The Future of Crypto has introduced a new way to look at cryptocurrency that can provide a good starting point for people who are new to the space. The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a token that can be unique and scarce and still interoperate with all other tokens. NFT’s are making a push for use in new applications like cryptocurrencies and video games, but sometimes their use is more specific than that.
1. What are NFTs?
It is difficult for people new to crypto to wrap their head around how an asset can be unique, scarce, and also able to interact with other like tokens. It is even harder to understand what the advantages of this would be in a crypto-environment. Most tokens sold to an ICO, are ERC-20 tokens minted by the Ethereum blockchain, which excels at handling non-fungible transactions.
Briefly, an ERC-20 token is a token that you can create on top of the Ethereum network. This is a smart contract, and can be bought/sold, transferred without middlemen, and its value is logically immovable. Some tokens have a fixed supply and cannot be increased. For example, the Ethorse token is a betting platform that has a fixed supply and will never have any new tokens minted. This provides security for investors that the value of their investment will not be diluted by inflation.
Other tokens like the [pillar] token make decisions in a decentralized manner with the help of smart contracts. These are tokens that are minted by the Ethereum network that can only be sent to other ether addresses or traded on exchanges. Many of these are ERC-20 tokens and can be traded using the [etherdelta.io] exchange.
While these minted tokens provide a proven, secure, mostly fungible system for use in crypto-based applications, they also have several interesting limitations. Website list is here.
2. NFTs in crypto games
While some tokens have a fixed supply, others may increase the number of tokens over time and provide scarcity for that token. These are more similar to the value-based currencies found in video games. There are many popular games on the market like World of Warcraft, Fortnite, and even Clash of Clans. These games have a handful of in-game currencies used to purchase different items in the game. While these currencies can be traded for dollars, the value of these in-game currencies is restricted to the game. One cannot spend their Clash of Clans currency on World of Warcraft and one cannot spend World of Warcraft currency on Clash of Clans.
The same is true for most in-game currencies. In games like Clash of Clans, each player is given multiple resources to start the game. This can include gold, elixir, dark elixir, and clan castle units that are used to attack other players’ bases.
3. User-defined Decentralized Exchange (U-dex)
A user-defined decentralized exchange similar to the U-dex is where a token can be rewarded for doing certain tasks within a dApp for seo backlinks. This can be achieved through a smart contract that provides the data to each user, who can then make a decision based on what they find valuable. The user can then receive the tokens for doing the task that they were rewarded for. When one of these tokens is sent to a different user, it becomes a unique non-fungible token that can be used in a dApp.
4. [artificial intelligence]
Developing artificial intelligence is an important goal for the future of crypto, and one of the most interesting uses for NFTs are in the field of artificial intelligence. Currently many companies use deep learning models to train computers and predict what will happen in the future. When these predictions come true, they can be rewarded with some new cryptocurrency they did not have before. The more accurate their prediction is, the more valuable this new cryptocurrency becomes, and this can reward people who invest in creating good currency models.
5. Meshes
There are limited examples where you can use a 3d model to represent a real world object in a game or simulation. For example, the world of World of Warcraft has a handful of mounts that can be used in the game to represent your character. Each mount has a value of money that can be used for different things in the game such as riding across water, burning fire pits and more. If someone wanted to trade these mounts from one person to another, it would probably not work out very well as each mount is unique.
6. [Virtual Reality]
It is likely that we will see virtual reality become more popular over time and developers would like it to have a use for coin addresses. There are also companies that are creating new ways to use NFTs within VR games. For example, the game Crypto Space Commander, which is a space-themed game that uses ERC-721 tokens as collectible items in their game. The company has already released a video on YouTube showing off their blockchain – based, VR combat simulation. CEO Patrick Tual was quoted as saying “What the heck is blockchain? And why do we need it? We have been asking ourselves those questions, and looking for answers.”