Recently there has been an upsurge in interest in the buying, selling and collecting crypto collectables.
Check websites like Bit Alpha AI to utilize the best trading strategies to make your bitcoin trades profitable. Instead of trading a fungible currency for an in-game character or digital item, the idea is that you purchase a specific token that users can only use on the platform it’s hosted on.
The most obvious example of this is ERC-721 tokens which have opened a new world of digital scarcity. It has led to people paying tens of millions of dollars for digital cats. However, the concept isn’t limited to cats; celebrities and other artists are also entering the market, selling signed digital items, images, and artwork. In the below-listed portion, we look at 5 of the most interesting NFTs so you can make informed decisions when purchasing crypto collectables.
- CryptoKitties
The king of the crypto collectables, CryptoKitties, has received a lot of attention, both good and bad, in the wake of their success. While they may not have invented the non-fungible token or crypto art, they have proven that digital scarcity can do excellent business. For example, their most famous cat sold for just under $100,000.
CryptoKitties is a decentralized application on the Ethereum network that allows users to breed digital cats and trade them on intelligent contracts. CryptoKitties was created by Axiom Zen in November 2017 and had reached USD 12 million in sales revenue by May 2018. CryptoKitties takes the unique ERC-721 token standard and adds some smart contract functionality to it.
It allows each crypto kitty to have a unique genome and thus create a different set of attributes for each cat. To ensure that no one can transfer duplicate valuable kittens to another user, each kitten is recorded on the blockchain with a checksum of its genome, making it virtually impossible to forge.
Over 18 million cats have already been bred since Crypto Kitties went live in late 2017. Three hundred fifty thousand new users signed up in the first week alone, all trying to get their hands on their own cats and start breeding them as quickly as possible.
There’s a whole “CryptoKitties Dapp”, all the dapps built on top of the CryptoKitties API. It acts as more of a marketplace than an app — the dapps run on Ethereum and use ERC-721 tokens similar to Crypto Kitties. Some of these examples include:
– The Rezz Cards game allows you to build custom Decentraland avatars.
– The NFT Launcher is an interface for building your own NFT application.
- Axie Infinity:
The gorgeous 2D collectable game, shown in early access to players, is incredibly ambitious. There’s a whole universe of monsters, items, characters and stories in the works here.
Axie Infinity is a decentralized RPG collecting game connected by the Ethereum blockchain. You can buy & sell your digital creatures (called Axis) for real money in a secondary market (through Kyber or other platforms). The idea of Axie Infinity is to take the excitement of collecting and breeding digital kitties and turn it into an epic RPG adventure. So unique, no two Axis are alike, with different powers, traits, weapons, and skills.
- MANA:
Created in collaboration with Crypto Kitties and Decentraland to collect new digital beasts, MANA has the potential to be one of the most sought-after NFTs this year. It’s used in Decentraland, a virtual reality platform that runs on top of the Ethereum network. So you can purchase land and build anything you like! Decentraland is built on blockchain technology and allows users to own virtual property that can’t be replicated or taken away.
- SAND:
SAND is a non-fungible 3D collectable game based on the Ethereum blockchain. The game has a unique playstyle where you can collect unique sand sculptures with their own story. Like in MANA, there’s also an auction market to buy and sell your sand sculptures to help fund the next sculpture.
- THETA Token:
The THETA token enables cross-game item transfer and the creation of connection points between games. Think of it as eBay for video game assets, only secure and intelligent. The THETA token can be used as a currency for secure transactions in games, as well as for purchasing gaming assets around the world.
Closure
As you can see, some very promising NFTs in the crypto space. It’s truly an exciting time to be collecting digital assets. The future of blockchain collectables is bright, with MANA being one of the first attempts at a secondary market for NFTs. But, of course, each NFT has its features and target markets, so it comes down to your preference as to which one best suits your needs.