1. NFT Gaming
A new video game that lets players gather, breed, and trade NFT kittens had a huge increase in users in 2017. Due to the popularity of CryptoKitties, the Ethereum network’s bottlenecks could not handle the number of transactions, which caused the cryptocurrency’s transactions to be delayed.
In 2021, there will be a large number of games that are totally based on NFTs. NFTs are being incorporated into already released games. NFTs also have the ability to alter how in-game marketplaces function.
Play-to-earn gaming
The gaming sector has a ton of promise for both NFTs and blockchain technology. Additionally, play-to-earn (P2E) models in games like Axie Infinity and Blankos Block Party are causing a stir and earning players actual money. Who doesn’t want to be able to make money playing video games? That’s why they’ve seen an enormous increase in popularity in recent months, especially in developing nations.
Probably the most played P2E game is Axie Infinity. The game, which was inspired by Pokémon, revolves around purchasing, breeding, and training Axies to dispatch into combat. The Axies are NFTs, and via combat, players may acquire Smooth Love Potion, a cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for real money on a secondary market.
The Metaverse
However, the trend that is reshaping the gaming industry extends beyond play to earn and has effects that reach much beyond traditional gaming: the metaverse.
The metaverse is frequently promoted as the next phase of the internet and the future of online interactions. Facebook has changed its name to Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg just said that the firm wants to become “a metaverse corporation.” In the future, Meta wants to be a virtual hub for social interaction, employment, and entertainment.
What connection does this have to NFTs?
Zuckerberg said in his announcement that the metaverse has to be designed with privacy, safety, and interoperability in mind. We’ll need safe means to establish ownership of our identities and digital assets as more and more of our lives shift online.
NFTs can help in this situation.
Imagine the metaverse as the physical world, but online. You may engage in social interaction, go exploring, shop, and accomplish tasks. The same non-fungibility of assets that exists in the actual world is made possible in this area via NFTs.
Asset values are driven by usefulness and scarcity. Additionally, NFTs enable authors to inject utility and scarcity into the metaverse, allowing for the development of a distinctive economic system there.
By tokenizing anything from usernames to in-game wearables to real estate, top metaverse businesses Decentraland and Sandbox are employing NFTs for this very purpose. Twitter and Facebook appear to be set to follow suit.
Consider the real estate market. Real estate is scarce and only available as an NFT in Decentraland. In Decentraland, the land you purchase is yours, just as in the real world. Build a house, a company, an art gallery, or put-up signs on it; whatever you want.
And much like in the real world, your property has a value not only because of what it can do for you but also because of how rare it is and what it might be able to do for others. This indicates that real estate in a certain region increases in value as interest in it grows. Property values are influenced by factors including location, square footage, and market trends. You may sell the property for a profit and provide new ownership to someone else because you own it as an NFT.
2. NFT Ticketing
GET Protocol and Centaurify are only two of the businesses introducing NFTs to the ticketing industry. The development of tickets as NFTs allows for more control over the secondary market, safer storage, and the possibility of seeing tickets as digital treasures.
NFTs in ticketing has the potential to provide lifelong value, unique access, and added incentives for customers. Several cutting-edge uses of NFT ticketing include:
Kings of Leon offering NFTs for lifetime front-row tickets to their concerts.
NFTs for comic books are being distributed by WarnerMedia’s DC Comics along with tickets to their DC FanDome event.
Gary Vee’s Vee Friends NFTs, which also serve as VIP passes for VeeCon’s first three years,
The declaration by Mark Cuban that he intends to introduce NFT tickets to the NBA
An NFT of Andy Murray’s victory at Wimbledon in 2013 that featured two VIP tour experiences, Center Court tickets for the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Final in 2022, as well as a 30-minute tennis match with Murray.
3. Avatars and PFP NFTs
The PFP (profile photo and avatar) NFT efforts have been some of the most successful in NFT history. The foundation for these activities was laid in 2017 with the release of the now-famous CryptoPunks.
10,000 CryptoPunk NFTs were algorithmically created in 2017 and distributed without charge to anyone with an ETH wallet who was interested. In 2021, the cheapest of the 10,000 is valued at more than $400,000, and the NFT series has seen more than $4 billion in transactions.
You might now choose any NFT as your Twitter profile image, albeit doing so is discouraged. However, Twitter’s new technology would enable users to confirm ownership of their NFTs and display a little Ethereum checkmark next to those NFTs.
4. NFT fragments
By now, we are aware that certain NFTs are unaffordable. As of this writing, the least expensive CryptoPunk available for purchase costs close to $400,000. Fragmentation, however, is a recent development that is increasing the liquidity and investor accessibility of high-value NFTs.
Fragmentation is the process of disassembling an NFT into smaller components (ERC-20 tokens) so that consumers may buy inexpensive portions of a costly NFT.
NFT fragmentation can best be understood by comparing it to stock in a corporation. You acquire a minor stake in a corporation when you purchase a share.
Similar to this, an NFT may be divided into millions of little bits, or “shards,” and users can purchase their part of the NFT for less money by doing this.
The odd thing about this is that token shards that are supposed to be non-fungible are really fungible, which means they may be exchanged or substituted for a similar object.
5. NFTs with digital twins
A digital twin is an electronic replica of a tangible asset or product. In essence, it makes it possible to keep a digital record of who owns what in the real world.
Why would someone require an NFT of an item if they already own the genuine, physical version?
The NFTs are a mechanism for verifying the physical goods, not the actual items themselves. Consider it as a safe, accessible proof of authenticity or receipt that contains the whole history of the object.
6. AI NFTs
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the upcoming significant technological disruptor after blockchain. Therefore, the two being united shouldn’t come as a surprise.
AI-produced artwork
Here, AI-created NFTs are the first significant trend.
This phenomenon is not brand-new. At Christie’s in 2018, Obvious Art sold a piece of art produced by the AI GAN for nearly $400,000. However, the advent of NFTs made the worth of digital assets widely acknowledged, and as a result, new AI projects are now regularly producing new works of art and minting them as NFTs.
NFTs with an AI personality is known as iNFTs. They exist on the blockchain, you can communicate with them, and they may alter their personalities and learn new things.
7. Community-owned entertainment and NFT streaming
NFTs are frequently credited with bringing about a creator economy. They’ve provided hundreds of artists with the freedom to make and market their works as they see fit. However, the NFT creator economy has far more potential than simply empowering visual artists and altering the art industry.
NFT music
The first artist to tokenize an album was DJ 3LAU, who earned $11.6 million from the 33 NFTs of the CD he sold. His upcoming endeavor, Royal, aims to revolutionize the streaming music industry. The several owners of the fractionalized asset would then receive a share of the royalties from the song’s streaming.
This enables musicians to reward their most ardent followers with a portion of their earnings—should the song be commercially successful—allowing fans to invest in and support them.
NFT films and TV programs
There was a recent NFT cartoon series called Stoner Cats that featured voice work from celebrities including Mila Kunis, Chris Rock, Jane Fonda, Seth MacFarlane, and Vitalik Buterin.
8. Fine art and NFTs
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with NFTs is aware of how the idea of digital art has been transformed. We’ve previously discussed AI-generated art and fractionalized Picasso NFTs, but there are a few additional NFT developments that have the potential to upend the status quo of conventional art.
NFT Art funds
A certain method to catch the attention of the art world, Justin Sun, the inventor of cryptocurrency platform TRON, has during the past year grabbed up $30 million worth of Picasso, Warhol, and Beeple pieces and changed them into NFTs.
Metaverse art galleries and marketplaces
The 250-year-old fine art auction firm Sotheby’s is headed in this way already. Recently, they unveiled their own Sotheby’s Metaverse, where they advertise the NFT artworks they are selling and hold auctions.
Making NFTs and destroying art
Burning NFT results in its destruction in the realm of NFTs. Typically, one NFT is burned to increase demand and increase the value of other NFTs.
9. Health and NFTs
Data is widely acknowledged to be the most valuable resource in the digital economy. However, the majority of individuals have extremely few options for making money using their personal data.
Aimedis is attempting to remedy that. They have opened the first medical and scientific NFT market in the world, enabling the purchase and sale of medical data as NFTs.
10. Finance and NFTs
NFT sales in the third quarter of 2021 were predicted to be $10.7 billion. Spending that much cash always attracts the attention of the financial community.
Despite the fact that the NFT industry is worth billions of dollars, NFTs are risky and non-fungible assets. Similar to real estate, buying and hanging onto NFTs won’t make you any money.
For the NFT economy to run smoothly and for investors to make money, they must be sold and moved across the market.
NFTs have a place at the table in the burgeoning world of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance.
11. Scaling the websites and the blockchains
In the realm of cryptocurrencies, scalability is a major subject. Thought leaders in the cryptocurrency industry are worried that as the use of cryptocurrencies and NFTs surges, blockchains won’t be able to handle the increasing data storage and transaction traffic.
Websites and servers are not indefinitely scalable, much like blockchains. Because websites have limits, many new NFT initiatives are struggling to grow their systems to meet the enormous demand for NFTs.