I must admit to feeling totally bamboozled.
The subject I cannot grasp is NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
An email popped into my inbox this week from IHG Hotels & Resorts, which said it is partnering with artist Claire Luxton to produce 10 NFTs of her art.
Each piece of art represents a specific hotel in IHG’s portfolio, the release states.
The buyer of any of these NFTs, apparently, receives instant “ambassador” status in IHG’s loyalty platform, which is understandable as these NFTs do not come cheap.
I even understand language I read on NFTs about increasing the hotel firm’s share of wallet, how NFTs can be used for exclusive bookings, and the like, but it is just that I cannot understand how all this works, or, more accurately, how anyone would consider this a workable option.
Is it the same as money, in the sense that a 10-pound note is only worth 10 pounds because we all agree that is it, and it is backed by the Bank of England, which promises 10 pounds is worth 10 pounds?
Technology constantly changes, of course, and with it ways of purchasing and spending.
Blockchain technology sorts out questions regarding ownership and authenticity, and I do understand how that works, although let’s face it, cryptocurrency has not had a great deal of favorable press lately.
I feel somewhat like a cave dweller who learns that cowrie shells are no longer valuable because we’re all now being told to use paper money.
The idea that anything can be assigned a value and can be bought with that value underpinning a commercial transaction presents me no problems, beyond my very unsophisticated thinking of what is very basic capitalism.
Are NFTs for people who simply have too much money, or are they investments like shares?
The news release added that “trading of the NFT is locked for one year until the travel benefits expire, at which point it becomes a piece of collectible art.” So it seems to me “guests” are buying a package that not only gets them, in this case, a hotel stay, luxury-platform benefits and what IHG and other hotel firms say are meaningful ways of extending their travel passion, but also NFTs which become tradable at some point.
Marriott International and Dream Hotels are two other companies putting a toe into these NFT waters.
The 64th article — and I know that as I like and understand lists, and I keep many of them, and maybe NFTs are not much different from lists? — I wrote for Hotel News Now was on Bitcoin.
I wrote that hoteliers were hesitant to accept the currency, and I found only one hotel that accepted a booking with Bitcoin, only for that guest to eventually check out with a credit card. But that was almost a decade ago now, so attitudes, understanding and technology have undoubtedly changed.
I’d love to hear from you — hopefully in simple terms for my non-IT brain — about what I am missing.
Maybe I do understand how it all works but merely cannot understand why, or who would be interested?
Clearly, I need to look into this and perhaps extend my understanding in the form of a Hotel News Now article.
The art is nice, though, although a buyer does not get the art, just an NFT stating they “own” it, but not it, if you see what I mean.
This all takes me back, somewhat painfully, to my studies of Greek philosopher Plato, who argued that a drawing of a thing or the image of a thing in one’s mind are just as relevant and real as the actual thing itself. This branch of thought is now known as semiotics and concerned with signs — the actual thing, if we agree it is an actual thing — signifiers and the signified.
A chair was the object he used to illustrate the point, I seem to remember, but he could well have used pieces of IHG art.
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