NFT technology is the crypto ecosystem’s latest, most trending subject, although it remains the least understood. Understanding NFTs entails knowing what digital scarcity is, what blockchain composability is about, how the concept of authentic digital ownership is created, and so on.
The scarcity of a digital asset is not new, especially in the gaming industry. The notion of limited edition digital objects has been successfully used as a revenue source by gaming companies. It is working reasonably well and is substantially profitable for those companies. The problem arises that when players acquire those limited edition digital objects, their ownership of that asset is in confinements of the given game or the digital environment they have gotten it from. Getting a digital item in a company’s ecosystem does not involve absolute ownership because the given company’s existence or enforcements restricts that digital object’s lifespan, validity, or authenticity.
The digital objects that live in a game ecosystem are just an example. The overall picture of owning digital assets was contradictory because no one owned anything digital; they only had the permission to use their digital asset on a centralized ecosystem as long as that ecosystem’s backing was available either by its existence or its permit to the user. The digital ownership of the users was in jeopardy from whether the company that had permitted them could go down or the company could take the rights away of the individual by restricting the users who were supposed to own those digital assets until they didn’t.
At last, Non-Fungible Token(NFT) technology solves this problem and makes digital ownership universal.
Digital Ownership Made Possible
Digital ownership of NFTs became available by blockchains supporting smart contracts. A smart contract is a set of conditions written in computer code. When a smart contract is deployed on a blockchain, it is immutable, transparent, and composable. Non-Fungible Tokens result from a specific type of smart contract called ER-721, widely accepted as common practice for NFT projects.
What ER-721 does is it stores digital objects on a blockchain as unique pieces with attributions. The previous example we gave was a digital asset partially owned in a game environment which was a fragile way of owning something because it only existed in the confinements of that ecosystem. NFTs live on blockchains with the support of smart contract technology; they have become universal; furthermore, they will live as long as the blockchain is alive where nobody can take their ownership away. These digital objects can interact with other smart contracts that include other NFTs but are not limited to them. Composability is also made possible as an example: if someone owns an NFT of a project, an airdrop can be made to those addresses from another project with ease and without permission, interfacing within the blockchain’s comprehensive capabilities.
Blockchains are already known for their robustness of universality, which is their fundamental value proposition: decentralization. They are also known for their egalitarian features as such that they are not owned by anyone resembling public goods as they contribute to the overall benefit of humanity. So, in an environment where nobody owns anybody’s contracts or influences the ability to participate in the network, this is where digital objects can be truly held when the ownership cannot be taken away by any third party whatsoever.
In summary, the universality of blockchains has made authentic and immutable digital ownership possible.
Most Widespread NFT Types
Enabling the possibility of real digital ownership bred two types of trending communities—first, community by an artist with 1:1 distinct art pieces available to be collected by individuals. Second, building community by PFP(Profile Picture) NFT projects that are a collection of pieces with a common mythical theme.
The first type is not that different from traditional art deals; it is a skeuomorphic(resembling a real-world version) art collecting compared to the physical art. It is buying an artist’s work of its only kind to keep in reserve for the buyer’s liking or to sell later with a possibility of appreciation over time with the artist’s fame and success. It is skeuomorphic because everything is the same as the traditional way of the general art dealership. In this case, it is just all-digital, although authentic.
PFP NFT projects don’t have a comparison to the real-world version of its kind, but they resemble collectibles such as limited edition cards of professional baseball players. In the case of PFP NFTs, instead of professional baseball players, the unique characters are fictional with a theme that defines the culture of that particular PFPs—having one of these PFPs signals the community which exhibits skin in the game within aesthetical appreciation. It redefines the digital identity that a person can be a community member by adopting a community’s culture while demonstrating their characteristics through a piece of that particular PFP NFT collection.
Sampling NFT PFP Projects [PROMOTED]
Croskull
Croskull is becoming a crypto project building its ecosystem before the metaverse becomes a fully-fledged environment. The project has a potion system. Additionally, it has three different types of coins: $GRVE, $SLS, and $RUDE. It is generally structured as a game.
An RPG-like game structure is set through different functions and gameplays performed on the blockchain. The properties aim to create an engaging ecosystem by orchestrating tokens provided with economic incentives, making the Croskull one of the most alluring NFT projects on the entire Cronos Chain ecosystem.
Monkey of Anarkey
Building on top of a meme is what this project is doing. When you check the storyline of the Monkey of Anarkey PFP NFTs, you will see the story of the Harambe, a gorilla who has killed in the zoo to save a human baby in 2016 and became a widespread meme on the internet.
The story of the NFTs features the son of the Harambe who feels contempt towards humanity because of what happened to his father. As a pandemic wipes out a large portion of humanity, the son of Harambe, as he is called The Monkey of Anarkey, becomes a leader of a monkey gang and intends to take the dominance away from humans and establish a new world order which will not be disturbed by humanity anymore.
Marie’s Cyborgs
This is an interesting project because instead of a fictional theme by a fictional storyline, the NFT is based on a female model, a real human being. The PFP NFTs are derived from the female model’s face into cyborgs—fictional humans with built-in machine parts.
Mixing fiction with real-life is an inspiringly diverse way of going through with NFTs. One other unique property of this project is that it suggests NFT holders will be able to give an opinion on the model’s career decisions. Marie Bolle, the model that PFP NFTs are based on, will also share a part of her income coming from metaverse interactions.
It’s a pretty interesting way of providing a utility that having a say, even if it is just giving an opinion, on someone’s career because you are holding their NFT. However, it is an intriguing and attention-catching way of structuring NFT tokens.
In crypto, the imagination is the limit because the endless variety of applications can be created through blockchain structures. NFTs are no exception to that rule.