What Are NFTs?
NFTs stand for Non-Fungible Token. These are assets that can not be replicated. There will always exist one of one kind of NFT and hence will be unique. Hence each one of them will have a different value associated with it. Consider an example of an artist and his art. The original art will be more valuable when compared to its reprints since it will be one of kind.
These digital assets can be traded using the NFT marketplace which relies on blockchain technology. The most famous blockchain technology on which these NFT marketplaces are based are
The creator has to mint the NFT onto the marketplace and then list it. This will showcase the digital asset on the marketplace and collectors will be able to buy it at a fixed price or in an auction. The mode of payment will be in the form of cryptocurrency. Since most of the marketplaces are developed on Ethereum blockchain, the cryptocurrency utilized for NFT transactions is generally Ether (ETH).
The transaction is facilitated by a cryptocurrency wallet which needs to be compatible with the blockchain technology on which the marketplace is based. Metamask is one of the most famous crypto wallets which is based on Ethereum technology. When the collector buys the NFT from the NFT marketplace, in exchange for the cryptocurrency NFTs get stored in the wallet.
NFTs involve all things digital from memes, gifs, tweets, game equipment, art, music, etc. One of the niches in NFT gaming that is becoming popular day by day is real estate. Yes! You heard it right. There are real estate NFTs. Let me explain.
What Are NFT Games?
Video games are at their peak right now. This industry had expected revenue of $180 billion in 2020 is trending even more due to pandemics. The disadvantage of these traditional games is that there are very few opportunities for gamers to earn money through playing. On the other hand, all the gaming services earn a huge chunk of their revenue by selling game equipment like skins, guns, clothing, badges, memberships, etc. This helps the players to have a special experience playing the games.
That’s not the case with NFT gaming. NFT games give players lots of opportunities to earn money and hence get a return for the time they have spent playing the game. These specialized game equipment like the guns and skins or any other equipment can be sold to different players/collectors on a marketplace as an NFT. The user that buys the NFT, will be able to use that NFT in the game and hence improve the playing experience. Later the buyer can sell it and earn back some money.
Another way of earning money through NFT games is
- Investing In pools of stake in the game
- Renting/leasing the NFT
- Investing in-game tokens
Real Estate Games:
Real estate games have become popular day by day. Real estate is required to start our establishment and to grow further. But real estate doesn’t come cheap as it is limited in the real world. This is the same concept applied to NFT games.
Every game has its metaverse, which is a world where players can interact with each other and play the game. In real estate NFT games, the estate is limited just as in the real world. In these games, the players can lease or sell the estate they own to other players in exchange for cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
Many NFT games are immensely famous. Some of the examples of the games are
Decentraland:
Decentraland is one of the most famous NFT real estate games and by market capitalization is 2nd on the list of gaming tokens. It works on the Ethereuem blockchain and thus requires Ethereum based wallets like Metamask. This wallet helps to conduct NFT transactions in the game and even store those NFTs when bought
Decentraland uses a fungible ERC-20 cryptocurrency token which is limited to a total original supply of 2,805,886,393 and the current total supply of 2,194,916,827. This fungible ERC-20 token is known as MANA. MANA is a token available to trade on these exchanges: OKEx, Binance, Upbit, Huobi Global, LATOKEN, Exrates, Bitso, MXC, Coinbase Pro, Bittrex, BW.com, CoinEx, Gate.io, Alterdice, DragonEX, VCC Exchange, CoinDCX, Poloniex, HitBTC.
This coin is used in the game to power the whole of Decentraland’s economy. It is also used in their NFT marketplace to buy LAND which is virtual real estate in the game of 16 X 16 meters. This ERC-20 token will get burnt to buy a non-fungible land of the game, hence creating shortness of supply of coins eventually.
MANA price predictions:
Just like any other asset, the value of this cryptocurrency depends on demand and supply. The higher the demand lower will be the supply and the higher will be the demand of the coin. If we look at the trends the MANA coin has been following, it is evident that the game is played by loyal players and the numbers of them are only increasing as the game becomes more and more famous.
Currently, at the time of writing this article, MANA is trading at $0.83 which is a rise of nearly 14% from last week and nearly 25% up in just the last 30 days. Also with the inherent structure of MANA coin, which creates shortness of supply with every LAND transaction, the cost will increase is what some analysts believe.
Some even tried to predict the price of the MANA coin in the next coming decade by looking at the trends. By doing technical analysis, it was predicted by an article that, MANA will trade at an average of $1 by the end of this year, $2.5 by the end of 2022, and will reach nearly $10 by the end of this decade. You can visit this website to learn more about it.
Should You Invest In MANA?
If you are following MANA coin closely, you would have noticed that the number of sales of LAND has been increasing lately. Recently, in Decentraland, virtual land got sold nearly for $1 million. It was a virtual plot equivalent to that of the 16 acres of an area. Before this, real estate was sold for $704,000 which was bought by a blockchain protocol Boson. There are also many other games in this niche like the Sandbox, Somnium Space, Axie Infinity which have recorder sales worth more than half a million dollars.
Decentraland has been a fun and engaging game for all the players and MANA coin has been following a stable trend for the majority of its past. If it keeps on continuing to develop its platform and launches it also on the mobile device, it will promise more players and hence more members. The MANA coin has reached $1.56 at its peak and when we compare it to its current price of $0.83, it has still room to grow.
[JG1]You can list out other marketplaces separately but make sure they do not merge with the main topic “How does NFT Real-estate marketplace work”?
