YouTube NFTs could be happening, and it's a big deal

Could YouTube NFTs happen this year? Possibly. In a letter to the platform's creators, CEO Susan Wojicki explained the platform is exploring how its creators could benefit from the digital collectibles. NFTs have become “a source of inspiration” for YouTube, she said.

As a key part of what's driving Web3, NFTs are one of the biggest digital trends of 2022. We explain how the impact of NFTs – nonfungible tokens – will affect everything from games to branding and art in our explanation of the NFT trends for 2022. If you want to prep for YouTube's NFT future, take a look at our guide to the best software for video editing.

The YouTube NFT play

Wojicki wrote: “The past year in the world of crypto, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and even decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) has highlighted a previously unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans.”

Continuing, she detailed: “We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalise on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube.”

The idea of YouTube enabling its creators and influencers to sell NFTs directly to their fans could be huge for both the platform and its viewers. The use of NFTs on the video streaming platform could also affect how major brands market themselves and usher in a new era of creative approaches to design, gaming and video creation.

The take-up of NFTs into YouTube content could help creators build far deeper community engagements, and brands could enable NFT holders to 'own' a campaign. The scope and scale of what this could mean is huge for creators, and for platforms like YouTube if done for creative reasons.

We expect YouTube is waiting for better ecology around NFT creation, but this is coming with carbon-neutral and low-carbon blockchains such as Flow, Wax and Solana. We'd expect YouTube to embrace NFTs sooner rather than later.

But, while YouTube is joining a growing list of major platforms, including Meta (Facebook), Instagram and Twitter, that have thrown support behind NFTs we've yet to see solid user-cases of how this will happen. 

Read more

• What are NFTs? We explain them
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• How to make and sell NFTs