A little background on the emergence of blockchain and cryptocurrency
Having omitted the multiple prerequisites in the form of Hashcash and Bitgold, it’s worth starting from 2008, it was then that the article “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” appeared, authored by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity has not yet been established. From now on, the world will learn about blockchain technology and Bitcoin cryptocurrency. There is no way back.
With the gradual development of cryptocurrencies, a growing community of enthusiasts, one of which was Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian citizen with Russian roots. A young talented specialist won $100,000 in a programming competition and is investing it in the development of his own Ethereum cryptocurrency. It compares favorably with Bitcoin in the presence of smart contracts that allow transactions between parties without the participation of third parties. The presence of this feature significantly spurred the development of the cryptocurrency industry at that time. An ICO for the sale of tokens (similar to an IPO) was launched, smart contracts overcame the standardization process, the ERC20 standard appeared, which was joined in 2018 thanks to the Cryptokitties game by the ERC721 standard, also known as NFT.
What is NFT and why is everyone now trying to get themselves a valuable certificate?
What is the ERC721 standard? He is NFT. It is worth explaining that the ERC20 token plays the role of identical tokens, for example, on the subway, each is identical to the others. In ERC721, on the contrary, each token is unique and contains a link to an asset. Thus, we can say that NFT is both a digital certificate of ownership and a real one.
Each of the NFTs exists in a single copy, and all information about their author, transactions, and buyers is stored in the blockchain. Like any blockchain project, NFT is not tied to any one server, and by purchasing it, you declare your right to a digital object for the whole world. NFTs have become a real mainstream in 2021.
According to JPMorgan analysts, monthly sales of digital tokens hover around $2 billion, and the total market capitalization of the NFT universe is $7 billion.
Such certificates confirm ownership of the digital painting, music, book, or collectible sports cards, which are currently being developed by Napoleon IT and Averin Technology for a well-known sports team. It often contains a reference to the digital property itself. It must be assumed that the object itself is stored on some kind of hosting, which can lead to the removal of “property”, and we will have a certificate “without anything”. Therefore, in order to preserve access to digital property and protect against deletion, new solutions are required, other than storing information on hosting.
The good news here is the emergence of IPFS technology, it is a content-addressable, peer-to-peer hypermedia communication protocol. The nodes of the IPFS network form a distributed file system so that hosting is no longer required to store information. Simplified, the network itself is able to store information that is in demand and obliterate information that no one needs.
Personal secure digital assets – why is this a trend and where is it used?
The symbiosis of the described technologies implements a full-fledged decentralized environment in which users have personal secure digital assets, which was not the case before. Due to centralized decisions, development companies dictated rules that could be changed unilaterally. This can be most clearly seen in the example of online games, when the characteristics of objects and characters change to change the balance of the game, sometimes completely nullifying their value. In many ways, for these reasons, early attempts to create a digital universe turned out to be a failure. In 2003, one of these was released, Second life. Today, some call it the progenitor of the metaverses.
How to make money on play earn?
Today, there is a growing interest in the described solutions, which can be combined in one word – web3.0. This made it possible to create games with the concept of play to earn (play and earn). Already, they are combining game economies with real ones, and users are starting to earn real money while in the virtual world. For example, in the game Axie Infinity, you can buy Axie animals in the form of NFTs and earn up to $1000 in the process. Also, such games allow you to create new startups – rent out Aksikov animals or insure yourself against the loss of all NFTs inside the game.
The Metaverse has even more to offer. This is a new level of communication, entertainment, self-determination, and self-realization. These universes are gaining very high momentum. We can already talk about Decentraland or Sandbox, where people not only live but also earn. And today, when the metaverses connect with the mechanics of play-to-earn and NFT in virtual spaces, it is possible to buy, sell real estate or land. It changes thinking.
Why did everyone start creating their own universes?
In 2022, virtual reality will go far beyond the needs of the gaming world. The pandemic has made its own adjustments to the usual course of events. And it is not known when it will end. Many companies have switched to remote work – huge offices have become empty, and real estate has fallen in price. But one thing becomes quite obvious – we will not return to the old way of life. Therefore, all the attention of companies and investors has shifted to the new digital reality. Already today we see that real estate and land in the metaverses are growing much faster than even in the current realities in the offline world. In the first six months of 2021, digital property prices jumped 3,000 percent. Also, the statements of technology giants make us think about a new virtual future. Metaverse Centrland has already announced its plans to create a metaverse for 2022. The global giant’s Twitter and YouTube have begun mastering web3.0 and NFT technologies in particular. Facebook has turned into Meta and created its own metaverse along with other startups. In these realities, everyone will have a digital property and their own opportunities to work in the virtual world and receive real resources. If you look at the latest news reports, you will notice that more and more companies are opening their offices in these metaverses.
