[tinco]

Well, no crypto expert ever predicted this. The idea of NFT's has pretty much been discounted by everyone in the crypto community for a decade, until they randomly became a fad in 2021. So I wouldn't say it's very easy to imagine.

Smart contracts backing more real world assets has a slightly higher chance of becoming a thing, but even with those the value isn't super clear. The whole idea of tracking ownership is that it's backed by authority to enforce it, and the whole idea of cryptocurrency is that it works without authority.

If you think NFT you think about that vague thing that has no bearing on the real world. Bitcoin is the magic technology that manages to be scarce and be manifest in the real world despite being fully digital and networked. Ethereum managed to one-up Bitcoin with the smart contracts of which the DAI stablecoin which anchors itself to the real world currency without relying on authority.

NFT's basically are the exact opposite of the sort of thing cryptocurrency offers as value to the real world.