TikTok, the video-sharing social networking service, is partnering with select creators, celebrities, and online platforms to launch TikTok Top Moments, a non-fungible token (NFT) [efn_note]Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. They let us tokenise things like art, collectibles, even real estate. They can only have one official owner at a time and they’re secured by the Ethereum blockchain – no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence. NFT stands for non-fungible token. Non-fungible is an economic term that you could use to describe things like your furniture, a song file, or your computer. These things are not interchangeable for other items because they have unique properties. Fungible items, on the other hand, can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties. For example, ETH or dollars are fungible because 1 ETH / $1 USD is exchangeable for another 1 ETH / $1 USD. (Credit: Ethereum.com [/efn_note] collection.
Inspired by six “culturally significant” TikTok videos in the form of NFTs, TikTok Top Moments will see creators, including Bella Poarch, Brittany Broski, Curtis Roach, FNMeka, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jess Marciante, Lil Nas X, and Rudy Willingham partner with online platforms such as COIN ARTIST, x0r, RTFKT, Grimes, and others to create additional limited edition NFTs. These NFTs will celebrate each creator’s viral videos.
Before the NFT auction starts 6 October, the videos, to be titled ‘Infinite Duets: Co-Creating on TikTok’, would be collected together for presentation. They will be presented at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, from today 1 October. The presentation will end 5 November 2021. And then starting from 6 October, the minted NFTs would be auctioned weekly on select online platforms, with musician Lil Nas X and artist Rudy Willingham coming up first.
The NFTs would run on Ethereum and be powered by Immutable X, a layer-2 protocol for NFTs.
Proceeds from the NFT auctions would mainly go directly to the creators and NFT artists participating in the TikTok Top Moments. But proceeds from the collaboration between Brittany Broski and Grimes will go to charity.
Although the part about how the creators will get paid is not made clear, it is expected that payments would be programmed through smart contracts on the selected online-auction platforms.
Meanwhile, Tiktok has published a full list of these collaborations.
What could this scoop mean for the crypto asset buyer?
NFT adoption has continued to grow especially in the entertainment, media, sports sectors. The potential of NFTs is huge. This is perhaps why Tiktok, popularly known for hosting short-form user videos featuring comedy, dance, songs, etc is looking to leverage on NFTs to create extra value for celebrities, creators, and online content platforms. First, on the potential impact of this development on crypto assets, it is expected that given the popularity of Tiktok—especially amongst creators and celebrities—the introduction of Tiktok Top Moments will create more awareness about how NFTs could empower creators and celebrities. Second, the development may spur more people’s interest in NFT tokens generally, bringing more traffic to NFT sites, including Opensea, Rarible, and of course Immutable X. While this would be largely positive on the one hand, it may also spur the proliferation of scam or questionable NFTs on Tiktok as well as other social media networks, including Facebook and Instagram on the other hand. So users must beware. Also, Tiktok’s announced romance with NFTs won’t cause it a heartbreak considering China’s current clampdown on all virtual assets with no exceptions. NFTs are virtual assets, and consequently Known in China as Douyin, TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Recall that Alibaba, the ecommerce site had to stop the sale of crypto-mining tools on its site for the same reason. Should Big Brother China direct its periscope to Tiktok, ByteDance may not be dancing in a bit.
