NFT Projects You Should Know About

Adam Robertson

@Adamjr

NFTNon-Fungible Tokens

From time immemorial, people have always loved to collect and store items they consider useful. From books, posters, stamps, Pokemon cards, games, souvenirs, etc., people have loved to collect things that resonate with their interests and passions. 

Imagine owning your favorite celebrity’s memorabilia or a virtual gallery of digital artwork you can take anywhere. Yes! This is possible through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain. NFTs are a type of crypto token representing physical assets and cannot be interchanged or swapped in the real world. 

While the crypto space in 2020 was dominated by the DeFi craze, the launch of Ethereum 2.0, and Bitcoin breaking price records, NFTs hit crypto news headlines. As a result, they stole the limelight in the crypto world in 2021, even though Bitcoin continued to break price records. 

NFTs have found real-life use cases and have been endorsed by celebrities. For instance, in the summer of 2020, Hollywood star and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher auctioned a piece of NFT digital art (“The Eye of the Beholder”) for ETH on Cryptograph. 

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Renowned gamer and YouTuber Pewdiepie inked a deal with Wallem- a blockchain-based game that leverages NFTs for skins and other assets in the game. Also, top-flight football clubs, including FC Bayern München, Atletico Madrid, PSG, and Juventus, have partnered with Sorare-a NFT platform operating a global fantasy football league. 

NFT Projects You Should Know About

CryptoPunks

• Service: Decentralized Art

CryptoPunks is among the high-grossing NFT projects, with an average weekly trading volume of $2.2 million. The platform allows users to trade and store 10 000 unique collectible characters using Proof-of-Ownership being stored on the Ethereum Blockchain. The 10 000 collectible characters are generated uniquely, and a single individual can own each on the Ethereum blockchain. 

Initially, the characters could be claimed by anyone with an Ethereum wallet, but they soon ran out. So currently, the only means of obtaining the characters is buying from an owner via the platform’s marketplace, allowing users to bid, buy and sell the unique characters. 

By allowing art ownership to be seamlessly transferred between individuals, CryptoPunks is creating a decentralized art market. However, unlike traditional art that can be hung on a wall, CryptoPunks art is digital and presents a digital certificate of authenticity of the Ethereum blockchain. 

Decentraland

• Service: Decentralized Virtual World/ Gaming 

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual world that allows users to enter a virtual world where they participate in the governance process by using customized avatars and collectibles which can be traded. To enter the virtual world, i.e., Decentraland, users need first to set up their unique avatar, which is then offered a virtual passport representing their identity in the virtual world. 

Once in Decentraland, users can direct their avatars to build cities, participate in the governance process or buy rare digital assets. First, users need to buy MANA-a, a fungible digital currency used in the Decentraland marketplace and available in leading exchanges. LAND is the platform’s NFT token representing estates and parcel ownership in the virtual world. 

Rarible

• Service: Decentralized Marketplace for Digital Collectibles  

Rarible is a decentralized NFT market founded by Alex Falin and Alexander Salnikov in January 2020. The platform allows users to trade and mint a wide range of rare digital collectibles and products, including domain names, digital art, digital collectibles and products, memes, metaverses, and DeFi insurance policies.

The platform stands out by allowing digital collectibles’ minting meaning that anyone, including artists and content creators, can upload collectibles such as photos, audio, videos, etc., and earn from them. In addition, Raible is the first NFT project to launch its governance token, RARI, to create an autonomous organization. 

Ethereum Name Services

• Service: Domain Naming

Founded in May 2017 by the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum Name Services is the leading NFT protocol in domain names. The platform is an open, distributed, and extensible domain naming system built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Currently, the platform has over 2.2 M registered names. Ethereum Name Services offer “.ETH” domain names that are unique and non-fungible in line with ERC-721 standards. They can seamlessly be integrated into wallet interfaces and NFT markets such as OpenSea and Raible. As a result, the platform is the leading NFT domain naming service.

SuperRare

• Service: Digital Art Marketplace 

SuperRare is a digital art marketplace for single-edition digital artworks. The platform was founded in 2017 by John Crain and allowed artists to tokenize and monetize their verifiable, single-edition artworks as collectibles.

To achieve this, the platform uses an ERC-721 token, traceable on the network and secured by cryptography to represent each artwork. Artists upload their authentic digital artwork on the platform. SuperRare then certifies the artworks on the Ethereum blockchain to prevent forgery and offers to trace. The platform also features digital displays and virtual reality galleries where artists can display artwork. 

Art collectors can purchase authentic artworks on the platform represented by NFTs and resell the NFTs in markets such as OpenSea. SuperRare charges artists a commission to upload artwork on the platform. For direct sales, artists receive 85% of the revenues, while the platform keeps the remaining 15%. For indirect sales, artists get 10% as royalty. 

CryptoKitties

• Service: NFT Gaming   

Launched in 2017, CryptoKitties was the first NFT protocol to hit the crypto space, causing mainstream attention. CryptoKitties is an Ethereum-based game where users collect and breed virtual cats pegged “Crypto Kitties.” Players can also buy and sell cats, create a collection, earn rewards, and play certain games. The digital cats are NFT tokens, meaning they are unique and cannot be replicated, destroyed, or stolen from a user-they also have unique appearances and traits.

To play the game, users need to deposit ETH in the game’s official wallet (Dapper Labs) and then start breeding new kitties using two ways: breeding with a public sire or breeding your kitties. Users purchase their first kitty in the platform’s marketplace or bid for a kitty using the game’s Offer System. Digital cats attract high value determined by their generation and rarity. The most expensive Crypto Kitty retailed at $170 000. 

By allowing a user to breed rare cats and resell new kitties for for-profits, CryptoKitties is among the best NFT platforms. In late 2017, the game witnessed a boom leading to daily transactions on the Ethereum network, reaching an all-time high of 1.349 in January 2018. This highlighted scalability problems on the network causing it to migrate from PoW to PoS with the launch of Ethereum 2.0.  

Sorare

• Service: NFT Gaming 

If you love fantasy football, this is your ideal NFT platform. Sorare is a fantasy football platform that allows users to act as football managers and guide their teams to win prizes. In addition, users can collect limited edition digital collectibles, including cards of real players. 

The digital cards are limited NFTs stored on the Ethereum blockchain and freely traded in the marketplace. To play fantasy football, users must compose a team with five cards of their choice and rank based on the selected players’ performance in real matches. Users compete across multiple divisions and earn weekly prizes based on the performance of the chosen players.   

Sorare is becoming quite popular and has partnered with over 150 official football clubs from Serie A, La Liga, and English Premier Leagues. More clubs and leagues will be added with time. 

Handshake Domains

• Service: Decentralized Naming and Certificate Authority 

Handshake Domains is another great decentralized, permissionless domain naming platform that offers proof of ownership of domains on the Ethereum blockchain. The domains are issued on NameBase.io then stored on the Handshake Blockchain. The platform seeks to eliminate centralized control over domain names, making sites vulnerable to hacking, corruption, and censorship.

It offers a root DNS naming zone to create an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems. By running the Handshake protocol, users can participate in a decentralized open naming platform secured by a decentralized peer-to-peer network.   

KnownOrigin

• Service: Decentralized Marketplace for Digital Artwork and Collectibles

KnownOrigin is among the top decentralized marketplaces allowing artists to showcase and sell their rare digital artwork and collectibles. The platform eliminates challenges experienced in the art sector, such as counterfeiting, by providing authenticity. 

The platform is built on the Ethereum network and allows users to tokenize their artworks by listing them on the KnownOrigin marketplace. In addition, the buyer’s ETH address is captured when an artwork is bought using ETH to identify the new art owner.  

OpenSea 

• Service: Decentralized Marketplace for Rare Items 

Founded in 2017, OpenSea is the largest decentralized marketplace for over 50 categories of rare items, including crypto-collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), ERC721, and ERC1155 assets. Users can buy, sell and discover rare items such as domain names, digital art, trading cards, virtual worlds, CryptoKitties, etc. 

The platform also empowers developers and designers with an intuitive, powerful tool that they can use to build a marketplace for their ERC721 or ERC1155 assets for free and earn a commission from every secondary item of their digital assets. OpenSea also recently partnered with game developers to develop customizable storefronts to buy and sell crypto-collectibles automatically.   

MakersPlace

• Service: Publishing

MakersPlace is a top-grossing publishing platform that allows digital creators, including artists, actors, writers, designers, etc., to create and sell unique digital creations by leveraging blockchain technology. Using the platform, digital creators can publish authentic and limited-edition versions of their digital works. 

The platform offers uploaded content with verifiable proof of authenticity, ownership, and scarcity, enabling their respective creators to earn full proceeds from their work(s).  

The SandBox

• Service: Gaming

SandBox is “a community-driven platform where creators can monetize voxel assets and gaming experiences on the blockchain.” The NFT protocol is innovative because it allows players to build virtual worlds and works of art. 

SandBox features three sub-platforms: VoxEdit, which allows users to create and animate voxel art, which can be sold in digital marketplaces; marketplace-one, to sell and collect assets; and Game Maker- which plays or make any game you can imagine.

The SandBox is powered by SAND (ERC-20) token and ERC-1155 tokens: LAND and FUND. The SandBox seeks to offer an immersive metaverse experience to gaming enthusiasts to design games and create virtual worlds. Despite making its entry into the crypto space recently, The SandBox is rated as a top NFT project.  

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Conclusion

Non-fungible tokens have great potential to revolutionize digital exclusivity and offer new meaning to digital property rights. 2021 was the best year for NFTs, with projects reaching record-breaking sales. 

Even celebrities have begun collaborating with NFT projects, with some looking at the possibilities of creating their own NFTs, which their fans can collect. In the future, we expect NFT growth with deeper integration between DeFi and NFTs to make them more liquid and valuable. 

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As we advance, NFT is still a novice concept in the crypto world, and more should be done to make them accessible to a broader audience.