Nintendo just announced their interest in NFTs. The big dog in gaming wants to incorporate NFTs to give its clients a better playing experience. But what are NFTs and how they operate? NFTs are digital assets that can be traded on a blockchain. They are not physical assets, but they can be sold and traded like any other asset. Today, they are used in games to create a more immersive experience for players. Let’s look at everything you should know before investing in gaming for NFTs.
What Is a Non-Fungible Token?
NFTs are digital assets. Each token is unique because it will only ever exist once on the blockchain. This is what makes them non-fungible, instead of fungible tokens like Bitcoin or Ether, which have identical units. NFTs are created for a specific purpose. This purpose makes them function more like securities than fungible tokens. Examples of NFTs include collectables and unique objects in video games.
How Are NFTs Used in Gaming?
NFTs create value for game developers and give users something positive to do with their time while they play the game. They provide value in two ways: they can be used as currency used to purchase items within a game, or they can be used as collectables and traded between players on secondary markets outside of the game itself.
For example, if you play an online role-playing video game that uses NFTs, you can use your characters, actions and items to buy new characters or items with in-game value. You can then trade these tokens with other users who don’t want to play the game but want the value of your items. There is also a secondary market for trading NFTs associated with games, like tickets for a concert. These tokens go up in value as more people buy them and desperately try to sell them because they can longer attend their favourite band’s concert.
How Are NFTs Valuable?
NFTs are valuable because they exist as unique digital assets on public blockchains like Ethereum. This gives them scarcity and ensures there is no way for players to copy and paste their token into a game if it is taken away from them by another player or game administrator.
Since players cannot have multiple copies of the same token, they will only be interested in buying and selling rare tokens, making those that trade high-value pieces more valuable in the market. NFTs can also be used as a mechanism for game developers to fund and manage the development of their in-game economies because users can purchase NFTs with fiat currency and use the tokens to earn additional rewards or trade them for value.
Limitations of NFTs
The biggest limitation of using an NFT is how game developers treat their game as artefacts and manage tokens that users purchase. Most game developers will tie digital assets to a user’s account. If the user decides to change accounts or move over to a different device, both accounts will have access to the same token at different times.
It can lead to trading disputes between players who disagree on who is legally entitled to own a token based on which version of the game they are playing. This problem is particularly problematic if you deal with many tokens with unique blockchain addresses associated with them; each version of the game would have its database of tokens. It can be challenging to reconcile transfers between users with different game versions.
Utility Tokens and Tokens for Decentralised Applications
Companies use utility tokens to raise capital for a project, reward users for interacting with them and represent future access to their service. These applications need to create their economy often and issue utility tokens as rewards for users who complete tasks. They also validate transactions to improve network throughput.
You can use a utility token in a decentralised application where users can earn tokens simply by playing games on the blockchain. Alternatively, users could be rewarded with crypto-tokens when they provide computing resources like storage space or validate transactions on the blockchain platform. These crypto-tokens can then be used in a decentralised marketplace where consumers buy services from developers who accept the token as payment for their service.
Final Thoughts:
The future of gaming is not just a game of chance. In the near future, we will see a combination of skill and luck as NFTs are used to create fair, transparent and decentralised gaming platforms that anyone can play with an internet connection. Nintendo has done an excellent job at starting the revolutions.
