The Future Of NFTs in Web 3
NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) started all the way back in 2017 with the development of crypto punks and CryptoKitties. These are some of the first ever and oldest versions of what NFTs are. It wasn't until Nifty Gateway and OpenSea collections that it really started to gain a real footing. What really made it hit headlines however was when Beeple sold a NFT worth millions in 2021 and quickly spread like wildfire as everyone wanted in on the action.
This single sale sparked the boom of the NFT revolution with countless projects, arts, music, gaming along with businesses. It's paved the way for true advancements in ownership and even security. Providing access to events and communities via a ticket or token, game assets such as cards like we see in Splinterlands (which is actully powerful as it's impossible to forge fakes being that everything is logged on a ledger it's also what makes art so powerful) to your username or domain names making sure others can't lock them in before you which we constantly see happen on games and domain resellers.
That was all what most would consider web2 but the real vision is in web3 which is taking shape. NFTs are becoming a critical part of this as it's giving people a way to visually see what they own and what they are doing. What most people struggled with in terms of crypto was not being able to hold it or really even see it. Isn't that the same as credit cards though? Fake money that's not really there lol In any case we see NFTs painting a picture of all things that each person can now relate to.
We have seen NFTs start being used for sporting events however with lockdowns and all that fun stuff it's really stifled the adoption rate of NFTs into sports for tickets and other types of assets from games. However with lockdowns and simply people not caring anymore we are starting to see a path forward with NFT collections and sports in the physical world.
This also comes in the shape of other things such as cards, video clips of epic sporting events and more.
One of the biggest areas however we seen adoption of NFTs is in the digital world of gaming.
The Metaverse?
Now I hate to burst bubbles around here personally I feel the visual VR metaverses are not going to go far. They had a place when lockdowns where in effect but now that that's not really a thing anymore people including younger generations don't care of wear a headset and be a part of a virtual world. Not unless something really epic comes along that people way to play and be a part of but I honestly don't see that happening any time soon.
Proof-Based Ownership
However they do seem to have a strong future in card collection type games such as Splinterlands and showing ownership in that way. Along with skins, outfits and other types of content within a game. This to me is the future and the future others can relate to. Now buying a new outfit in a game means you really own it. You can sell it or move it to another account or simply give it to someone. The next evolution in this would be for the game to allow anyone to mint their own outfits and collect a fee on sales as their revenue source. Content creators would LOVE this and it would pave the way for awesome new communities and the feeling of ownership and being a part of something. This is the direction major gaming firms need to start thinking and taking.
Real ownership of name across all fronts! I think this is one of the most powerful features of what blockchain and NFTs can do for people. Don't you just hate it when you have your own gamer tag and someone swipes it from you. Or companies and people that register your domain name and expect you to pay thousands or millions for your own name! Well with Ownership of NFTs you could lock in your name so any new game, domain etc you create would now be yours and you could verify ownership of it with your registered key on the blockchain.
This also leads into real ownership, privacy and security across the web for what I envision web3 to be which you can read more about here.