The Inspiring Projects Tapping Into The Unrealized Potential Of Non-Fungible Tokens

NFTs have transcended well beyond their generic moniker of “overpriced artwork.” Alongside the unprecedented growth of the DeFi ecosystem, the demand for NFTs has reached new heights in recent years.

The NFT market has expanded beyond artwork, increasing its presence across various industries, including gaming, sports, music, even real-world items. In fact, in 2021, several projects tapped into the world of real-world assets (RWA), merging the TradFi and DeFi ecosystems. 

The expansion isn’t just limited to adding new primitives. With the idea of metaverse gaining significant traction in 2021, NFTs are quickly becoming the go-to means for accessing the uncharted territories of individual blockchain gaming universes. Add to that the use of NFTs for content sharing, subscription services, accessing funding opportunities, and the yet-to-be-explored potential of smart contracts, and you’ll understand that the NFT ecosystem is emerging as one of the most dominant blockchain sectors. 

Besides, an increasing number of open-source projects have entered the mainstream market, lowering blockchain’s entry barriers. These days, almost anyone can generate thousands of unique NFTs within minutes, thanks to AI-driven programs. 

For instance, leading GPU manufacturer Nvidia recently made its metaverse-building platform Omniverse free for individual users, creators, and artists. At the same time, metaverse projects like The Sandbox offer users the options to create and design their own metaverses. These developments are clear indications that as the metaverse and Web3 align in the future, NFTs will play a critical role within both ecosystems.

In parallel to the rapid expansion of NFTs, the number of secondary NFT marketplaces is also increasing exponentially. NFTs are no longer limited to the Ethereum network but have found their way to other promising third-generation blockchain networks as well.

That said, here are a few promising NFT projects that are unlocking new use cases for NFTs. 

Offering Creators Full Control Over Content And Monetization

There is no shortage of social media platforms and forums in the Web2 ecosystem. But the majority of these platforms are managed by centralized institutions, which limits the user’s rights to a considerable extent by design. For instance, it is increasingly common for creators to fall victim to unwarranted censorship and copyright strikes, leading to the demonetization of their content.

Creaton is a Web3-based solution that aims to overcome this reality while restoring full control to the content creators. As a fully decentralized content sharing platform, Creaton enables creators to tokenize their content into NFTs. These NFTs can then be stored in Arweave’s fully decentralized content storage solution, duly encrypted using NuCypher technology. Only users who subscribe to the creator can decrypt and view the content with these features in place.

Built on the Polygon network, Creaton offers fast transaction speed and extremely low gas costs. The platform has also integrated Superfluid’s decentralized payment mechanism to ensure that creators receive their payments without delay, unlike the monthly payout system prevalent across the Web2 ecosystem.

On top of that, Creaton also allows creators to restrict access to their works by incorporating smart contracts and value-added blockchain technologies that prevent arbitrary bans, censorship, and payment delays, among others. 

Unlocking Novel Opportunities For Short Video Content Creators

Short video content creator apps like TikTok have gained massive popularity in recent years. However, the problem of centralization remains unchallenged. Even though creators can monetize their content, they are at the discretion of the app’s decision-makers. 

By leveraging blockchain technology and the power of NFTs, Chingari, the Indian short-video platform, has established itself as the go-to place for content creators. The platform introduced India’s first-ever social media token, the $GARI coin, which serves as the entire ecosystem’s primary driver. 

Unlike existing Web2 short-video platforms, Chingari uses its $GARI token to empower creators by giving them full control over their content and offering them access to a diverse range of revenue generation opportunities. With the $GARI token, content creators can host NFT sales, custom merchandise offerings, and much more. 

The platform is backed by prominent names, including Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Swordfish Investments, FJ Labs, and others. Since its launch, Chingari has positioned itself as the fastest-growing app in India, with over 100 million downloads. The platform has also raised $15 million from its recent funding round led by Republic Capital and is also the world’s first token to launch across six exchanges on the same day.

Adding A Whole New Range Of Utilities To NFTs

As the NFT craze continues to grow, investors are looking for newer ways to purchase, sell, and trade their assets. To cater to this need, Infinity, a community-driven NFT marketplace, has emerged as a potential platform that can accelerate mainstream adoption of NFTs.

The platform is a DAO-controlled marketplace that also doubles up as a protocol and treasury while supporting programmable NFTs. According to experts, the next significant evolution of NFTs will be tapping into the vastly underappreciated potential of programmable NFTs since they can be “programmed” to change and adapt over the NFT’s lifetime.

With Ethereum’s problematic conditions still taking center stage as the network sluggishly implements its upgrades, prominent NFT marketplaces like OpenSea are facing a tough time as a result. In contrast, Infinity offers lower fees, all of which are directly passed into the community-controlled DAO, unlike other marketplaces where all proceeds are distributed among the platform’s team members. Furthermore, it allows existing OpenSea users to list their NFTs for free because it uses OpenSea’s smart contracts and eliminates new smart contract risks, thereby eliminating the gas cost.

Solving The Royalty Problem Of NFTs

Despite the increasing monetary value of NFTs, the lack of interoperability between individual NFT marketplaces often lead to significant royalty losses for the NFT creators. Even though marketplaces allow creators to add royalties to their NFTs while minting, the royalty payout for all subsequent sales is only applicable if the sales occur on the same platform where it was originally minted.

As a result, creators have no feasible way of tracking subsequent sales or claiming their royalty if the buyer flips the NFT for ten times the actual price on a different marketplace. CXIP solves this problem via its minting-as-a-service (MaaS) solution, enabling creators to add royalties using its range of personalized “PA1D” smart contracts.

The platform is designed to solve the problem of uneven royalty distribution, irrespective of where the NFT was originally minted or sold. The PA1D smart contracts can be shared across marketplaces within the blockchain ecosystem, offering creators an easy way to track NFT transactions to ensure that they are fairly paid for their work. The API on the platform can be integrated into any existing marketplace, enabling customers to mint NFTs with cross-market royalties, authenticity, payload immutability, counterfeit prevention, and copyright registration.

Advancing its creator-focused ideology another step forward, CXIP will soon be launched as the largest-ever NFT DAO for creators, consisting of renowned artists and personalities like Pharrell Williams, Chad Knight, CXIP co-founder Jeff Gluck, Jen Stark, and several others.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.