Useful NFTs: The Next Big Trend in the Metaverse

Introduction

Blockchain can bring tremendous strategic value to businesses, much beyond the current hype surrounding its potential. The technology has the potential to provide businesses with a secure, decentralized platform that can improve transparency, traceability, and efficiency across industries.

However, to fully realize this strategic value of blockchain, businesses need to evaluate and arrive at the best use cases for the technology and develop scalable solutions that deliver tangible benefits. Take for example the case of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), one of the most interesting applications of blockchain. Earlier associated strictly with digital art and collectibles, NFTs are seeing massive growth in both utility and adoption around the world, opening the floodgates to enterprise development and innovation.

NFT Art: An Interesting but Saturated Use Cases

NFTs can be understood as digital proofs of ownership of specific digital assets and/or items. These digital assets and products may be tokenized using an NFT and given a unique identity that is stored on the underlying blockchain. Blockchain is used to create and store NFTs, ensure their legitimacy, and prevent their duplication or forgery.

Since their inception, NFTs have been largely associated with artwork alone. Artists all over the world have been using NFTs as a unique means of selling and authenticating their art. By creating an NFT for their artwork, artists can leverage the benefits of establish ownership and provenance of their creation and ensure its uniqueness.

The underlying blockchain technology ensures that the artwork is genuine and cannot be copied or faked. In addition, NFTs give artists a chance to get paid royalties when their works are sold again on the secondary market, which wasn't previously available with conventional art sales. Ultimately, NFTs provide artists a fresh and creative approach to profit from their digital works and carve out a niche for themselves in the art world. No wonder then that NFTs have been used to sell digital artwork worth millions of dollars in recent years.

However, the usage of NFTs for art is growing into a more and more saturated use case. Today, NFTs are used to create, own, and depict a wide range of digital content, including music, games, characters, objects, events, tickets, meetings, even tweets! As a result, there is an unprecedented proliferation in the scope and utility of NFTs today.

Trending Use Cases of NFTs

While NFTs are still being used to authenticate and sell digital art, here are few diverse use cases of NFTs that are currently in trend:

Gaming

NFTs have quickly become a hot favorite in the gaming industry and are used to represent in-game assets including characters, goods, and virtual property. Players that use NFTs can acquire exclusive and unusual digital assets with real-world worth that can be exchanged or sold on secondary marketplaces. As a result, chances for both game producers and players to monetize their games have largely increased.

In games where players spend a lot of time and money creating their digital collections, NFTs can also offer a mechanism to guarantee the authenticity and provenance of in-game materials.

Sports Collectibles

In the sports industry, NFTs have become a popular means to buy, sell, and collect rare and distinctive sports memorabilia. Sports cards, jerseys, and game highlights can all be designated and stored as unique digital assets by enthusiasts, and even exchanged or sold on secondary markets through their NFTs.

At the same time, sports NFTs also gives players and sports organizations new and creative methods to sell their stuff, giving sports fans additional possibilities to acquire and collect rare and special items. To increase transparency and build more trust in the market for sports collectibles, NFTs can also be used to guarantee the authenticity and provenance of sports artefacts.

Music

NFTs find diverse applications in the world of music, starting from the marketing and distribution of one-of-a-kind and collectible musical goods such as records, concert tickets, and merchandise. At the same time, musicians may also use NFTs to provide their fans access to exclusive concerts or unique video messages, among other exclusive goods.

Selling music and goods and receiving royalties upon reselling of products on secondary marketplaces can facilitate additional sources of income for musicians through NFTs. NFTs can also give musicians a new opportunity to connect with their audience by giving them specialized experiences and exclusive information. This may result in a more enthusiastic and devoted fan base, which will help musicians advance their careers and gain more recognition.

Virtual Real Estate

In virtual environments like Decentraland and The Sandbox, NFTs already a popular means of representing virtual real estate. Players using NFTs in these games can acquire exclusive and uncommon virtual land that can be put to a variety of uses, including the construction of virtual residences, the establishment of businesses, and the holding of events.

Both players and developers can monetize their assets and sell virtual properties. Besides, NFTs offer a mechanism to guarantee the authenticity and provenance of virtual real estate, while shaping the future of online communities and virtual worlds innovatively.

Conclusion: Future of the Metaverse and NFTs

The importance of NFTs rests in its capacity to give creators a safe and transparent mechanism to sell and trade digital assets and products without the need for middlemen, whether record companies, art galleries, or auction houses. NFTs give their owners the ability to maintain proprietorship of their work, manage its distribution, and monetise it more effectively and directly than using conventional techniques.

The use cases of NFTs will only grow further in coming years and are sure to percolate industries and segments that are still untouched. It is safe to say that NFTs will continue to be crucial in demonstrating ownership and authenticity of virtual assets, as well as in generating new sources of income for creators and developers, as more individuals spend time in virtual worlds. As users increasingly explore for ways to monetize their gameplay and carve out a niche for themselves in the online community, NFTs will probably play a significant role in the development of the metaverse ecosystem.

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About the Author:

Ian Scarffe is a serial entrepreneur, investor, key opinion leader and Blockchain consultant with business experience from around the world.

An expert in Startup, Investment, Fintech, Web3 and Blockchain industries. Ian currently consults and advises for a range of multi-million dollar companies.

Ian’s overall mission is to foster a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities across the world.

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