Welcome back, gamers 👋
You better be ready, because class is in session. Here at Exeedme, we feel like sometimes our work is unfairly maligned. People write the craziest things about blockchain, digital currencies, NFTs, DeFi, etc. online.
These are the evil tools of Russian mafiosos to smuggle money across Europe *cue dramatic music*. It’s all a meaningless Internet craze that will destroy the planet *pictures of baby jaguars running for cover*. They will literally tank the economy *breadlines during the Great Depression*.
A lot of these things are just people saying stuff on the Internet. It can’t be helped. That’s what the Internet is for.
But we also feel a lot of these things hinge on people not understanding what these things are and do. Which, at the end of the day, is not that surprising. These are new technologies, and they are being used to do new things.
So since we actually work with this tech for a living, we thought we might as well dispel some myths, share some learning, and try to make the world a better and more thoughtful place.
ON THE INTERNET.
So what even are NFTs.
For all intents and purposes, NFTs are tokens. They are a unit of data on the blockchain (Ethereum, by and large, but also Bitcoin Cash or Flow), and they have a lot of the same characteristics as any other token.
There are some differences, however, and that’s what makes them interesting. For something to be an NFT, it must have five characteristics:
- Non-fungible: The first one is in the name. One of the main reasons why tokens like Bitcoin or XED can be used as currency is that they are fungible. Even though you can track every Bitcoin down to the moment it was minted, every single one is, for all intents and purposes, the same. It makes no difference which one you have. With NFTs, it’s the other way around. Every one is different. It contains different information, it has a different value, and it can never simply be traded in an exchange.
- Non-interoperable: This means they don’t all work in the same ways. For instance, say you’ve won an NFT cup from an Exeedme tournament. If you decide to participate in a trading card game… you won’t be able to use it. You will need trading card NFTs. Bear in mind, in any case, that Exeedme and some partners are pushing the boundaries here and exploring some interoperability features between NFTs.
- Indivisible: NFTs are whole things. You can’t own percentages of an NFT like you own satoshis.
- Indestructible: This is true of most everything on the blockchain. It’s not unique to NFTs. But it does bear keeping in mind since it distinguishes them from other kinds of digital certificates. Whatever’s on the blockchain is there for good. You can’t erase it. NFTs, once minted, are forever.
- Verifiable: This too is common to all denizens of the blockchain. In the same way digital ledgers allow for easy verification of digital currencies, so too do they allow for easy verification of NFTs, right down to the original author. This is what makes them valuable. You can verify originality.
Why do we care?
Because we like delicious rare and unique things.
That’s the simple answer.
The longer answer is: because NFTs allow us to do something that we couldn’t do before with digital art, which is to prove originality. In the Before-Times, once an artist created a piece of digital art, be it music, a drawing, or anything else, as soon as someone CTRL+C’ed and CTRL+V’ed it…
There were two.
Completely indistinguishable, exactly the same, and just as valuable.
People seem to forget, but this wreaked havoc on cultural industries.
Most haven’t recovered to this day. Bands are essentially living off of touring and performing live shows because there’s really no way to monetize selling music anymore in a day and age where physical media is almost obsolete and digital objects are infinitely replicable.
NFTs are a fix for this.
The art world saw the potential
The art world actually saw the value of the blockchain before NFTs were a thing. The first bona fide NFTs were presented in 2015 at Devcon 1. But other forms of cryptoart were already around.
Now, there’s no definitive way to define cryptoart. It can be many things to many people. Some consider it to be art about digital currencies. The general consensus, however, is that cryptoart is art that is stored on the blockchain. NFTs have completely taken over that space, yes, but there were other early competitors. Some, like Edwin Rosero’s The Cardinal, were already dealing with pretty much the same concepts as we’re seeing nowadays. It’s a piece of art that’s attached to a blockchain-powered certificate of authenticity. Others, like whatever the hell is going on with Rare Pepes, are operating under very different rules (DISCLAIMER: we are quite aware that the Pepe figure has been used by unsavory political figures, and we have no interest in even going near that discourse), that have a lot more to do with the Internet’s never-ending ability to spawn memes than with anything resembling the art world.
All of these things happened before CryptoPunks.
CryptoPunks are the moment where NFTs and cryptoart went mainstream. They are 10.000 uniquely collectible figures that you can outright own. And people went crazy for them.
The rest, as they say, is history. Very recent history, that is still being built. It’s important to remember that everything we’ve reported on this piece has happened at most… five years ago. That’s extremely recent. So even though there are celebrities dabbling with the format, and Jack is selling tweets, and there are museums for these things now, we are just witnessing a beginning.
The growth potential is essentially infinite, and innovation in the field is happening every single day. The moment we post this article, the very moment we press “publish”, we just know something awesome is going to happen that will make it outdated.
Alas, such is life.
But is it all about art? Nope.
We love collecting stuff
We, humans, not we, your favorite writing team.
(though we do too)
(we’re humans, promise)
NFTs don’t necessarily have to contain fine art. They can contain any(digital)thing. Say, have you ever wanted to own Maverick’s helmet from Top Gun? Well, the good folks at Terra Virtua have licensed it, and you can now in fact own an NFT with a perfectly replicated 3D rendering of it. How about a drawing made by John Cleese himself just to make fun of us? You can get that too.
You can, in fact, make your own.
That’s the beauty of NFTs and decentralized finance. No one controls what these things are worth, and no one has a say over what you can do with them. There are sites that will let you display them, and have guests over to check them out. You can sell them. You can bet them. You can give them away if that’s your preference.
This is why we’re making them a big part of what we do.
NFTs will be crucial for gaming
This was the NFT trophy won by the winning team that came out victorious in the world’s first-ever CS:GO tournament. This kind of reward will be commonplace in Exeedme’s ecosystem, as gamers play for them, bet on them (or bet them), and collect them to display as proof of their victories and success.
This way, instead of just having some sort of gamerscore, or an account that a company can delete or ban you from, gamers can have proof of their accomplishments and skills that they own outright. NFTs are yours, and no one can delete them. Not us, not anyone.
Moreover, imagine adding utility to those NFTs, and achieving even more by using them. You’ll get specific advantages/perks/skins and even access to special goodies on different, decentralized, games. Just because you own an NFT!
On our first beta tournament, each member of the the winning team also won this one:
For those who own it, it will act as a 2x booster of the Liquidity Provided on Uniswap for the Liquidity Rewards Program. In essence, this NFT will work as a 2x multiplier in the Liquidity Providers’ allocation. Who knows if in the future it will also give its owners access to exclusive tournaments, in-game assets and so on?
The story of NFTs and its applications has just started, and if there’s one thing we’re certain about is that we want to be a part of that evolution!
If this sounds good to you, join us! There are some invitations to the private beta being given away at our discord! The future of gaming is here.
About Exeedme
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