Chat with your NFTs on Hawku (BETA)

What?! I can talk with my NFT?  Why are you doing this?

At Hawku, we've built relationships with our NFTs over time, celebrating their victories and expressing frustration with their losses. We've often wondered what our NFTs would say if we could ask about their experiences, the events that led to their successes or failures, how they were feeling as well as what they do when they are not in the game.  So we made it happen by creating a way for you to chat with your NFT.

Candidly, consistent to web3 -  this is an experiment. We had a fun time chatting with our NFTs and wanted to open up to others to see how it can be used.  We have no idea if this will take off or be a flash in the pan and figured the best way to learn is to give it to the community to play with.

What does Chat with My NFT mean?

Starting today,  Hawku users can ask their  ZED racehorse about its last race performance or inquire about their CryptoUnicorn's feelings towards farming berries. Each NFT possesses knowledge of many of its attributes and data, a unique personality, changing emotions, and a side hobby for when it's not participating in the game.

Please note that NFT Chat is designed for fun and emotional connections, not for analytical purposes.  

To reward our loyal users who have been with us since the beginning, we are first opening up chat to people who have made at least $100 in sales or purchases on Hawku.

Also please note, that while NFT chat is currently free, we may remove it or make it a paid service in the future.

What do I do with it?

Some uses we had.

• Get to know your NFTs. We learned our NFTs emotions, how they spent their days and their hobbies. We got to know them as digital entities.
• Vent or celebrate: We shared our disappointment with our NFTs when they lost and  rejoiced in their victories. It’s surprisingly cathartic.
• Have it (incorrectly or correctly) predict its future actions.
• Have fun: Pose silly questions and enjoy their quirky responses.
  

If you have other use cases, let us know by tweeting with as screenshot and the tag #hawku_chat

What Not to Use NFT Chat For:

We have found NFT chat is not super useful in these cases:

1. Analytical information: NFT Chat is not designed to provide strategic insights or optimize your NFT's performance.

2. Individual race results: We have not told the NFTs about their individual races yet.

3.  Tool to improve performance: NFT Chat is meant for enjoyment and building relationships, not as a functional tool.   We would not really trust it's recommendations.

Remember the NFT's messages are the opinion of the NFT and often are not accurate.

The Bigger Motivation: Rebuilding Emotional Connections with NFTs

Over the last year NFTs have lost one of their biggest values - emotional connection.  Before 2022, people would buy NFTs for emotional attachment and social status.  People would own and share their Bored Ape or art images and be proud of the individual NFT -often times forming a relationship with that.  Yes, many speculators bought and flipped NFTs, but many holders bought and held and were proud of their NFTs (making sweatshirts with the NFT on it, creating storylines with their NFTs, changing their profile photo to match their favorite ones).

Over the last year, with the introduction of sites like Blur and Opensea Pro we have seen a shift away from this emotional connection to more of a transactional relationship.  NFTs in collections are now valued more like meme-coins - where every NFT is not valued as a unique entity but only in aggregate by the rarity of a trait or a floor price.  What used to be fun but now has become just speculation and honestly a grind.  The result has contributed to the decline of NFTs because they are no longer fun. They are now are often more seen as a functional token to buy and sell.

We wanted to experiment with ways of bringing back the emotional connection with your NFTs. Will Chat With Your NFT be that method? We don’t know.  But we do believe we need to experiment with ways to bring back the fun and emotional connections that NFTs used to have.

If you have any comments, please let us know!