NFTs and the Metaverse: What Advantages Lay Ahead?

If you’ve been following the crypto industry for a while now, you will know that two major trends that appear to be showing up are the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

NFTs became especially popular earlier this year after several notable people – including and especially celebrities – began to mint them. On the other hand, the metaverse has become a top trend because several top tech companies are now investing heavily in it.

Many forward-thinking people who understand how these two concepts work are curious about the possibility of collaboration and how the two of them could be intertwined. So, are there opportunities to use NFTs within the metaverse?

An Unclear Definition Gets In the Way

At this point, we all know what NFTs are – tokens that represent ownership of a physical asset. It could be art, it could be a piece of real estate, or it could be something else. The point of NFTs is to communicate that you own a physical asset, and you can do with it what you like.

Of course, NFTs are also popular because of their nonfungibility. You can’t trade one NFT for another, although you could easily resell an NFT after you purchased it yourself. The uniqueness of NFTs is what particularly drives the value of NFTs. Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet earlier this year as an NFT for $2.9 million – whoever bought the NFT essentially owns that tweet in perpetuity now.

But, the metaverse is a bit murky for now. We know that several companies are currently trying to build it. Facebook announced a $50 million fund for the metaverse development earlier this year, and the company even changed the name of its holding company to “Meta” recently – in a move to show its vision of building this bold new world.

At the same time, Microsoft has also confirmed its vision to build a metaverse. This is in addition to several other smaller tech companies that want to throw their hats into the ring.

Still, it’s unclear what the metaverse actually will be. Facebook’s explanation shows that the metaverse will be a whole new world where people will be able to collaborate and enjoy new experiences. So, you could step into a completely new environment – whether alone or with your friends – and move freely from one place to another. It’s speed, flexibility, and convenience all in one place.

NFT Projects Making Waves in the Metaverse

It is worth noting that the metaverse hasn’t been built yet. The fact that no one knows exactly what it means that we don’t have a pointer to how it will work. That said, we’ve seen NFT projects that have shown potential to help create the type of virtual world that we hope the metaverse will be. Here are a few of them:

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is perhaps the most popular blockchain game in the world. The project includes the growing and rearing of digital pets – known as Axies. Players grow their Axies and battle them against other players’ Axies. For your work, you earn tokens – either Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Smooth Love Potions (SLPs).

The allure of Axie Infinity is that each Axie is an NFT. You can sell them to other players through Axie Infinity’s in-app marketplace. While this isn’t a metaverse like companies such as Facebook are looking to build, the Axie Infinity universe is definitely an early iteration of what we hope to see on the large scale.

Decentraland

Decentraland is another impressive NFT and virtual world concept. Here, every player is able to own a piece of land, which they can till and work on just like the physical work.

In Decentraland, users will be able to sell and buy digital real estate. At the same time, they can interact with each other, play games in the digital world, and participate in the online experience. The platform has since evolved to bring in some interaction, such as in-world digital payment processing and direct communications.

Decentraland has two governance tokens. There’s LAND – an NFT that represents ownership of digital land within the ecosystem. There’s also MANA, which facilitates LAND and digital goods purchases in the universe.

Sloties

Sloties is one of the newest and most exciting projects in the NFT space. Here, we have a collection of 10,000 NFTs built on the Ethereum blockchain. They are unique tokens, offering holders the opportunity to take ownership of the profits at a real online gaming platform.

NFTs have become important to the gaming industry, and Sloties are essentially driving the utility of NFTs for gaming. Token holders can enjoy several benefits, including the opportunity of earning passive income as people play games on several online gaming platforms. They also earn through staking, with holders able to stake their Slotie NFTs.

Slotie token holders also become VIP members of over 150 gaming platforms, meaning that they can enjoy up to 20% rakeback guarantees. These utility NFTs have been taking the industry by storm, and they are getting quite appealing as well.

Somnium Space

Somnium Space is a self-styled Virtual Reality metaverse experience built on the Ethereum blockchain. The project allows anyone to create, trade, and engage with NFTs and other digital assets.

An open-source platform, Somnium Space makes it possible for holders to buy digital land, property, and different in-game assets through its multiverse. Users can do what they like with their property, all while also exploring other participants’ creations.

The SandBox

The SandBox is a metaverse project that makes it possible for users to purchase virtual lands in different sizes. Also built on Ethereum, this project has several features – such as an NFT, a 3D animation build, and much more.

Users can even build game assets, which are monetizable through The SandBox’s in-app marketplace, and also get a No-Code Maker software where people can develop gaming experiences.