With a history of 135 years, National Geographic magazine is the latest magazine to put its hat on the digital arts realm of the NFT bandwagon. However, quite surprisingly, his first NFT project for the magazine has received a lot of criticism from users, some even calling for the collection to be removed.Nat Geo’s first NFT initiative and I’ll elaborate on why it’s been criticized by users.
Over the past few years, hundreds of the world’s biggest brands have jumped on the NFT bandwagon. Putting their hat on the field of digital art is the iconic 135-year-old National His Geographic magazine. However, quite surprisingly, his NFT project, the first for this magazine, has received a lot of criticism from users, some even calling for the collection to be removed.
Learn more about Nat Geo’s first-ever NFT initiative and why it’s been criticized by users.
Nat Geo Announces Series of NFTs
A few days later, on January 17th, National Geographic released the debut collection of NFTs on the Polygon blockchain, featuring photos by 16 different photographers. The NFT collection will be called “Good Morning: Daybreak Around the World” and will celebrate the revolutionary magazine’s 135th anniversary.
Photographers such as John Knopf, Mia Forrest, Reuben Wu, Delphine Diallo, Cath Simard and Justin Aversano are involved in this project. Each of these 16 photographers will send one click of the sunrise around the world. There are 188 of each of these photos for a total of 1,888 NFTs of him.
Each NFT costs 215 MATIC, which is about $200 at current prices. NFT sales start today. Nat Geo opted for a blind sale. This means that we won’t know which NFT a user has purchased until a later date. This adds fairness and fun to your purchase.
Nat Geo faces public outrage
NFTs were a sensation throughout 2021, but the crypto winter has caused the market to drop more than 60%. The floor prices of major NFT collections have dropped significantly and the market has yet to recover. Moreover, his NFT collection such as BAYC has no intrinsic value. They are just digital images of apes in different outfits and backgrounds. As such, the veteran investor has reservations against BAYC and other similar his NFT collections.
For example, Bill Gates once ripped apart the BAYC NFT collection and said, “I mean, obviously expensive digital images of monkeys would greatly improve the world.” Perhaps this is why Nat Geo’s BAYC and his NFT posts received so much backlash. A user comments that his NFT approach to digital art is an “extinct species” and an “already popped bubble.” Other comments prompted Nat Geo to “delete” the collection.
Furthermore, NFTs have yet to gain mainstream adoption. Therefore, the public is not fully aware of technology. This can lead users to form a half-hearted and possibly negative opinion of these assets. This could explain why some users called his NFT collection on Nat Geo a “scam” or “another way to wash.”
Nat Geo also received recognition for the myriad of technical glitches that occurred during the NFT casting process. Snowcrash NFT, the platform responsible for casting, struggled to meet customer demands as Polygon had just gone through a hard fork and had some issues left to be resolved.
Of course, this caused a lot of frustration among followers. “Your partner’s Snowcrash crashed, communication was terrible, dissonance gone? Really. This is a scam. I feel like a rug… you are better than this @NatGeo “Completely failed. Tried to mint for 6 hours. Hurts,” said another user.
Other users have pointed out interoperability issues with Snowcrash. This means that trading Nat GEO NFTs may be restricted to this single platform only. This led to even more backlash. “@SnowcrashNFT’s poor handling of the casting process. I’d love to be able to sell this on Opensea as well, but I haven’t received any comments on this yet,” said one user. is the only platform that allows you to trade NFTs later?
Even in the gaming industry, NFTs are generally looked down upon by enthusiasts. Hardcore gamers are upset about the in-game money-making schemes employed by NFT platforms. Such games often require users to make a large up-front investment to start playing. This shifts the focus to making money rather than enjoying and playing games.
not all bad
Some of the comments on Nat Geo’s post were negative, but most of them celebrated the magazine’s first NFT effort. Several NFT artists and creators have also stepped forward to help with the collection. Director, photographer and artist Ravi Vora said:
Artist Ryan Hawthorne, who released the Ethereum NFT at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction house, has defended the collection against all the backlash it has received. “Welcome to the comments section. Here you’ll see a sea of people who hate what they don’t understand in their natural habitat,” Hawthorne said, adding that several users from the collection said he’d use NFTs. I commented that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
Conclusion
If a big brand like National Geographic decides to enter a new, largely unproven industry, it’s bound to make waves. Moreover, since everyone has the right to express their opinion on social media, there are also negative comments. Some users criticize it, others point out its shortcomings. However, it makes sense for Nat Geo to foray into his NFT. If meaningless digital images of apes can sell millions of dollars, so should real-life images captured by legendary photographers. Remember to do your own research and only invest what you can afford to lose.
(edited by: Anushka Sharma)
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