Anndy Lian is a serial entrepreneur based in Singapore. He is always trying to work hard in the crypto and blockchain industry. When I first met him, he was actively investing in Layer 1 blockchains. Then he was advising a sovereign wealth fund and was the chairperson at an Esports association. He is always busy.
His journey started in 2017 during the ICO times. He started one of the earliest supply chain blockchain companies back then and moved on to advising governments as he felt that there were too many dodgy businesses going on in the crypto scene.
He is a fund manager and partner at a local capital market services licensed firm. He is a philanthropist, giving back to society by donating and spending time serving his Singapore community. His servant leadership and attitude is well-liked by his peers.
His latest book, "NFT: From Zero to Hero", is aligned with what he does. He likes the technology behind NFT and never likes how projects are managing NFTs as if it is like a valueless Ponzi scheme. That is also why Anndy chooses to launch the book after the hype and not during the hype. He believes that this is the right time to launch a book to tell everyone about the good and bad of NFT and how the market is changing and building stronger than ever at the same time.
During this interview, he emphasized a few points. Firstly, he wants all to know that mastering the logic behind NFT is not difficult. You need only the correct mindset and set up clear purposes when creating the NFTs. There is also a lot of information online for you to read about, and there is no reason why you cannot understand it.
Secondly, he said that there are many good tools online to help you decide what you can consider buying. He has spent time using some of the tools and listed a handful in his book that he thinks are useful. "Instead of guessing what NFT to buy, use the statistics to aid your decision," Anndy said.
Anndy also went on to share that data could be contradicting. For example, 10,000 NFTs were sold, but when you look at the on-chain wallet addresses, only 10 of them exist. These are the small details you need to catch when making a decision.
Thirdly, he wants people who read his book and look at the trends ahead. The general public knowledge is very superficial. Many people think that NFT is a quick money scheme and we are purely selling "air". "The fact that NFT is not just about a jpeg profile picture is not known to many. This is disturbing."
According to Anndy, we can look at creating medical platforms using NFTs and empowering patients with the ability to control their medical records. We can look at digitizing land title deeds using NFT too. "The NFT usage scenarios are limitless."
I also took the chance to ask Anndy what we should invest in next. He said to follow the simple rules- Consider investing in projects with good utility, strong community, and always building. "If they do not have the above, there is no need to consider who is on their cap table and how strong their team is. Assuming they have a working tech solution."
Lian added that some people said that investing in Layer 1 blockchain is a sure win is totally wrong. He said starting layer 1 is not difficult; sustaining it with good usage is the challenging part. You need a lot more money to make it work compared to layer 2.
He said that, similarly, some people hate meme coins and said they have no value. "I don't see eye to eye on this. The value of a meme coin is in its community and the core team. If the community is strong, anything can happen." He added that bad management is one of the core reasons why meme coins fail. "The tell-tale signs are obvious."
Just like the same old Anndy we see on Twitter. He ended by saying, "not financial advice".
Anndy Lian's new book has sold more than 8,000 copies during its launch at Bybit NFT marketplace. He has subsequently listed them on leading platforms like Amazon and Google books. At the point of this interview, he told me that he had appointed a Singapore distributor who would put his books in major bookstores in the South East Asia region.
I also read that he was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Academic Council of Ulaanbaatar Erdem University in recognition of his contribution to the development of productivity science in Mongolia. He is also completing his PhD soon.
Congratulations Anndy.
The Future of NFTs
A number of countries are now actively working on regulatory frameworks for NFT assets, strengthening anti-fraud and anti-manipulation audits of projects, determining the business core of each platform, and solving financial security issues such as illegal fundraising and false fraud.
Nowadays, NFT financial tools are becoming more and more abundant, and the scale of financial derivatives is steadily increasing. At the same time, major public chains are actively upgrading, expanding, and building their own ecological frameworks to provide underlying support for the production, confirmation, pricing, circulation, and traceability of NFT assets. The NFT industry is gradually exploring a development path suitable for blockchain assets.
Due to the short development history of NFTs, we are still in the industry's infancy, but we can still see its rapid development and gradual maturity. It is believed that under the transformation of the market, the improvement of supervision, and the gradual improvement of the ecosystem, the future of NFTs will never be just about hype but will become an indispensable part of future technological life.
The NFT space is fast-changing. While writing this, new NFT projects are popping up every day. From the Busan Metropolitan Government in Korea announcing an NFT conference to the International Cricket Council launching cricket NFTs to CoinRunners crowdfunding a movie by selling NFTs.
The few consistent NFT trends over the past year have been their steady growth, the rising interest in them, and their ever-expanding applications.
The future these NFT trends depict is an interesting one. While many people are concerned about the implications of the metaverse and the rise of AI, it's a future full of possibilities.
It's a future that bridges the gap between consumers and creators gives value and security to digital assets, and one which, for better or for worse, will shake up the world.
The future is bright, but the road is tortuous. The NFT market will eventually mature and deliver on its promise.
Your new asset is in the digital world.