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NFTs have undoubtedly revolutionized the art world and have been in a craze for a few years. Several NFT marketplaces are emerging globally. Following the trend, NIFTY Souq was launched as the first NFT marketplace in the Middle East. The firm is set to create a new market for creators and fans alike. Notably, NIFTY Souq has a dedicated market and NFTs platform. Artists, pop stars, and collectors in the MENA region can create and buy such Non-Fungible Tokens.
Recently, Harsh Vardhan Kushwaha of The Coin Republic has interviewed Nabeel AlSayed, the founder and creator of NIFTY Souq. The session has covered exciting topics related to Non-Fungible Tokens, and the Web3.0 ecosystem.
How was the journey of Nabeel AlSayed?
It’s been a long journey. I started in call centers, studied banking and finance, and got my first job in a bank in a call center. And I continued working in the call center space for a while, whether in a call center or through consultancy and training for call centers. But I’ve always had this bugging me that I wanted to build something of my own. And I’ve tried so many times, tried and failed, and failed, and every time I went back at it again. And then, during the quarantine period, the pandemic brought us there. I showed interest in independent artists and their music, and I fell in love with that genre a lot. So I made a lot of friends in that scene. And I saw their struggle as independent artists who mainstream media cannot adopt because they discussed topics that are not mainstream, acceptable, like gender topics, politics, poverty, and stuff like that. And we became good friends, and I saw their struggle. So I started something called Arabic, indie, small community plus platform to sell merchandise for those artists to help them generate money on the side. During pandemics, they can go on shows and have concerts, so they were in.
So the idea came that maybe this is a way where we can support those independent artists. And our goal was that the artists would make the majority of the profit. So we didn’t want to be like label companies or anyone who would use an artist to make their profits. We enjoyed the artists creating the majority of the profit, and it was something I was doing on the side. And as I’m, I’ve been in the tech industry for a while now. With the startup fee and all that, we started to learn more about NFTs and if NFT’s in music. And then, the idea came on how we can connect Arabic in the music support system if we call it with NFTs and help those artists enter into this world. So we started thinking, how do we help them? NFT music? Okay, where can they NFT it? Let’s do a little bit more search. Let’s study more. And then I found out that we don’t have anything that supports art artists when it comes to NFTs, and we’re like, okay, fine, let’s build. And that’s how we got here now.
What is the actual purpose of NFTs?
I tried to explain this when I speak to artists or creators, let’s say creators because we’re not only in music, now we are inclusive, but when we speak to creators in the Arabic world, we explained to them that NFTs in a very simple way, is a proof of ownership and authenticity.
So an NFT is a smart contract. That proves that this digital work is original. And it proves that you are the owner of this digital work. Of course, NFT can be linked to physical assets, not only digital assets, but for the sake of this argument. NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens, which means that they cannot be devised, they cannot be destroyed, they can’t be altered, they can be changed. They’re built on the blockchain, which is a decentralized network. So everyone has access to it, everything can be monitored. So it gives them security. It gives them ownership. It’s an extra or a different money-generating stream for the artists when they can sell their art on NFTs.
Before, NFT was a digital artist who would put his art on the internet, and then it’s everywhere. And this devalues the art itself. And if these made the original one rare or one unique item, which gave it value again. So this is a very, very, very amazing thing for anyone who does anything digital. It gave them value back, and it gave them ownership, it gave them a possibility to or not, let’s not say possibly that gave them the motivation to deliver more, work more and give more because now they can see that it will provide them with a return it will give them recognition and that their work is not just something that someone can right-click save and claim that it’s their own.
What is NIFTY Souq?
In Arabic, MENA means market. So we are exactly a market where all these creators can come and display their artwork and sell it. It can’t be simpler than that as an explanation. So we are a marketplace for NFTs. So far, we have announced the launch, the platform itself is not launched, the developers are working day and night on getting it up and running.
We are the first unless someone opens before us, but it’s a race. We are planning to bring NFTs to the region. We are planning to introduce them, and educate people about them. So our job is not just to sell NFTs. We want to create this whole culture of NFTs in the region where people can understand how they can benefit whether they’re a creator, art collector, or fan. So we have a journey of education and awareness before actually, or we put that as a priority before just creating a marketplace.
OpenSeas employees are involved in insider trading
See, this insider trading has been there for ages in every market, whether it was the stock market or the cryptocurrency market. We hear people holding information or putting in false information for their benefit. Now, I won’t say we don’t expect this to happen, but we’re trying to put in governance, compliance, and control over how we can avoid this from happening in our NFT market. And some people will use whatever information they can to make money or to fool others, unfortunately. Still, from our side from NIFTY Souq, we will definitely be investing a lot of money and time in compliance governance and legal aspects and also in choosing who we hire and who works with NIFTY Souq and us. So we’re very picky when it comes to this.
NIFTY Souq is an Arabic first platform
One of our competitive advantages, our niche in this market, is that we are Arabic first, so the platform itself is in Arabic. But this doesn’t mean that other languages are not there. So we’re Arabic English, when we launch, maybe other languages like French are in our rather be also added to cater to countries, maybe in North Africa, like Algeria, Morocco, where French is a common language over there. We’re planning to move also more towards maybe India, Pakistan, that region. And we also want to bring the attention of the International majority to this region’s art and for them to be able to explain it and explore this region. So definitely, we were not planning just to stay here. But our focus will always be the regional culture when we approach internationally.
What is the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?
This is part of what we’re doing and if we want to educate people. This is so that more and more people are aware of NFTs. And I think we are already doing that ever since we launched the inquiries, we have the talks, we have the interviews we do when we always talk about this, we get questions, and people are trying to understand more and learn more.
I think this is the first step. If anyone refuses to enter into this or believes in this new, I don’t know how to call it a new revolution, let’s say the new revolution. They lose out, just like everyone who didn’t believe in Bitcoin when it first started. And now they were like, I wish I started when Batman was on when the internet started, and people were like, Hey, we don’t need the internet, we can still go to a library and do our research. You want to go back a little bit when people were like, and I don’t want to use an exit, I can still use these sheets of paper and write things down, all these people missed out. And then eventually they had to adopt the new technology.
This is how I see things are going. Even if people now refuse to get into this world, they will eventually either have to or choose to see the potential of this new revolution and want to be part of it. But as everything ng new, there is aging pain. And the people who adopt these new technologies first are the people who have to go on this mission of educating others about it, and we love taking that one.
Can Ethereum overtake Bitcoin?
I don’t want this to be taken as any kind of advice or tips or anything like that. But the way the numbers don’t lie, statistics. I believe that Yes, it will. If we look at the numbers of the price of bitcoin, and the price of aetherial and how Bitcoin is fluctuating a little bit, let’s say more than Ethereum I see that Ethereum will be taking over Bitcoin, the usage of Ethereum also, like in the world of NFT gives it more potential. Now we’re hearing that Bitcoin will start using smart contracts as when that happens, we don’t know what’s going to happen or how that effect is going to be. We also know that Ethereum is going green. So they will start using Proof-of-Stake instead of Proof-of-Work for the transactions, which is also something that will give more value to Ethereum. So really, I don’t know, but the way things are going right now with everything, I see Ethereum taking over Bitcoin.
How Web3.0 can help enhance our lives?
Web3.0 enables the future where everything is a stage of what revolution makes the internet more intelligent. It helps us process information with near human-like intelligence. The use of AI robust AI systems helps us run smart programs to assist individuals or users. So definitely, web 3.0 is the way to go.
How can cryptocurrencies help countries?
I don’t go a lot into politics. I’m going to try to answer this without talking about a specific country, and there are pros and cons. So it being decentralized can help people purchase over the internet using cryptocurrencies, trade, and protect their wealth. So the pros are known, but the cons are that in many of these countries, access to the internet is not always available. So even me being able to access the internet to get onto these platforms is not easy. Security is not guaranteed. What prevents a certain regime from entering someone’s house, taking the laptops that are iPads that are their phones, and just going through whatever is happening there. Now we know that on the blockchain, everyone is masked with the code. So my name is Nabeel. But on the blockchain, I’m a “0x”.
Whatever that code is, but if I get access to your actual device, I get access to everything. It’s a fantastic thing, but the risk is if you get caught with certainty, James, I don’t know if it makes it worth it or not. Again, I wouldn’t say I like to indulge in politics a lot publicly. But these are my opinions. There are pros, and there are cons to this.
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