A Look at The New Blockchain Phenomenon, NFTs
NFTs are shaking the cryptocurrency world
Last year, the blockchain area saw the rise of Decentralized Finance (DeFi); nevertheless, the NFT sector has surpassed DeFi to become the most prominent trend of 2021.
Statistically, the NFT market grew at an exponential rate during the first quarter of 2021. According to Forbes, the NFT market value increased by about 1785% in the first three months of this year to $432 million. NonFungible.com’s data showed that the overall trading volume on major NFT platforms increased 25 times from $30,1 million in December 2020 to $226 million in March 2021.
Despite NFTs having been available since 2014, they are gaining popularity as a means to trade digital artwork in 2021. Beeple’s artwork — Everyday — was auctioned off at Christie’s in March for a record-breaking price of over $70 million. More recently, a unique digital avatar known as a CryptoPunk sold at Sotheby’s for more than $11.7 million. According to Nonfungible’s data, NFT collections cost more than $2 billion in total in the first quarter of 2021. The fact that many other well-known artists are stepping into the sector with their own flagship NFTs promises to boost the industry’s hyper-growth pace even more.
Following a substantial increase in the first quarter, the NFT market appears to be stabilizing. However, it is likely to maintain market interest in the second half of 2021.
So, what exactly are NFTs?
NFTs stands for non-fungible tokens. These tokens are built on the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that is where the similarities end.
On the one hand, cryptocurrencies are “fungible tokens,” which means they may be traded or swapped for one another. They’re also worth the same — one Bitcoin is always worth another Bitcoin. On the other hand, “non-fungible-tokens” contain digital signatures that prevent them from being equivalent to one another (hence, non-fungible). For example, if you trade a one-of-a-kind game collectible, you’ll receive a totally different thing.
NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions such as Etherum or Binance Smart Chain (BSC). You’re probably most familiar with blockchain as the underlying process that makes cryptocurrencies possible. An NFT is created, or “minted” from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items, including: Art, GIFs, Videos and sports highlights, Collectibles, Virtual avatars and video game skins, Designer sneakers, Music…
The “non-fungible” characteristic makes NFTs unique and irreplaceable. Therefore, people are using NFTs to represent digital files such as paintings, photos, cards, game collectibles, digital music, virtual lands in fantasy worlds, or even tweets on Twitter…to make them one-of-a-kind in the digital world. For example, everyone can download a copy of Everydays from the internet; however, there’s only one rightful owner of the original item who has paid nearly $70 million to buy its NFT.
To buy NFTs, you need to have a digital wallet that allows you to store NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Then you have to purchase some cryptocurrency depending on what currencies your NFT provider accepts and use the cryptocurrency to exchange digital assets on NFT Marketplace such as OpenSea, Foundation or HERO NFT Marketplace. You can buy crypto using a credit card on platforms like Coinbase, Kraken, eToro and even PayPal and Robinhood now. You’ll then be able to move it from the exchange to your wallet of choice.
Applications of NFTs on the blockchain space
The expansion of NFTs paves the way for numerous blockchain applications. The most significant ones include:
- NFT Gaming: In NFT games, in-game items such as characters, cards, collectibles are tokenized into NFTs. Players and investors can hold these tokens on their collections or trade them on NFT marketplaces to make profit. In some NFT games, users can even farm NFTs to earn rewards in cryptocurrencies. Some of the most well-known NFT games are Axie Infinity, F1 Delta Time on Ethereum network, and NFT Brawl on Binance Smart Chain.
- NFT Music/Video/Artwork/Sport: These NFT platforms allow artists/content creators to mint their artworks/contents within a few simple steps and sell their products on integrated NFT marketplaces. According to CoinMarketCap, some of the most significant NFT protocols with over $1 billion market capitalization are Theta Network — a video delivery network, and Chiliz — The sport fan engagement platform.
- NFT Marketplace: NFT marketplaces are where people trade NFTs. In some specific industries, such as music and art, where several talented artists are still struggling to make ends meet, these platforms bring them the opportunities to monetize by bringing their artworks closer to art lovers and investors worldwide. Similar to conventional e-commerce platforms, NFT marketplaces provide advertisement and affiliate marketing services. Furthermore, some art marketplaces provide advanced sale booster features like auction or gallery rooms with AR experience.
Step Hero — The pioneering NFT game on Polygon network
Step Hero team — a blockchain game studio — has recognized the profit opportunity of NFT technology. Therefore, we created Step Hero — the next Axie Infinity of BSC and Polygon network.
Step Hero is the lucrative NFT fantasy-themed RPG game on Binance Smart Chain and Polygon (previously Matic Network).
More than that, it is a comprehensive NFT ecosystem made up of a fantasy-themed role-playing game with attractive gameplay and a cross-chained NFT marketplace.
The Step Hero game utilizes NFT technology to tokenize its collectibles of HERO characters. Created with the most sophisticated graphic design, the HERO collectibles represent unique game characters that can be valuable in the trading market. The Step Hero NFTs marketplace is equipped with superior features that allow users to buy and sell NFTs, list other NFTs, create their own NFTs, even bid NFTs and affiliate programs with an attractive commission rate for both promoters and referees.
As a Step Hero player, you may earn profit in a variety of ways:
- When you win Player versus Player (PvP) fights, you can receive reward prizes.
- You may earn from selling in-game items such as healing potions, power-impulse potions, and self-crafted weapons for money on the Step Hero marketplace.
- You may upgrade and trade your characters later. The more distinct and strong your characters are, the more money you will make.
The Step Hero ecosystem enables users to have fun and earn profit simultaneously; it also promotes the expansion of NFT technology and the mass adoption of blockchain applications.
NFTs will continue to be the blockchain’s gold mine in 2021 and beyond, because of their underlying potential. Step Hero, a project with superior NFT technology, great features, and a strong and passionate development team, will become one of the key driver of NFT sector development.
Learn more
- Website: https://stephero.io/
- Telegram: https://t.me/stephero_ann & https://t.me/stephero_chat
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/StepHeroNFTs
- Medium: https://stephero.medium.com/
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/StepHeroNFTs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StepHeroNFTs
More details about Step Hero: https://whitepaper.stephero.io/
