Nothing, the consumer tech company started by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei and known for its aggressive marketing, unveils a non-fungible token project called Black Dot. Its fans are skeptical.
Black Dot is a video clip featuring a rotating, transparent cube with a black dot bouncing off the walls inside and making a crispy, metallic sound. The visual is cool and aligns with the earbud and smartphone maker’s minimalist aesthetic — kudos on that. The question is: why NFT?
Nothing is letting its equity crowdfunding investors redeem the collectibles using self-custodial wallets like MetaMask. After the NFTs drop on July 7, it will open up sales to the public on the Opensea marketplace. It’s unclear how much the company is pricing the bouncing dots or which blockchain it’s using.
The startup, founded in late 2020 and backed by Google Ventures, has been relatively successful in grabbing the attention of tech enthusiasts and influencers. Despite the hype marketing, Nothing’s wireless earbuds and upcoming Android-based phone did breathe some fresh air into the increasingly homogenous consumer tech space.
But fans seem less impressed by its NFT move. As of Wednesday, the most-liked comments on its Instagram post about Black Dot have been overwhelmingly negative. “Y’all have clearly lost the plot,” says one user. “What a waste of resources on something completely useless. Rather focus the money on developing the phone or other tech,” another snaps.
The fans have a point. Nothing, which is domiciled in London, pledges to be different, like offering transparent earbuds at just $99 and smartphones with illuminated light strips, so it likely needs to spend much more on custom manufacturing — which is done in south China — and quality control than its rivals with a more utilitarian approach to hardware design.