiability, and trust all improve when you avoid single points of failure for asset hosting.

The hype, the JPEGs – and the market reset

Yes, the canonical examples were mentioned: Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, Beeple’s “Everydays” collage (sold for $69.3M). “A lot of money” was made, fueled by a massive hype. But recent numbers tell a different story:

• OpenSea is the main venue for NFT secondary trading.
• Over the past months, “trading volume on OpenSea plummeted by 99%,” active users dropped, transactions declined as well.
• Several factors converged: lower average prices, falling crypto exchange rates (ether was worth more months ago), and supply/demand normalizing.

Kreiseder checked OpenSea himself: plenty of “junk,” copycat uploads, and clutter. Think “ghost town after a gold rush.”

For engineers and product leaders, that’s healthy. It raises the bar: ship real utility, solid tech, and measurable value – not just pictures and hype.

Not dead: social integrations and authenticity UX

Major social platforms are tentatively embracing user‑owned assets with verification layers:

• Twitter Blue: paying users can set NFTs as profile images. Verified avatars render as hexagons and link to on-chain details including trait lists.
• Instagram and Facebook: “We’re doing it now as well,” rolling out collectibles uploads and display across countries in staged fashion.

Technically, these are identity and authenticity UX primitives. If you build frontends and wallet experiences, expect validation and provenance cues to become standard components.

ENS: making addresses human

ENS (Ethereum Name Service) is Web3’s DNS. It maps long hex wallet addresses to human-readable names. The utility is obvious: for sending an NFT, names beat hex strings.

Kreiseder highlighted that registrations are “still rising,” with an unusually high monthly bar as of September 7. For developers, ENS resolution should be a first-class consideration in wallet flows and DApps – it reduces errors and anchors identity at the protocol layer.

Fashion: anti-counterfeiting, digital twins, and metaverse commerce

Fashion suffers from counterfeits. NFTs are a natural fit for provenance and digital‑physical bridges:

• Roblox/Nike: “Nike Land” – a store with items and gamification (“buy shirt, sneakers, pants; get a hat”). Mechanics that fuse identity, collectibles, and gameplay.
• Gucci Town and Louis Vuitton: LV even launched an NFT game where users can “walk around” with LV fashion and earn.
• RTFKT: digital sneakers sold as NFTs; “Nike said this is cool; they bought them. Now it belongs to Nike.”
• Adidas: active in similar digital collectible plays.
• Dolce & Gabbana: a “glass suit” NFT plus the physical suit sold for a six‑figure amount.
• Philipp Plein: early adopter of bitcoin/ether payments; metaverse shop; digital segment at Fashion Week.

The pattern: “Buy a shoe, get an NFT – or buy an NFT, get the shoe.” From a systems view, the NFT is an ownership token that connects physical supply chains, digital twins, and in‑world usage.

Customer engagement: Clinique, Burger King, Starbucks

Several campaigns illustrate how brands use NFTs for loyalty and gamified engagement:

• Clinique: raffle of three exclusive NFTs; winners become “Digital Ambassadors” and receive a year of free products; entry via social sharing.
• Burger King: QR codes on boxes; scan to mint, collect pieces (“complete the king”) and unlock a special NFT.
• Starbucks: “heavily investing in NFTs” – details pending. Notable because Starbucks already runs a massive loyalty program.
• AMC Theatres: for a Spider‑Man movie launch, attendees could mint a Spider‑Man NFT with their ticket. Outcome: full AMC theaters, while other venues were less packed.

For engineers, expect QR‑to‑mint flows, token‑gated perks, off‑chain utilities linked to on‑chain ownership, and verifiable campaign data to become part of your toolbox.

Music: NFT releases and chart relevance

In music, there are “labels” selling music as NFTs. Notable mentions:

• Snoop Dogg: released a new album “also with NFTs” – artwork plus audio.
• Muse: launched a new album with thousands of NFTs; sold out quickly; secondary prices around “€270” per track at the time of observation.

A strong signal: “The UK album charts count NFT sales.” Kreiseder also points out a compelling model design: taking a percentage fee on secondary resales (e.g., 5%) “makes it interesting.” That requires contract‑level logic compatible with secondary marketplaces and a clear metadata policy.

Sports: Barca’s utilities, Panini‑style packs, and FIFA Plus Collect

This domain showcases the spectrum of “utility” particularly well:

• FC Barcelona: five NFTs featuring curated videos (e.g., Johan Cruyff) and concrete utilities: meet‑&‑greet, youth academy visit, free food and drinks for several years, a friendly match on the Camp Nou pitch, ceremonial duties at kickoffs, and being “one of five Barca Digital Ambassadors.” The first NFT sold for “€693,000” (less, after auction fees).
• FC Bayern Munich Basketball: a Panini‑like digital album – packs of five images (sixth free), pricier packs with guaranteed rarity; complete sets unlock utilities (e.g., team meetups). Similar efforts from the German national team and VfL Wolfsburg.
• Formula 1: many unfamiliar sponsors now on cars are crypto‑related; high likelihood of team‑linked NFT series. For the Las Vegas Grand Prix, trademarks for crypto/NFT topics were filed; details TBD.
• Binance Fan Tokens: “like a currency” – useful for fans, “a bit junk” otherwise.
• Lazio: tickets carry QR codes redeemable for NFTs – a start toward club‑native digital Panini albums.
• FIFA Plus Collect: announced a collection around “magical World Cup moments,” pitched as “for everyone,” “very cheap.” The speaker cautions against taking such promises at face value.

Bottom line: from high‑end auctions with exclusive experiences to mass‑market collectibles – all powered by simple mint/transfer mechanics plus utility logic.

Gaming: play‑to‑own, “digital collectibles,” and a naming problem

“Gaming is basically prewired for this,” says Kreiseder: items, progression, upgrades – all fit non‑fungible, tradeable goods. But the term “NFT” has become “somewhat stigmatized.” Some projects use NFTs but never say “NFT,” opting for “digital collectibles.” Others label products as NFTs without being technical NFTs.

Examples mentioned:

• Axie Infinity: an NFT game with “pay to earn” mechanics; historically a high entry price (multiple NFTs, earlier about €600; current status not elaborated).
• Roblox: blurs the line between metaverse and game; a hub for brand activations (Nike Land).
• Sorare: “own your game” for football, baseball, and American football; assemble teams as NFTs and play leagues. “Yesterday,” the NBA was announced for the new season.

If you build here, focus on wallet UX, frictionless onboarding, semantic clarity (NFT vs. collectible), and secondary‑market fraud prevention.

Tickets: anti-counterfeiting and transparent resales

Tickets are textbook candidates for tamper‑resistant ownership tokens:

• Champions League final in Paris: kickoff delayed multiple times due to mass counterfeits – a real failure case NFTs address directly.
• Paris 2024: organizers are “strongly considering” NFT tickets for the Olympics – for authenticity and traceability.
• Coachella: NFTs with lifetime access – pricey but a clear utility model.
• Crypto events: “Doing them without NFT tickets is almost impossible today.”
• Ticketmaster: moving toward NFTs, competing with specialized startups like “Getprotokoll” and “Avid.”

The technical story is coherent: On‑chain tickets reduce fraud, enable controlled secondary markets, and provide simple verification paths (back to the contract) – with hooks for access control and perks.

Engineering takeaways: patterns, tools, and calls to action

From a builder’s perspective, the session yields a concrete checklist:

1) Embrace standards

• Use ERC‑721 for non‑fungible assets.
• Build on OpenZeppelin to maximize security, reuse, and correctness.

2) Get the semantics right

• Mint = creation. Secondary trades = transfers. Airdrops = transfers from issuer to holder.
• This clarity simplifies analytics, user education, and debugging.

3) Split data concerns properly

• Keep on-chain minimal; structure metadata as JSON with name, description, attributes, and media.
• Treat IPFS links as a quality requirement. Avoid brittle centralized https:// asset URLs.

4) Make provenance first-class

• Surface contract addresses, minter provenance, and token IDs. Link to explorers.
• Validate against official contract sources; don’t rely on visual cues alone.

5) Design for utility, not speculation

• From meet‑&‑greets (Barca) to QR‑based collectibles (Burger King) and lifetime passes (Coachella) – utility is what outlasts the hype.

6) Identity UX: add ENS resolution

• Human‑readable names reduce transfer errors and improve user trust.
• They also play nicely with social verification patterns (Twitter hexagons, Instagram collectibles).

7) Respect platform reality

• Rollouts are staggered across regions; implement feature flags and resilient fallbacks.
• Use “digital collectibles” judiciously if it aligns better with user expectations.

8) Welcome the post‑hype market

• Lower volumes and less speculation are good for builders.
• Focus on security, stability, utility, and robust bridges between physical and digital goods.

A pragmatic first build

Kreiseder closes with a hands‑on suggestion: “At least mint or buy one NFT.” It can be cheap – “there are low‑cost blockchains.” An MVP blueprint:

• Minimal ERC‑721 contract using OpenZeppelin; deploy to a low‑cost network.
• A simple mint path that references an IPFS‑hosted metadata JSON.
• A compact set of attributes and a media asset on IPFS.
• A QR‑to‑wallet flow to kick off a mint (inspired by the Duplo rocket demo).
• Verification via a block explorer and marketplace read‑only views (check contract, token ID, minter).

This isn’t about “becoming the next Beeple.” It’s about running the rails once – with real tools and real constraints.

Conclusion: Long live NFTs – when engineering leads

“The junk has no chance anymore.” That line from “NFTs are dead. Long live NFTs!” by Daniel Kreiseder (hilarion 5) captures the moment. It’s the right time to treat NFTs as what they fundamentally are: standardized, programmable ownership markers on a public infrastructure.

Fashion, music, sports, gaming, ticketing, social – the examples converge on the same point: where authenticity, interoperability, traceability, and utility meet, NFTs make sense. For engineering teams: choose standards, model metadata well, prefer IPFS, integrate ENS, and design for utility.

The hype has passed. The architecture work remains – and it’s more interesting than ever. Long live NFTs.

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