In today’s blockchain landscape, there are two areas that are growing in magnitude and capturing the eyes and minds of readers. And it’s not necessarily what you’d expect.
In the early days of “crypto,” coins, tokens, and organizations became popular for fleeting seconds at a time by proclaiming to be the (insert noun here) on blockchain. Blogging on blockchain. Carpentry on blockchain. Logistics on blockchain. Okay, that last one does have some real mainstream use cases, but that’s not what this article is about.
The two areas capturing the most mindspace today are decentralized finance (aka DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens. Let’s save the DeFi talk for another day, and instead take a look at what Peerplays is focusing on next: the NFT.
A Non-Fungible Token, or NFT as they are more often referred to as, is a cryptographic collectible token that is not mutually interchangeable with other NFTs. The most famous example is CryptoKitties, which exploded in 2017 as unique, digital cats; so popular at one time that they single-handedly throttled the entire Ethereum network they were conceived upon. More recently, the WAX blockchain has leveraged big-name partnerships with Topps/Garbage Pail Kids and William Shatner to achieve some notoriety in the space.
Aside from the above trading card and digital figurine examples, NFTs have not yet seen any real mainstream success, even with other interesting use cases such as digital real estate, artwork or sketches, and other similar items.
The Peerplays blockchain has set itself up to differentiate from the pack when it comes to NFTs, just as it previously differentiated from other blockchains by being faster and able to handle exponentially more concurrent transactions than popular chains like Ethereum. Yes, the same Ethereum that nearly crashed from people trading CryptoKitties (why didn’t they just come to Peerplays?!).
Once launched, Peerplays NFTs will bear a strong resemblance in technical composition to the aforementioned, and currently the most popular NFT standard, Ethereum’s ERC-721. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Peerplays will simply repurpose it for a Graphene blockchain (Graphene is the technology that powers some of the most powerful blockchains in the world, such as Peerplays, Hive, and EOS).
The first example of NFTs on Peerplays will appear via one of our many valued partners, a non-blockchain organization that shares our values on fairness, transparency, speed, and uniqueness, traits that an NFT on Peerplays provides.
Avalon Meta, an Indian edutech startup who PBSA announced a partnership with earlier in 2020, has accrued over 40,000 users on their gamified education app (found in the App Store and Google Play). It’s a number that continues to grow. While Avalon’s product is almost entirely off-chain, they were drawn to Peerplays’ ability to power one very important aspect of their offering that will be on-chain: NFTs.
The Avalon Meta platform encourages discussion and collaboration amongst its users, and will soon introduce unique avatars for users to visually differentiate themselves from their peers. It’s also here where some of the gamification will occur. Users are incentivized to keep using the app by attaining a certain social status with “drops.” Drops are valuable NFTs obtained by users who achieve certain educational milestones, complete various tasks, and reach other set goals.
Drops will include, among other items, accessories to uniquely dress their avatars: shirts, pants, hats, glasses, watches, and jewelry, for example.
Drops will belong within four tiers, based on the level of detail of the NFT and its scarcity, ranging from commonly available to super-rare. Common NFTs can be obtained for achieving relatively simple milestones, whereas super-rare NFTs will require a higher level of skill and dedication that not every user will be able to achieve. This gives them a higher value on the open market.
All NFTs will be tradable within a purpose-built NFT marketplace on the Peerplays blockchain. Like trading cards and figurines in eras past, users can grow their collection by trading one rare NFT for a trove of less valuable (a subjective term meant only to imply its rareness!) but more plentiful items.
Moving into the world of Non-Fungible Tokens is uncharted territory for Peerplays, and it’s a world we’re extremely excited to enter. Peerplays NFTs will continue to push the industry forward, as shown in our partnership with Avalon Meta, and bring new forms of value and manners of integrations with how NFTs can be used, both on-chain and off. We will be a big part of the discussion when it comes to blockchain and crypto continuing the collective creep into mainstream consciousness.
Our unique view on NFTs, and in particular our NFT marketplace, and how they can be used to bring real world value to on-chain and off-chain users was recently validated in an unexpected way. A group of developers associated with BitShares (another Graphene-based blockchain) proposed an NFT marketplace that looked so appealing we just had to take a closer look at it.
It turns out their proposal was identical to the one we composed and posted as a public pull request for the Peerplays community to see at github.com/peerplays-network, with a few words changed to avoid 100% plagiarism.
They do say mimicry is the highest form of flattery.
In all seriousness, this is a view we share with our friends at Avalon Meta. Evidence of new and growing competition adds value to customers, and validates the idea, from concept to product. As more organizations see the value in what we’re building, it will breed more competition and thus more utility for end users. Big name players inside and outside the blockchain industry, like Nike and Atari for example, have already announced their intentions to enter the space. It will continue to grow at a very fast pace.
But that’s what this is all about.
Building and being part of a Non-Fungible Token ecosystem that any person can see the value in, and providing that person with a place to show off and trade their collectibles with other like minded individuals.
