Many of you here are likely to be gamers and in a previous article, we briefly mentioned blockchain gaming . Today we’re going a little deeper on that topic.
What are NFTs?
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are another type of blockchain asset designed to represent things that are unique. Currency is designed to be fungible, in that every single Bitcoin is designed to be equivalent to any other Bitcoin (in practice, that remains to be seen). What if we want to represent trading cards on the blockchain? This is what you’d call an NFT.
What most people have probably been exposed to so far, is NFTs of digital art. That’s been extremely controversial to the point where a lot of people think it’s synonymous with the term NFT. What’s being overshadowed, is some of the possibilities in other industries.
NFTs in Gaming
As a gamer, NFTs are a concept that just immediately show massive potential. We’re already very familiar with the concept of loot boxes, skins, and other in-game purchases. People will spend an incredible amount of money for these assets, and historically, it only really benefits the game company.
In-game marketplaces have often had tangible value outside of the game. There are people who make real money in underground markets surrounding MMORPGs. They sell in-game assets to other players for real cash.
What NFTs can do, is legitimize this marketplace. A “mystical death sword” in-game can be minted as an NFT by the game company. The purchaser of this NFT token can use the item in-game. Because the asset is on the blockchain, the owner of the asset has much more control over it. It can’t be hacked, copied, revoked, or stolen. The sword can be freely sold, gifted or rented out.
This solves a lot of issues with security in these third-party marketplaces today.
- Current: Transferring assets often mean giving up your account password.
- Future: With NFTs, it’s just as secure as any other transaction.
- Current: There are cheats found in-games that allow more of an item to be printed than intended.
- Future: The game company decides to mint 1000 of an in-game asset. Due to the nature of the blockchain, no more can be printed by a hacker without attacking the entire blockchain.
- Current: You can lose everything you paid for if the game company decides to revoke your access to the game.
- Future: Even though you can’t play the game anymore, you still have the NFTs in your wallet. You can resell them to someone who still plays and recoup your investment.
NFTs can also reward the best, most dedicated, gamers. Currently, collecting in-game items is mostly just a fun past time. Competitive players rely on sponsorships and donations from viewers, and almost none make a living doing it. When in-game items have value, it can be a source of income (which you’d have to pay taxes on too ☠).
Projects to look out for
- Axie Infinity: Axie infinity is a widely popular game similar to Pokémon. It’s expensive to start, but there is already a thriving third-party marketplace on exchanges. You can swap SLP you earn in-game on Uniswap for consistent income.
- Gala Games: Gala is looking to be the “Steam” of blockchain gaming. They have multiple games released/prerelease and their line of NFTs will have use within their whole ecosystem. They’ve released a number of these NFTs already.