As each day passes, the world’s economic situation continues to worsen. The bad news keeps coming: more unemployment, lower output, higher borrowing, and no one knows when the next wave of Succession It is possible that you may be owed.
As with every crisis, some people will always benefit. There have been many articles written about how people and companies are making money, and it’s hard to get enough about this as we sit and click through our days.
Losers & Winners
Mark Zuckerberg was announced to have joined the exclusive centibillionaires’ club just today. The news is both predictable and enraged at the exact same time. On that note, I implore you not to look at the graphic that visualizes Jeff Bezos's wealth. This will only depress you.
Even though Jeff, Mark, and their friends are making money, while we suffer, there is some light. The decentralised financial (defi) sector is one source of hope. Around $665 million was invested in de-fi at the start of 2020. That figure is now $4.2 billion. We are increasingly turning to alternatives as our trust in traditional financial systems wanes.
De-fi allows us to use our own crypto-assets and control them, all without relying on traditional lending institutions. We can borrow money, provide liquidity in order to earn interest, and even trade. All of this is done outside the mainstream financial world.
This decentralised approach eliminates middlemen and their heavy cuts, so we can enjoy greater profits to go along with our improved control. This is an extremely rare case where the small guy wins.
The world of crypto and blockchain moves fast. Others are far ahead of those of us who have just begun to grasp the details and possibilities of defi. It can be confusing for those who are new to de-fi that the most significant gains in the field have been achieved.
As money floods the de-fi sector, the value of big platforms such as Aave or Kava has soared. Smaller investors may think that the train is out of station.
A new train has arrived, which will offer even greater potential to those willing to get on board. The non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), according to many, are the next big thing for the cryptoverse. They could even help de-fi reach the next level.
New platforms are emerging to take advantage of NFTs. Before we go any further, let’s first take a closer look at NFTs and their workings.
The NFTs Beginner Guide
To explain NFTs, it is best to first discuss their antithesis. With the fiat money we use, we are constantly exposed to fungible assets. One US dollar, for instance, is the same as every other US dollars.
Both dollars are interchangeable. All dollars are therefore fungible. Also, crypto currencies are fungible: A bitcoin is also a Bitcoin is a Bitcoin.
Unswappable assets have unique characteristics and are not easily interchangeable with other items. Take a book for example. In 1998, John Paul Getty Jr. paid $7.5m (about $11.5m today) for the first edition The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer. Although not for everyone, it is a good way to relax.
When I looked on Amazon just now, the most expensive copy available was the ‘deluxe gift edition,’ retailing at the princely sum of £14.95 ($19.57). After a quick calculation, I found that the Wife of Bath’s stories and those of the Miller’s are available for a fraction of the price of the ones Mr Getty purchased.
This is to say that even though my Chaucer page-turner contains the same content as the original edition, the two are not identical. The first is an important and rare piece of English literary history. The second is a mass produced hardback that was delivered by Bezos’s lieutenant. If I tried to swap the books, I would probably end up in jail with lots of time for reading. These two books are not fungible.
By now, perhaps you have made the natural transition from The Canterbury Tales CryptoKitties has become a worldwide phenomenon. This is the most well-known NFT currently in the cryptosphere. Users pay money to breed, customize, and sell digital cats.
The cats are all unique, and many sell for large amounts of money. This proves the old saying that fools and their cash soon part. CryptoKitties is a game developed by Axiom Z on Ethereum’s blockchain. It became so popular, that it nearly brought the whole network to a halt in December 2017.
NFTs are a great way to bring your digital cats into the 21st century. It’s worthwhile to take a look at two of the different NFTs available before we get into more details.
Token Types
ERC-20 tokens are Ethereum-based assets that you’re likely familiar with. They can be sent or received. ERC-20 standards are used by many popular cryptocurrency, including Basic Attention token, EOS and Augur, as well as Basic Attention token, EOS and TRON. All of these tokens are fungible.
There are two standards for the issuance of non-fungible coins. ERC-721 is the most common. Cryptokitties, the tokens you collect with love are ERC-721. ERC-1155 is the versatile ERC-1155. The ERC-1155 tokens are fungible or non-fungible, and they’re most commonly used for blockchain games.
Fortnite’s non-fungible weapons and clothes are well known to anyone who has played the game. It also comes with its own currency, V-bucks (which allows in-game purchase).
The ERC-1155 can also support non-fungible V-bucks alongside these fungible ones. ERC-1155 gives developers an increased level of flexibility.
NFTs in the Market
NFTs function essentially as digital collectibles. They have many advantages, because they’re issued on the Blockchain, over non-fungible items such as works of art or rare books.
The same guarantees of ownership and permanence as Bitcoin are also present. They can therefore be used as an alternative to physical currency that is more manageable.
Since its launch, the NFT market is rapidly growing and has seen a volume of over $100,000,000. While the focus of NFT is on blockchain-based games, other platforms also use this technology to create new opportunities.
NFTs and Defi
DeFi is limited to cryptocurrency. The services that DeFi offers are all centered around cryptocurrency – loans, interest and trades can be done using crypto assets. NFTs give DeFi the opportunity to go beyond its current scope and add real world assets.
Tinlake is a platform that allows both investors and lenders to fund their own assets pools. This Dapp on Ethereum, which specializes in securitization, was created to facilitate this. Smart contracts are used to make this happen. They can be easily integrated with DeFi’s ecosystem.
As a result, businesses seeking to raise funds or generate cash in the real world can provide assets as collateral. Tinlake tokenizes assets before bringing them to the blockchain as non-fungible Tokens.
The investors gain access to an asset class previously out of their reach. The banks are completely kept out.
Tinlake pools the NFTs, which represent the assets in the real world. As a way to raise stablecoins, like DAI, these pools issue fungible coins as a share of their proceeds. These tokens bear interest in the form yield tokens or risk tokens. When funding is released, both tokens will be burned.
Tinlake is much more than what this article can cover, but as a platform it offers NFTs an easy entry into de-fi with huge benefits to both parties. The platform can be used by companies to secure real assets or get cash advances, and investors can invest in new asset classes that use NFTs.
Blockchain Games
The NFT rankings are dominated by this sector, where in-game collectibles form the main use of tokens. Fortnite is a great example of how collectables can be incredibly appealing to gamers.
They both play an important role in creating and maintaining the virtual worlds of these games. It is more likely that the player will continue to play the game the more it becomes immersive.
These games are based on existing formats that have been updated for the blockchain age. Sorare lets kids trade football cards, just as they used to do in playgrounds.
Card can be traded, bought, or sold. You can also play virtual matches against other players. Stats and seasons are updated. You can also find a variety of trading card variants, such as Contract Servant or Gods Unchained.
The Sandbox offers users the chance to build their empires in virtual land. They can also see how much value they get from their virtual assets if you have a knack.
Skins and weapons can also be collected. Land that is owned by these games may even become a rental for advertisers. The original owner will retain ownership. The ability to accumulate value in in-game purchases over time also plays an important role in building a world for the game and in retaining the players.
Axie is another popular digital pet app that has joined CryptoKitties. It’s a similar concept: you buy an Axie, customize it and then compete against other players.
Axie Infinity brings football cards to the 21st Century, just as Sorare brought Tamagotchi into our lives. The NFTs make this possible.
Also, it’s important to remember that global gamers number in the millions. This is a massive market potential for NFTs. It’s possible that this market will grow exponentially as these games and those following them gain popularity and momentum.
Cryptography Art
We can see that if we go back to the top NFT projects table, there are also a lot of platforms for creating, collecting, and trading digital artwork on the Blockchain.
Artists can now sell their work in digital format thanks to projects like SuperRare, MakersPlace, and Known Origin. This is a boon in these current times. This makes the pieces collectible and immutable. NFTs are what represent these works.
Copyright holders will be able to see the wider impact of this. NFTs allow them to improve their income while protecting it against unauthorised copies. Creators are given more power.
Bitcoin Domains
Another prominent platform group in the NFT rankings is concerned with Blockchain domains and their licensing. These are simple replacements for the long, garbled addresses of digital wallets, which also function as payment gateways.
You can also request that crypto-payments be sent to your website address if it is a business site. Coinbureau.crypto is an example. It eliminates the need to copy and paste wallet addresses, which can be vulnerable.
A blockchain domain also makes your website censorship-resistant, as the private keys to it are stored in a wallet to which only you have the keys. The private keys are the only way a third party cannot interfere or disable your site.
Old system of domain name registrations being able to shut down websites looks dated. It is clear that this will benefit everyone: the government cannot censor speech anymore and there will be better information for all.
Unstoppable Domains and Ethereum Name Services are two of the biggest players in this project. The blockchain domains, like other assets, can be bought and resold. This provides those with the right foresight a chance to earn money. One such person sold CryptoWorld.com for $195,000.
The Future
The potential uses of NFTs continue to evolve. NFTs can be used as an additional security layer for KYC, since they represent and verify peoples’ credentials and identities.
The ticketing industry could undergo a revolution if it recognized the differences between the tickets. For example, a theatre pass that allows you to park behind the pillar in the middle of the circle is not the same as one which has the holders parked on the side. Blockchain and NFTs are already being explored by supply chains, and they offer huge potential benefits for consumers and suppliers alike.
NFTs represent a brand new chapter for blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Their potential will also expand as their adoption grows, making them an interesting prospect for anyone looking to find new growth areas. It is clear that De-fi has much to grow and it’s potential is immense, especially if NFTs are taken into consideration.
When you hear about the wealth that some corporations and people have been able to accumulate in these times, it’s very easy to become disillusioned. The explosion in blockchain technology and its limitless potential means there’s hope for us, who do not have millions of dollars stashed away.
The savvy can seize new investment and profit opportunities. These new frontiers, including NFTs, are among the most interesting and exciting. Their evolution in the future will be very fascinating.
It’s just as well if you want to wait for Succession Come back.
