The US entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk made a spectacular announcement last summer: he wanted to open the world’s first NFT restaurant and thus revolutionize the entire restaurant industry. The big project initially raised a few questions: What is an NFT restaurant anyway? And is that one of those pompous business ideas that make headlines around the world, but then never materialize?
So from the beginning: NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token and denotes a non-exchangeable value. This is particularly interesting for artists who sell digital images, for example. Why? The images can be reproduced online as desired, but there can only be one original – and that is correspondingly more valuable for collectors. The first NFTs were created in 2012. Since then, entrepreneurs from a wide variety of industries have been in a race to see who will be the next to make the big breakthrough with a new application for the young technology.
14 million dollars in one minute
Vaynerchuk aims to open his NFT restaurant next year, which is 2023. It should mean Flyfish Club and culinary direction will be shared by co-founder and well-known celebrity chef Josh Capon. At the Flyfish Club This is not a virtual restaurant where food can be purchased in the form of digital tokens (don’t laugh, that already exists), but quite simply an exclusive members’ club where the NFTs act as a kind of membership card , or admission ticket, function.
A regular membership token with access to a cocktail room and a dining room currently costs 2.5 ETH and an exclusive tier with access to a private omakase room costs 4.25 ETH. Acquired tokens can be resold or rented on a special marketplace.
Too expensive? Not for New York’s upper class. Within a minute of the launch of the public sale in early January, a thousand of the tokens had already been sold, reports Vaynerchuk. So that Flyfish Club-Experience remains exclusive, the number of tokens is limited. About 1.5 thousand NFTs are not yet sold but are being held back so the company can grow in the future.
The founders are convinced that the new concept is a “remarkable innovation” in the hospitality industry. “We found a new, modern way to create a new financial model for food and beverages that is a little less vulnerable,” said VCR Group CEO David Rodolitz.
It remains to be seen how the hype surrounding NFTs will continue. Also, whether the buyers of the Flyfish Club-Tickets that bought expensive NFTs to actually visit the restaurant, or just see the expensive tokens as an investment and try to sell them off at the first opportunity. The risk that they will then get stuck should not be underestimated. Because the same basic rule applies in the crypto market as in the conventional market economy. As the poet Publilius Syrus said as early as 50 BC: Everything is only worth as much as others are willing to pay for it.
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