Avatar NFTs
…and the Future of your Profile Pic
A Quick History of NFTs
NFTs or Non-Fungible tokens have become ubiquitous, selling for millions of dollars and finding their home in the cryptocurrency wallets of some of the biggest collectors out there.
Their main appeal comes from the fact that they are truly unique, and offer you something that, well, no one else can have.
They are the future of collectibles and offer other capabilities, such as traceability.
To further clarify why they are unique, let’s take the example of Bitcoin, which you can exchange 1 for 1. NFTs are completely different; think of them as pieces of art. You could theoretically attempt to re-draw a painting from scratch, but it will never be 100% identical. There will always be some small part of the original that will be unique.
The concept of NFTs began in December of 2012 with the creation of what are known as Colored Coins. In 2014, Robert Dermody, Evan Wagner, and Adam Krellenstein founded Counterparty. Here we saw the game creators of Spells of Genesis, who pioneered the process of issuing in-game assets into a blockchain.
All of this led to what we know today as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
What Are Avatar NFTs?
Now that you understand what NFTs are and have a brief history of them, it’s time to take a look at Avatar NFTs. These are non-fungible tokens that represent a specific character, or persona. It can be two-dimensional in the form of an icon, or in three-dimensional form, most commonly found in games or virtual worlds which are blockchain-based.
An Avatar NFT Is essentially this unique character, where not a single one can be identical to a previously created one. There are numerous projects within the NFT space that have explored the world of avatars. While the concept of an avatar is simple, some of these projects imbued different functionalities to these NFTs. To truly grasp how they work, we’ll be taking a look at the most famous avatar NFT projects individually.
Notable Avatar NFT Projects Analyzed
CryptoPunks
Probably THE most iconic avatar NFT project today, CryptoPunks are considered as the first avatar project and its design set the template for most current avatar NFT projects. Created by LarvaLabs in 2017, they are 24x24 pixels images that were generated randomly when claimed according to different traits (hair, gender, accessory, etc…). While they could be claimed for free initially, they are now some of the most expensive NFTs out there which have ever been sold.
One of the most expensive CryptoPunks to sell is CryptoPunk #3100, which sold for $13.62 million (4,200 ETH) based on the value of ETH on August 11, 2021. So the question on everyone’s mind is what exactly are these CryptoPunks and why do they have so much value?
Well, their value is actually based on simply how much people are willing to pay for something unique.
There are a total of 10,000 CryptoPunks, which are unique collectible characters with proof of ownership that is stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
This is a project which inspired the modern CryptoArt movement and is one of the first NFTs built on Ethereum which filled the role of being an inspiration for the ERC-721 standard which powers many digital art and collectible tokens we know today.
This historical status of this project and the scarcity of these avatars gives them a special status in the crypto community. Gmoney, a prominent NFT collector describes it this way:
“With an NFT, by posting it as my avatar on Twitter and discord, I can quickly “flex” with a picture,” he tweeted in a public thread explaining his purchase. “It has the same effect as wearing that Rolex in real life, but digitally.” source
CryptoPunks show an important aspect of avatar NFTs: when you own one, you demonstrate that you are part of a select group of connoisseurs who appreciate what they represent and can afford it. This is similar to someone owning a luxury vehicle such as a Bentley. You can also picture why someone could collect an avatar NFT from several projects, the same way a watch collector could have watches from different brands for different occasions.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BYAC) is a set of 10,000 unique collectible avatars of apes. These avatars live on the Ethereum blockchain and have different attributes as well as styles. They have a cool, cartoon aesthetic, and they were all originally listed for 0.08 ETH.
Bored Ape brought a special aspect to the avatar NFT genre as they were designed to be your membership to a swamp club for apes, in other words, it’s your ticket to a heightened level of exclusivity. The idea of community is therefore central to the BAYC avatar.
In the beginning, membership-only meant being able to add a pixel to a collaborative art project. But since then, the BAYC makers have introduced a product line only purchasable by Ape owners, discussion boards reserved for members of the community, and many other perks in preparation. This strong focus on membership to a club also led to community-provided additional utility. Community members offer different perks such as custom skateboards, custom coffee or etc…
Finally, BAYC founders struck a deal with The Sandbox to secure a plot of (digital) land which will only be accessible to Bored Ape holders and have since also built a Yacht in Decentraland. Which gives a first glimpse as to what avatar NFTs can bring to metaverses.
The Meebits
Talking about metaverses, LarvaLabs’s next avatar NFT project after Cryptopunks is Meebits. Meebits were thought for the metaverse. Similar to Cryptopunks in its conception, Meebits are however 3D “voxel” avatars that can be used in metaverses such as The Sandbox or Decentraland.
When you purchase and own a Meebit, you are given access to an additional asset pack. This pack includes the full 3D model, and you can use it to render as well as animate your Meebit, or use it as your avatar in the metaverse. This gives Meebits a lot more functionality than either of the other projects as they can be embedded directly into metaverses. While metaverses are still nascent, many prominent tech leaders including Mark Zuckerberg believe it is the next platform after mobile. Meebits will only become more relevant as metaverses gain ground.
The Future of NFT Avatars
The bottom line to note here is that avatar NFTs have definitely found their appeal within the world of non-fungible tokens.
They have gathered a lot of popularity, and have been selling for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on secondary markets such as OpenSea. While some only see them as mere pieces of art or just collectibles, avatar NFTs are much more than that. Well-designed avatar NFTs are the key to join a community and access perks and experiences. With the advent of NFT enabled Metaverses, these avatars will only become more relevant.
