Enjin and its native currency, ENJ, have made waves in the NFT community, allowing fast, free transfers of NFTs and fine-grained control over digital assets. With Enjin Coin now finding itself at the heart of some big NFT projects, its influence on the space will continue to grow.
Here, we’ll take a look at Enjin and ENJ and consider how this platform has gained such a reputation in the NFT space.
What is the Enjin platform?
Enjin Coin is the native currency token for the Enjin platform. It trades under the symbol ENJ and operates on the Ethereum network as an ERC-20 token.
The Enjin platform offers various solutions to create digital assets in the form of non-fungible tokens that can be used as collectibles and assets in video games.
By leveraging blockchain technology and ENJ, Enjin is allowing gamers to establish true ownership of in-game items, with genuine scarcity built-in.
The main benefits of the Enjin platform are:
- Enjin wallet: a single wallet for currency and assets.
- Instant trading: thanks to the Enjin Wallet, items can be traded and sold instantly.
- Melting: allows unwanted NFTs to be melted down back to ENJ.
- Ownership: backed by the Ethereum blockchain, NFT ownership can be proven and guaranteed.
- ERC-1155 tokens: the Enjin platform has introduced a token standard that can operate as both currency and asset.
What are Enjin coins?
Enjin coins (ENJ) were created as a way to make trading NFTs easier. They are the native cryptocurrency for Enjin’s platform and are ERC-20 compatible. This means ENJ complies with the standards outlined by the twentieth Ethereum Request for Comments which introduced the idea of fungible tokens. A fungible token is like an ETH or BTC in that each is worth the same and is interchangeable with one another.
As an ERC-20, Enjin Coin can therefore be stored, sent, and received in a compatible Ethereum wallet. The Enjin platform uses ENJ to give value to the NFTs produced by their tools, using smart contracts to protect ownership and prove provenance.
One of the problems that ENJ solves is the issue of gas fees. As Ethereum became the blockchain of choice for NFTs, DeFi, and transacting value, the gas fees involved in sending an NFT, for example, has exploded, now almost 20x what it was at the beginning of 2020.
With transaction gas fees sometimes costing more than the NFT itself, Enjin is attempting to resolve the issue within their own ecosystem thanks to JumpNet, their scaling solution that offers instant NFT transfers with zero fees.
Enjin Coin price
Enjin Coin can be bought and sold at exchanges like any other Ethereum ERC-20 token.
Its current price (at time of writing) is $2.40 and has a market cap of $2 trillion. ENJ has a market rank of 64.
With the boom in the NFT space, ENJ has found itself in a good position. It hit a peak price of around $4.6 dollars in November 2021, trading over £2 billion in a 24 hour period.
As the NFT gaming space grows and the Metaverse becomes more commonplace, ENJ’s price may skyrocket as communities demand a fee-less token. With ENJ’s future looking bright and the price relatively low compared to its November peak, many are buying the dip and expecting a good return.
ERC-1155 and Enjin
One of the most exciting developments in the Enjin Coin ecosystem is the introduction of the ERC-1155 token standard.
ERC-1155 was created by Enjin developer Witek Radomski to offer users a more secure token that can be used as both a fungible and a non-fungible asset. After its initial launch, the community helped identify bugs and potential improvements, with the token now considered final and the standard usable by any DApp or platform.
Perhaps most exciting about ERC-1155 is the introduction of bundling. This allows transactions to contain multiple tokens under one smart contract. With ERC-721 allowing only a single token per transaction, this represents not only a way to save on gas fees but also a way to alleviate strain on the Ethereum network as a whole.
ERC-1155 also allows interchangeability between fungible and non-fungible tokens. Enjin uses this to enable the “melting” of tokens back into ENJ currency, easily and simply.
ERC-1155 is also more secure, with Enjin implementing a self-verification function to ensure smart contracts are valid before execution.
Using Enjin coins
The Enjin Coin platform is built from the ground up with NFTs in mind. Primarily, the Enjin platform leverages itself as a way to create, hold, and manage virtual game assets using Ethereum to facilitate it.
The Enjin platforms use ENJ as currency to create, manage, and destroy in-game items. Games and other projects can use ENJ to back assets and give them intrinsic and interchangeable value. ENJ is also, therefore, a way to assign value to NFTs across different projects and games.
ENJ is now supported by the Aave DeFi protocol, meaning holders can earn interest on their coin. By using smart contracts, Aave ensures deposits and loans are immutable, transparent, and safe. The Enjin and Aave collaboration also means that Enjin Wallet can interface directly with the protocol by simply visiting app.aave.com from the wallet’s built-in browser and choosing “Browser wallet” followed by “Aave Market.”
Enjin has also formed a partnership with the car company BMW who is going to integrate the ENJ into its Vantage App. This app rewards loyal BMW owners in Korea with points that can be used for gas, toll booths, and parking. Since the partnership, the Vantage App will allow rewards to be converted to ENJ, meaning it can be earned for real-life activities.
Games that use Enjin coin
There are dozens of exciting and innovative games that utilize ENJ and the Enjin platform. Below are some of the more popular.
Lost Relics
Lost Relics is a free-to-play action-adventure RPG that sets players on a quest to procure precious relics and save people from terrifying monsters. The game leverages Enjin Coin by turning these relics into NFTs that can be owned, sold, and traded by the player. They vary in rarity, with some items listed and selling for hundreds of thousands of ENJ.
Ether Legends
Similar to other card games, Ether Legends has players collect a variety of hand-designed physical and digital trading cards, backed by the blockchain. These are then used to battle opponents, with each card having its own unique abilities and powers. The game leverages Polygon but uses the Enjin Marketplace to enable fast and free trading with consistent valuations.
9Lives Arena
Considered a love letter to the 1v1 fantasy PVP genre, 9Lives Arena is a game built around “practice, preparation, and permadeath.” Players get to choose from barbarians, vikings, samurais, gladiators, or the ancient Atlanteans, battling it out in small arenas. Winners are rewarded with NFTs such as rare weapons or blueprints to forge something unique. These rewards are facilitated and backed by the Enjin platform.
Nestables
Nestables give players the chance to collect, trade, and even breed unique 3D creatures known as “Cubes.” Cubes exist as ERC-1155 NFTs on the blockchain and are comprised of a variety of parts and features, all varying in scarcity. This gives each Cube a unique value, and thanks to Enjin, they can be traded, sold, and bought on the marketplace. As ERC-1155 tokens, you could even melt down your Cube to turn it back into ENJ.
How do you get Enjin coin?
The easiest way to get hold of some ENJ is to buy it on an exchange. Buying ENJ involves the following steps:
1. Choose your exchange
With ENJ becoming increasingly popular, more and more exchanges are now supporting it. Two of the biggest are Coinbase and Binance. You will, therefore, need an account with one of these crypto exchanges in order to proceed. This typically involves a KYC check if you’re signing up for the first time, so keep your identifying documents on hand.
2. Choose your wallet
In order to keep your ENJ, you’ll need an Ethereum compatible wallet. The most popular is MetaMask but, considering we’re focusing on ENJ, creating an Enjin wallet may be the most suitable. Enjin wallet allows direct integration with Enjin projects and platforms, so keeping your ENJ here is recommended. Just make a note of your wallet address and move to the next step.
3. Proceed to purchase
Coinbase allows the purchase of ENJ directly with fiat currency. This can then be sent to a wallet address of your choosing or left in your Coinbase account (not recommended.) If opting for Binance, you will need to purchase ENJ using Tether’s stablecoin, USDT, or Bitcoin. This can then be sent to your wallet of choice too.
Enjin Coin can also be mined the same way any other Ethereum token can using mining pools such as unMineable that reward miners with ENJ.
What lies ahead for Enjin and Enjin coin?
Through the introduction of the ERC-1155 standard, Enjin has made a name for itself as one of the most important players in the crypto space. This has led to a partnership with Microsoft, which has chosen Enjin as its technology provider for its Azure Heroes program, which rewards achievements in the Azure developer community with NFTs.
Aside from its growing collection of partnerships and forays into DeFi, Enjin Coin is looking to establish itself as the definitive technology to power the next generation of NFT gaming projects.
