Dynamic Nifties
This is an introduction to a new type of digital collectibles that we think is worth exploring at Nifty Gateway — dynamic nifties.
If you don’t know what a digital collectible is, you should check out my simple explanation that I wrote here.
What is a dynamic nifty?
A dynamic nifty is a nifty that changes some of its characteristics based on some sort of outside stimulus.
Digital goods that upgrade themselves are a pretty old concept — think about how your Charmander became Charmeleon, and then Charizard.
Dynamic nifties are nifties that upgrade themselves or change based on outside stimulus. For exampl, a nifty could upgrade or downgrade itself based off of the time of day, the price of bitcoin or the result of an election.
Physical art cannot be changed once it has been created or once it has been sold. But digital art can be.
A nifty is the perfect vehicle to make a work of digital art that changes based on preset rules or outside stimulus.
Dynamic nifties have huge potential to unlock new kinds of creativity.
An example of a dynamic nifty
Here is a basic example of a dynamic nifty. It is called ‘Cockfosters by day and night.’ It is a nifty that we made as a party favor for Griffin Cock Foster and mines apartment (which we call Cockfosters — there are two Cockfosters living there, after all.
There were only 50 nifties made and you had to attend the dinner party to get one. You can view one of the nifties on OpenSea here and on Nifty Gateway here.
There is something special about this nifty — it changes based on the time of day.
Our apartment looks different at day time and at night time — and so does this nifty.
It is a dynamic work of art that changes itself based on what time it is.
Why does this matter?
The range of possibilities for dynamic nifties are much wider than the range of possibilities for static nifties.
And dynamic nifties allow you to create works of art that wouldn’t really be possible without nifties, or would at least require expensive custom hardware.
A dynamic nifty is more than just a single image. The work of art is composed of the rules that govern which image the nifty displays. It is a perfect use case for non fungible token technology.
Un-copyable digital art
Dynamic nifties also have a great claim at being un-copyable digital art.
The definition of what ‘un-copyable’ really means is somewhat subjective. But someone can’t simply download the image files that make up the Cockfoster nifty — they have to replicate the rules that govern the nifty as well.
They would be able to do this by creating their own smart contract, of course- but it would simple to verify that the duplicate smart contract was fake.
The original nifty, governed by a certain set of rules and displaying a certain image at a certain time, is un-copyable.
Conclusion
Dynamic nifties are slightly tricker to create. You have to code rules that govern which metadata is displayed as well as the ERC721 token.
But we think they are incredibly cool. We’re willing to lend our programming ability to people who want to create their own dynamic nifties.
If you are interested in making and selling your own dynamic nifty, I would love to hear from you. DM me on Twitter, Instagram or send an email to duncan@niftygateway.com.
Signed,
-The Nifty Gateway Team
