E-sports entry NFT

On the one hand, the game’s NFT repeatedly broke records, and on the other, there was a flood of doubts. Author丨Zhang Yinan, Wang Yan Editor丨Zhu Taowei Source | Competition As Bitcoin and other digital currencies continue to dominate the financial circle, NFT (non-fungible Token, non-fungible token), as the first token out of the circle, is non-fungible and inseparable. The characteristics of it shine in the field of art collections. Due to the link to the price of cryptocurrency, the latter’s volatility is large, which also makes the NFT art market extremely volatile. For many industries, getting a lot of benefits without physical existence may be like an injection of adrenaline. Based on the above considerations, it is not surprising that the news that NFT digital art sells at high prices is endless. On the evening of March 11, 2021, Beijing time, Christie’s, the world’s top auction house, held the first digital art auction online. This auction is a work by American graphic designer Beeple (Beeple), called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” (Everydays: The First 5000 Days). The author Beppel spent 13 years, insisting on creating one image every day, and finally assembled this painting with 5,000 images. 33 bidders from 11 countries and regions, after 14 days of online bidding, a total of 353 bids, finally fell the hammer for 60.25 million U.S. dollars, plus about 69.3 million U.S. dollars in commission (about 450 million yuan). It set a new record for digital art transactions. It is worth noting that “Every Day: The First 5000 Days” is also the first artwork to be traded based on NFT (non-homogeneous tokens) at an auction house, which has completely inspired the NFT market. When I browsed a well-known NFT trading platform, I found a DOTA2 OG championship ring, the price was as high as 400ETH (Ether), which is about 5.9 million yuan. Take a closer look, the sale is not the actual championship ring, just a dynamic picture. What exactly is NFT? Could it be that 450 million and 5.9 million just bought a loneliness? The details will be revealed for everyone. 01 The championship ring sells for 5.9 million Jinghe learned that OG once announced on its official Twitter in January that it would cooperate with the encrypted art platform, and then released dynamic pictures related to the “championship ring”. From the information released by OG, it appears that the several rings launched are not officially made by V agency, but are “painted” works by OG and artists. Then, they were sold on the NFT platform, with an initial price of $200, and they were sold out once they were on sale. When it first launched, many players still felt confused. Buying a GIF for $200 is a naked IQ tax? Even more surprising is that three months later, one of the golden championship rings sold for as much as 5.9 million yuan. The author read it outrageously, but after careful study found that it is not that the work is really worth 5.9 million, but the owner of the work can set the selling price by himself, and if the seller accepts it, he can directly buy it. If you have a friend who is familiar with “CS:GO” jewelry trading, you should soon be able to understand the trading mechanism of the NFT trading platform. After reviewing the transaction records, the author found that the last transaction amount of this golden champion ring was 10 ETH, which is about 148,000 yuan (as of press time), which is more than a hundred times higher than the initial sale amount of 200 US dollars. What made OG sell the championship ring GIF for $200, and what courage did this warrior use to raise the price to 5.9 million? Speaking of this, we have to expand on the particularity of NFT. 02 What is NFT The full name of NFT in English is Non-Fungible Token. Translated into Chinese, it means: non-homogeneous tokens, which are indivisible, irreplaceable, and unique. On the blockchain, digital cryptocurrencies are divided into two categories: native coins and tokens. The former, such as the familiar Bitcoin and Ethereum, has its own main chain and uses transactions on the chain to maintain ledger data; tokens are attached to the existing blockchain and use smart contracts to record the ledger. Such as a token issued by attaching to Ethereum. Tokens can be divided into two types: homogenization and non-homogeneity. Homogeneous tokens, namely FT (Fungible Token), can replace each other and can be close to infinitely split tokens. For example, there is essentially no difference between a Bitcoin in your hand and a Bitcoin in my hand. This is homogenization and homogenization of coins. The focus of art auctions on the NFT platform is actually “non-homogeneous tokens.” According to Christie’s, NFT and blockchain technology allow collectors and artists to confirm the true owner and authenticity of digital artworks. The transaction process is roughly similar to the well-known Bitcoin. The artist delivers the work to the buyer and provides a unique NFT, which encrypts the signature that the artist cannot forge, and records the transaction on an immutable blockchain. The difference is that since NFTs cannot replace each other, each one is unique. Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. are homogeneous, each of which can be substituted for each other, so one NFT can be used to represent a work. NFT has the characteristics of non-homogeneity and inseparability, which enables it to be bound to some commodities in the real world. In other words, it is actually a digital asset issued on the blockchain. This asset can be game props, digital artwork, tickets, etc., and is unique and non-copyable. Since NFT has natural collection attributes and is convenient for trading, crypto artists can use NFT to create unique digital artworks. This scarcity attribute greatly increases the value of each NFT digital art collection. In addition, the e-sports field has also begun to accelerate the entry of NFTs. Many e-sports clubs, platforms, companies, and alliances are preparing to launch their own NFT products. Recently, Tfue, a well-known foreign game anchor, launched his first collection of NFT limited series. To a certain extent, it can be regarded as a precedent for the game live broadcast session to enter the NFT market. This NFT collection series called “King of Gaming” revolves around pictures and videos created by three games “Fortnite”, “Minecraft” and “Call of Duty”. At the same time, 100T, a well-known North American e-sports organization, also announced that it will launch corresponding NFT products. NFT also deserves special attention, that is, it has innovated the trading model in the traditional art field for hundreds of years. When creators’ works are sold for a second time, they can continue to benefit from it. Some mainstream NFT trading platforms stipulate that every time NFT works are traded in the future, 10% of the proceeds will be proportionally distributed to creators. Does it sound a bit like channel revenue in direct sales? As everyone knows, the reason why Douyin and Kuaishou quickly became popular is that the platforms have allowed high-quality anchors to make money. Similarly, in the NFT market, how to further increase the income of creators has also attracted market attention. 03 How does NFT improve the creator economy Kevin Chou Jesse Walden Nowadays, many people are talking about virtual currency, the origin may be NFT, that is, non-homogeneous tokens. Similar to the modern video game business model, such as “Fortress Night” V-Bucks. The currency can be used for a variety of purposes, including the purchase of digital goods (such as Fortnite skins and emoticons). In the view of a16z partner and cryptocurrency investor Chris Dixon, Video games are the most advanced way for people to participate in social life. People can not only spread quickly on the Internet, but also make money. In his opinion, a ray of sunlight has entered the field of NFT, and people have begun to notice it, and its future potential is huge. Kevin Chou, the founder of Kabam and Rally, believes that the real world is different from the game world. Before the advent of social media, many people would build and develop communities in games. They are keen to discuss the appearance of the mount, and care about the hero’s skin and avatar. But right now, users don’t need to do this at all. People can use Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Douyin, and social life. If you want to build a social life on the basis of blockchain, the important thing is how to spread to social media and even the entire Internet, not just in games. “NFT brings the concept of scarcity in the digital field back into the public eye.” Mediachain founder Jesse Walden believes, “It allows fans to support artists in a new way and transfer monetary value to what they see in the world. .” He emphasized that on this basis, people can build communities and then enter the field of social tokens. For ordinary fans, it is important to figure out how to earn, buy or trade NFT and community tokens. Kevin said that the company is trying to make the entry experience for ordinary fans very simple, after all, this is their first encrypted experience. There are many different ways to achieve this, and there is no right or wrong. Different artists or celebrities need to discover the best way for them. From another dimension, once a user has an NFT, how will it be used? Maybe you can show people the MetaMask wallet and let others view the NFT they own. But how do you show it to others who care about NFT? Based on this, everyone still needs to do a lot of work to enhance its visibility. Of course, how to use these NFTs is also very important. In fact, NFT is very versatile, like a background pass. However, since it will not disappear after use, NFT can be used as a collectible. Jesse believes that these assets are programmable. Owning NFT is like owning Bitcoin. You can choose to place it on the Coinbase platform or other platforms. Because they are both programmable and easy to carry, everyone can use assets to build a variety of new experiences. Unlike the fan club background pass, third-party developers can add new functions to NFT or social tokens for different purposes. Based on this, Jesse believes that social tokens will have more collaborative work capabilities. Does this mean that NFTs can build trustworthy bridges across blockchains? If you take a longer look at it, this will be the ultimate solution. Jesse believes that just like every photo taken by the iPhone, every game asset can be created as an NFT. However, putting these long-tail media assets on Ethereum does not make any sense. The reason is that Ethereum is very secure, but very expensive. Or everyone thinks that they can be placed on the side chain. The problem is that as these assets rise in value, they may control more market value, and eventually they will migrate to the main chain that provides the highest security. 04 How do you view the game NFT boom? Currently, relatively mature digital currency exchanges on the market are actively deploying NFTs, such as Binance, Kucoin, Huobi, OKEx, Matcha MXC, Bittrex, etc. Opportunities are often accompanied by risks. At present, the threshold for trading NFT assets is relatively high, and the application field is still relatively single, mainly concentrated in small circles such as games, encrypted artworks, and card collections. In response to the current situation of NFT, Cao Yin, managing director of the Digital Renaissance Foundation, pointed out that NFT is still in its early stage, facing the challenges of fewer users, small market, and no liquidity. Focusing on the game market, the market has failed to reach a consensus on the source of value of game assets NFT. Even if the NFT market transaction volume in the game field has exceeded 43 million U.S. dollars, the NFT sales volume has exceeded 1.7 million. On the one hand, the game’s NFT repeatedly broke records, and on the other, there was a flood of doubts. As for the encrypted artwork NFT, it was originally used as a medium for artists to express themselves. No matter how volatile the market is, its scarcity is unique, and its value will rise. Encrypted artwork NFT is different from game assets. The value foundation of game asset NFT itself is not stable. Investors buying encrypted game NFT collections have to bear higher risks, so they need to be more cautious. All in all, here is a warm reminder for bidding: NFT collections are risky, and investment needs to be cautious.