Even though the NFT ecosystem has grown manifold, the majority of people still consider NFTs as overpriced digital representations of assets that serve little to no value in the outside world. They often overlook the actual potential of NFTs and how they are disrupting the traditional idea of “ownership.”
These days, NFTs are no longer limited to digital art or collectibles. As underlying blockchain technology matures, a flurry of futuristic projects is paving the way for anyone to mint anything as an NFT. Of late, several innovative platforms have emerged, each designed to add more utility to these digital tokens.
Take, for instance, the increasing use of NFTs in the metaverse. In fact, NFTs are no longer limited to simple JPEGs, GIFs, or MP4 files but have evolved to expand into the DeFi ecosystem as well. With more and more traditional companies embracing the idea of metaverse, NFTs will also play a key role in advancing the nascent GameFi sector.
Besides, mainstream companies are becoming increasingly interested in the metaverse. Nvidia, the leading GPU manufacturing company, recently announced that its 3D metaverse-building tool, Omniverse, is now free to use for individual users. With over 100,000 downloads since the announcement, it is pretty evident NFTs will gain even more prominence within the metaverse.
In that context, Canadian fintech, Timechain, is another mainstream company entering the DeFi and metaverse ecosystems. Timechain Metaverse Capital finds Metaverse companies at attractive entry prices during the private market and pre-IDO phases as an early-stage crypto fund.
Without a doubt, the metaverse-NFT connection will go a long way in unlocking a myriad of new use cases for investors, collectors, and creators alike. NFTs are the key to accessing (and exploring) the metaverse, be it proving your ownership of a virtual asset, moving between different ecosystems within the metaverse, or participating in GameFi opportunities.
That said, here are a few projects shaping the future of NFTs.
Unlocking The Actual Potential Of Tokenization
As the metaverse continues to expand, several promising play-to-earn gaming projects have entered the scene. However, PlayMining stands out from the rest with its end-to-end platform that combines NFTs with the metaverse to create fully artist-driven virtual worlds.
Developed by Singapore-based blockchain and multimedia digital entertainment group Digital Entertainment Asset Pte. Ltd (DEA), PlayMining is the leading NFT game platform within the global GameFi industry. It is also the world’s first play-to-earn token economy, with over two million active players from over a hundred countries. Currently, PlayMining offers three different games, each of which rewards players with NFTs. In 2022, PlayMining will be releasing ten more play-to-earn games.
DEA also offers extended features, including PlayMining Tokens, PlayMining Chain, and PlayMining Verse. These platforms cover different aspects of the ecosystem to ensure that creator rights and shared profits are duly managed for the entire community. Scheduled for a 2022 launch, PlayMining Verse will directly connect creators with users.
The PlayMining Verse consists of several “Creator Nations,” each belonging to renowned manga artists like Kamui Fujiwara, Mikimoto Haruhiko, and Hiramatsu Shinji. By leveraging NFTs, DEA will provide each user the option to buy their citizenship in the virtual world of their favorite artists.
As you already know, Ethereum has the dominant share of the NFT and DeFi ecosystems. Accordingly, that Ethereum-based OpenSea emerged as the leading NFT marketplace in terms of trading volume shouldn’t come as a big surprise. But Ethereum’s rising costs and slow transaction speeds are a recurring problem for both creators and users. Besides, marketplaces such as OpenSea are heavily centralized, limiting participants’ benefits.
This is where Infinity comes into the picture, cementing itself as an all-in-one NFT marketplace that also offers a community-managed DAO where all profits are shared with the community. In addition to this, Infinity also introduces the concept of programmable NFTs, opening the doors to a whole new world of possibilities. For instance, programmable NFTs can be stored, used as collateral, transferred to others, sold across secondary marketplaces. At the same time, these NFTs also enable users to customize time locks, vesting schedules, value-based unlocks, and several other operational benefits.
Solv Protocol is another project that has unlocked yet another novel use case for NFTs. The platform recently introduced its Financial NFTs, enabling users to access the diverse range of TradFi products like vesting, fixed-term deposits, convertible bonds, and much more on the blockchain. Using Financial NFTs, Solv Protocol has also introduced a new fundraising model called Initial Voucher Funding (IVF).
These financial NFTs are based on Solv’s proprietary ERC-3525 token standard while merging the best attributes of ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standards. As a result, financial NFTs also allow owners to leverage features like splitting and merging, giving them the flexibility to derive the most value out of their assets.
Then there is Creaton, a decentralized subscription-based content sharing platform that showcases another promising use case for NFTs. The platform allows content creators to tokenize their content and share them with fans who “subscribe” to their content.
Built on the Polygon chain, Creaton enables users to mint NFTs for all of their content, which is then stored in Arweave’s decentralized content storage, secured by NuCypher technology. As a result, every tokenized content is censorship-resistant and end-to-end encrypted. Creaton has also integrated payments service provider Superfluid to ensure that creators receive subscriber’s payments in real-time and not like the monthly system prevalent across Web 2.0 platforms