NFTs: a signpost for post-capitalist feudalism
In a fully automated, post-capitalist society, there will be no resource scarcity due to technological progression that drives the marginal cost to reproduce almost anything (eg a banana or a house) to zero.
In this automated future, there would be no reason for human labor, as machines will do all work, and humans will focus on leisure, philosophy, arts and vocations of fulfillment, while all of their first order needs (eg food, shelter) and second order needs (eg entertainment, hobbies) will be met at no cost.
However, in modern society, classism and hierarchies have never been eliminated. Will this hold true in a post capitalist society? I think it will unless every human on the planet reached enlightenment and collectively decided to stop trying improve their standing in society. So in this end of classism version, there is nothing that would inherently provide someone more power, or “elite” status, than anyone else. This seems far off if ever achievable by Homo Sapiens. In contrast, in a post capitalist society where classism still reigns, the only things that will remain scarce, and therefore a limiting factor to denote classes, are 1) intangibles: fame, influence and admiration and 2) synthetic scarcities: 1 of 1 digital art, 1 of 1 skins in the metaverse. The first class divider (intangibles) could afford the new bourgeoisie the second class divider (synthetic scarcities).
The above plays out today in a capitalist society. However, the inputs and outputs are different. In a capitalist society, leverage for power comes in the form of capital, which is used to command human wage labor and technology. The outputs of that leverage are actual scarce resources (eg vacations, homes, fancy dinners, etc). In a post capitalist society, capital is no longer the leverage device. In its place, is information. You trade information (knowledge, time, etc) for synthetic scarcities (NFTs, etc). Your collection of NFTs (acquired via fame, not capital) then become your new class signaling device.