Meta Universe: Virtual Gaming, NFTs and the Currency Question

Let's not kid ourselves: everybody is in crypto to make money. Be it venture capital or retail investors, the ultimate goal is profits, lots of it. Enough profits to retire for good on some sunny beach in South America.

Okay, fine, there are more noble goals in cryptocurrency beyond the pursuit of more wealth. There's decentralizing the means of exchange away from government and corporation control. There's the building of next-gen internet apps on blockchain technology. There's various novel approaches to finance, games and real estate. And there's the ongoing exploration of the blockchain-based metaverse.

Most people who jumped early on the bandwagon of projects like the above have already smiled to the bank. Cryptocurrency has made millionaires out of many; it will make many more. One of the newest and best ways to accumulate huge gains in crypto is through non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

NFTs combine blockchain tech and the idea of collectibles into a unique token of burgeoning popularity. They're the latest money-spinning method in crypto for those who are savvy enough to take advantage.

In this article, we'll show you six ways NFTs can make you tons of cash:

1- Invest in an NFT collectible

Non fungible tokens manifest mainly as digital collectibles of various types. They are uploaded on special marketplaces where traders can transfer ownership by buying and selling. An NFT marketplace works similarly to a platform like Amazon. Prices are either fixed or the auction method is used.

The big deal about buying a solo NFT or part of a collectible is that you can flip it later at higher prices. Much like you can buy a traditional cryptocurrency like bitcoin and sell it when the price is higher, you can do the same with NFTs. The risk, of course, is that demand for the item you hold might wane, pushing the price lower.

This is why you should research any NFT project before you invest in it. Class-A NFTs like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club might be beyond most people now but there's a ton of other solid collections to invest in.

Again, knowing the right time to pull the trigger and sell off the NFT is key. We don't want to be saddled with a collectible that no one wants to buy.

Once you've decided which non-fungible token to invest in, you can make your way to OpenSea, Rarible or another marketplace and make your purchase. Once you're ready to sell, simply list your item at the price you want. Once someone buys it, the payment will be transferred to your wallet.

2- Mint an NFT

Rather than investing in a collectible, why not mint one yourself? Given that you can create an NFT by yourself, nothing stops you from making cool money by launching your own NFTs. You can either list a single digital collectible or make it a collection.

If you're an artist, you're in luck. NFT artworks are selling like hot cakes with crypto investors looking for alternative ways to spend their profits. With good art and graphics skills and marketing savvy, you can attract publicity to your NFTs and get rich selling them on a marketplace.

Most NFTs use the ERC-721 standard, an Ethereum protocol, to encode information though other networks like PolkaDot and Solana are seeing some use. You need some Ethereum, a compatible wallet, and the items to transform to NFTs, to begin. Head over to a marketplace and mint your collectibles. You can then list them for a price.

Jack Dorsey sold an NFT of his first tweet for $2.9m. You can find takers for your own memorabilia, if they are memorable enough. Photos, videos, music, memes, tweets, artwork, documents and other things can be listed as NFTs. The list is endless.

3- Buy an NFT Token

Another way to benefit from the non-fungible token revolution is to buy… a fungible token! In particular, a fungible token associated with NFTs. As the use case for NFTs expand, lots of projects now incorporate these tokens as the central component of their ecosystem.

You can benefit from this by investing in a cryptocurrency linked to an NFT project. As the project gains in popularity and hype, its associated token is likely to increase in value. Game, metaverse and real estate projects have seen their values skyrocket to unprecedented levels over the past year. The trajectory of the NFT space remains upwards for the foreseeable.

You can maximize your gains from NFTs by looking for solid projects still in their infancy and investing in their tokens. And if you'd rather jump on a moving train, there are lots of popular NFT projects in the mainstream. You can bet on their prices going even higher, despite the huge gains they've already made.

We've listed 5 of the most popular tokens associated with NFTs:

Decentraland (MANA)

Mana is the utility token of Decentraland, an NFT real estate platform operating since 2017.

• January price: $0.07
• December price: $3.64
• All time high: $5.90

Axie Infinity Shards (AXS)

Axie Infinity is a trading and battling game on the blockchainthat plays like pokémon. AXS is its governance token.

• January price: $0.41
• December: $105
• All time high: $165.37

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a multilayered NFT p2e platform that provides a 3D environment where users can function as gamers, creators and traders.

• January price: 0.03
• December price: 6.70
• All time high: 8.44

Enjin Coin (ENJ)

Enjin Network is a social gaming platform built to provide the most comprehensive gaming experience on the blockchain, including the use of NFTs.

• January price: $0.12
• December price: 3.03
• All time high: 4.85

My Neighbor Alice (ALICE)

My Neighbor Alice is an NFT multiplayer game on the Binance Smart Chain. Players buy islands, build on them, and simulate other social activities.

• Launch price: 3.19
• December price: 14.20
• All time high: 42.55

Looking at the past and current prices of these and similar projects, it's evident that investing in the right NFT project can be potentially life-changing.

4- Play NFT Games

If you're not deep-pocketed, you can still make massive gains from NFTs by engaging in gaming activities on the blockchain. There are literally dozens of crypto-based games offering some form of rewards for productive gameplay.

There are various models of NFT games at the moment. Play-to-earn games reward you in crypto for playing games. This can simply be by completing objectives or by progressing far enough in the game to unlock rewards.

A different model is play-to-win. In this game, users pit their wits against one another and the winners take the prizes on offer. This is a common system in games that use racing and sports elements.

Your rewards for playing games could be a currency like Ethereum, the platform's utility token, like TLM in Alien Worlds, or non fungible tokens which you can either keep or sell. If you're a gaming pro, you can monetize your skills and amass a small fortune from crypto.

To start making money from games on the blockchain, it's better to find a game you like or can quickly learn. Typically, you need some of the platform's utility tokens to start with. These will go into buying the virtual equipment you need.

Here are some popular NFT games you can play and earn from right now:

• SplinterLands: a multiplayer collectible trading card game.
• Alien Worlds: a play-to-earn social simulation game in the metaverse.
• Axie Infinity: a pokémon-inspired game where users breed and battle with virtual pets called axies.
• Farmers World: an innovative P2E farming simulator.
• Star Atlas: a space exploration, combat and community game on Solana with next-gen graphics.
• Bomb Crypto: a virtual universe on the blockchain where players control cyborgs to hunt the in-game token and fight monsters.
• CryptoBlades: a monster-based RPG with solo and cooperative elements.
• Thetan Arena: a player-vs-player multiplayer online battle arena game with various modes gamers can earn from.
• Gods Unchained: one of the most popular card-based blockchain games.

Established NFT games will likely be more expensive to play. If you're a beginner, you can start your NFT earning experience with newer and cheaper games.

5- Buy NFT real estate

Virtual real estate is looking like the next big thing in the NFT space. You can find them on a decentralized virtual metaverse platform that allocates land to buyers who then go ahead to build whatever they want.

There are dozens of metaverses you can visit and invest in. The metaverse is a persistent 3D universe where you can play, work and socialize using a digital avatar. Imagine taking the dog for a walk, attending a concert and hanging out with friends all while relaxing on the couch in your house.

From an economic perspective, the metaverse has huge potential for the canny investor. You could buy a piece of real estate on a metaverse platform, and sell it for a profit when demand increases. You can even develop it into a virtual garage, cinema, or shopping mall and make money from the building.

If you're excited by the possibilities, you can start your journey on these metaverse platforms:

Decentraland

Decentraland is the most popular crypto real estate platform and by far the most developed. It has over 20 million active users and has already played host to big events like concerts and auctions.

There are 90,000 plots of land on Decentraland and the choicest pieces have been snapped up already. You can visit the Decentraland marketplace to check land for sale. If you find one you like, you need to pay using MANA, the platform's utility token.

Real estate on Decentraland doesn't exactly come cheap. At the current price of MANA, you need around $12,000 to buy a parcel of LAND on the platform.

Upland

Upland is another metaverse platform that deals in virtual real estate. Upland wants to be a digital version of earth. Properties on the platform replicate a real-world address. So you can buy virtual copies of famous places in New York or Los Angeles.

Cryptovoxels

This is another platform where you can buy, sell or develop properties. It's a user-owned virtual world on the Ethereum blockchain. Buyers are encouraged to develop stores, art galleries and other useful structures on their parcels. This platform focuses on art-centric buildings like museums, studios, galleries that can host virtual art fairs or house artworks for virtual tourists to admire.

6- Participate in NFT Airdrops

Everybody loves freebies, and if you can flip them for serious money, even better.

You don't have to buy or create an NFT to own one. You can participate in airdrops and similar programs that reward you for your time, followership or promotion with a free NFT.

The Crypto Punks NFTs, for example, were given out for free. Some are now worth millions of dollars. Some popular brands like Pepsi have also held free NFT promotions that can now be bought on OpenSea.

Just like cryptocurrency airdrops, NFT airdrops occur frequently in the crypto world. You can monitor a platform that tracks upcoming drops to learn how to participate. In some instances, you need to fulfil conditions such as holding a certain type of cryptocurrency, to be eligible for a drop.

If you're lucky, you can land a unique or rare NFT that's in high demand and trade it when the hype is loudest.

Conclusion

Contrary to popular opinions, NFTs don't begin and end with collectibles and digital art. It's a fast-moving segment of blockchain tech that keeps evolving with new products and use cases.

This, of course, means newer and better ways to make money. It offers unique opportunities for veteran and newbie gamers alike to monetize their love of friendly competition. Investors can also ride the growing NFT hype train by getting good yields from NFT-related cryptocurrencies or stay with classical methods of investment in Bitcoin or other altcoins like KRRX token.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are the new craze. From youngsters still in High School to practicing stock market profiteers, everybody is talking about NFTs. But why? Are they that big a deal? Are NFTs popular because of the earlier craze of blockchains and cryptocurrencies? Is there more to the story than you know? These are good questions. NFTs ought to have special characteristics to measure up to their popularity in today’s low-span-attention world. And they do.

Here are a handful of NFT attributes that set the token apart from the other elements of the blockchain enterprise.

1. Fungibility

Fungible currencies are designed to be swappable. This means that you can break the average numbered currency into units, and each of these units can be exchanged for the units of other numbered currencies.

Fungibility is why we have the global currency exchange market where specific units of the American Dollar, for example, can be reliably exchanged for certain units of the British Pound. So, currencies like these, as well as Bitcoin, are compatible and can be used—in the same or similar scenarios—to measure the value of an item. NFTs do not conform to this economic substructure.

2. Value Creation and Appraisal

Have you heard about Beeple?

A digital artist known as Beeple created an NFT, Everydays: The First 5000. The NFT consisted of 5,000 different images that were created every day between 2007 and 2021. And what did Beeple use this image for? He sold it. Beeple’s NFT went from $100 to around $1 million an hour after the auction began. You would think that you have crawled down the rabbit hole with Alice into a world of outlandish affairs. No. It is just that times have changed.

Beeple did not have to sit under an apple tree to realize the effects of gravity, nor did they play around with wires and electricity a thousand and one times before inventing the light bulb. The same is true for Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter who sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT. For $2.9 million. So, with NFTs, you can be creative without being in command of a 200+ IQ. You can be creative and useful—and consequently affluent—by using the things around you. In other words, the process of value creation has changed. The contemporary engines that determine that one innovation is valuable and another is not have been put out to pasture.

NFTs Can be Anything

Another reason NFTs have seemingly become a big deal everywhere is that they can be anything, and therein lies the charm. An NFT’s merit is not limited to its value creation alone, but the fact that it has the potential to ‘soak up’ everything. When the internet went commercial in the early ‘90s, the leading expectation was that its extensiveness and seeming boundlessness will change the paradigm of society, economy, environmental perception, and many more. While the internet revolution has done its bit, it still has some distance to go before really meeting this edge of expectation.

NFTs are sort of a polished evolutionary phase of the internet. Because they are tokens that exist on a decentralized blockchain, they can be redefined in terms of constitution so that they have transferable value. Put simply, as long as something can be digitized, that is, affixed to the internet or typified in electronic form, they can be NFTs. So, yes, the fact that you can ‘absorb’ anything and convert it into NFT of value is one of the bases for the recent craze over NFTs. It is a process that essentially capitalizes on the internet of value to assemble together an internet of value.

So, what can be converted into NFTs?

We have already broadened this characterization of NFTs to include ‘anything’ that can be digitized. The resulting NFT (in digital form) has to be visible, of course, as well as identifiable, storable, and transferable. A mundane specimen would be your birth certificate which you can upload online, convert to an NFT, and keep in your digital wallet.

You can do the same with anything else. As long as you can make them digital and somewhat unique, you can make them NFTs and let them fetch you a lot of money. In fact, whatever you are converting doesn’t even have to belong to you. This is the part where there is a principle of legality behind NFT conversion and valuation.

Even so, the principle is still largely loose and flexible at the moment. So, don’t go converting the ‘NYPD’ brand into NFTs and putting it up for sale. They will come after you. As will every other owner or official user of trademarked items. Thus, when we said anything earlier, we meant stuff like music, video, pictures, poems, paintings, video games, certificates, plants, animals, and more and more.

3. A Different Way of Doing Things

So, the original internet, per our earlier argument, was one of information. Value was built around information. Social connections were built around information. The entire economics of wealth creation and management was built around information. But this generated a new batch of problems. One, considering that information is the core reference for the internet revolution and utility, how can we verify the information on the internet? Two, how can we discourage the proliferation of false data?

This is how the blockchain revolution came up with its principle of networked integrity. This principle is characterized by data and value reliability. Essentially, honesty, consideration, accountability, and transparency are all coded into the blockchain. Ergo, these characteristics do not rely on the people using the blockchain, but on the blockchain’s protocols. So, NFTs are riding on this principle as well. This means that you don’t have to worry about folks that might cause you to pay multiple times for an item or service. The same goes for scams that take your money for nothing.

With smart contracts, you can rest easy with deals you make online. NFTs are the succeeding steps that compartmentalize these contracts and make them into Proof of Work, Proof of Activity, Proof of Stake, etc.

So, with NFTs, we might have found ourselves a way to restack the deck. And this is just its value for social or business interaction.

What about profit-making?

Well, the bulk of what is profit-making in the NFT market is what the public agrees to be worthwhile. This demonstrates the fact that the world has really become a village where public opinion is supposed to count. So, public opinion said that Dorsey’s first tweet ought to sell for approximately $400,000 short of $3 million. And it did. What does this mean for the average individual? New ways to make money! Easy ways to make money! Reliable ways to make money! So, with game-themed NFTs like Battle of Guardians and Sandbox, you can make a killing selling in-game assets from gear to real estate.

4. Sole Ownership Rights

One of the more interesting things about NFTs, as it is presently, is the sole ownership rights it bestows. When you buy an NFT, like the individual that purchased a 50-second video by Grimes for almost $400,000, you own it. This appears self-evident, doesn’t it? But it goes a bit deeper than the traditional acquisition and ownership of stuff.

Say that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is for sale and that you bought it. You own it, don’t you? There are bound to be copies of the artwork elsewhere, but you own the original. NFTs work pretty much the same way, like art collectibles.

When you purchase an NFT of rare digital artwork, for example, you become the owner of said artwork. Your neighbor may have saved a copy of it on their computer, but the entire world knows that you (who bought it for millions of dollars, most likely) are the original owner.

These rights that NFTs bestow are beyond the conventional bragging rights. They allow you to set the price on the NFT you bought whenever you want. So, your neighbor cannot sell that NFT, even if they have a perfectly identical copy. Only you can.

Popular American YouTuber and social media VIP, Logan Paul, put up 15-second clips of an old YouTube video for sale. He wanted $20,000 for it. Several GIFs came out of that deal, with some selling for $3,600. Well, someone bought one of these and after a little while wanted to sell it off at $16,300. So, even though you can download this particular image online, you cannot sell it as the original buyer wants to.

So, NFTs grant you the power of sole ownership, with the added benefits of long-term investments. However, the value of whatever NFT you purchased and now own is decided by the public.

5. Shared Minting Power

Lastly, NFTs don’t fall from the sky or grow on trees. You can mint them. Moreover, because they are similar to currencies (even though they are not), the fact that NFTs can be minted by anyone and everyone gives them a certain charm. Thus, they are attractive and consequently trendy.

So, what do you need to mint or make an NFT?

You need whatever file you want to convert into an NFT. First, convert it into a generally accessible format like GIF or JPG. Next, get a blockchain wallet. This would hold the NFT and whatever other token you purchase or peddle. Next, you register with a dedicated NFT marketplace (a platform that was specially designed to convert file formats to digital assets). There are lots of these, with the most popular being Rarible, OpenSea and NiftyGateway.

And if you are only interested in buying NFTs rather than minting them, these dedicated marketplaces are your best bet. Do it well and you could make several millions of dollars after one deal. And that is why NFTs are the new best thing. In one way, they can make you very rich before you can say en ef…!!!

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the newest instrument for maximizing the novel aspects of blockchain technology and its business applications. The many characteristics of these elements of decentralized transactions suggest that it is reliable, impartial, and likely to propel you to wealth extraordinaire.

Now, while NFT-based projects are generally precious beyond measure, there are more than enough of them to go around. This is especially so for 2022, a year that we are all expecting to be markedly better than its predecessor.

So, we want to present you with something of a solid alibi for clocking your first million, first tens of millions, if hundreds of millions. Not to mention, you might even make a billion dollars if you smartly pit your investment in the following projects against the uncertainties of the new year.

Top NFT projects to invest in today:

1- Art Blocks

One can argue that the value of art has gone up several hundred steps since NFTs became a thing. This is one of the advantages of Art Blocks, a collection of artworks from/by different artists to leverage their skills and popularity. Compared to its peers, Art Blocks is a generative art NFT, so you can easily build a fortune without a rigid grasp of NFT technicalities.

The mega project is backed by the Ethereum blockchain, so you can say that it has an exclusive home advantage. Moreover, because the artworks are in 2D and 3D, there is a lot of latitude for innovation and progress. This is one of the biggest pros for prospective investors who consider themselves promising digital artists. Art Blocks were introduced into the picture in 2020. Since then, sales on the NFT have ballooned beyond $1 million. To be precise, the number of artworks that have been sold for more than $1 million is almost 50.

Meanwhile, Art Blocks is one NFT project that is expected to stay on the high trend with increasingly reliable—if long-term—valuation. So, this is something for the long haul, not an NFT project for the faint of heart.

2- CryptoPunks

CryptoPunks is in a class of its own among NFT projects. The reason for its reputation is not unrelated to the fact that it has been around since 2017 and has become a favorite among many visionary NFT investors. But this does not mean that the value of the project will take a plunge anytime soon.

CryptoPunks was also launched on Ethereum, so it has been running on the blockchain’s momentum. If you know anything about NFTs, you know that their popularity—and subsequent valuation by the public—forms the basis for half its power. The other half is formed by the original blockchain that thrust it to fame. At its core, CryptoPunks is characterized by 10,000 virtual punk characters. In other words, this number of punk characters is fixed and was computer-generated. Each of them is unique, with distinguishing characteristics. This is why all 10,000 are ideal collectible items that you should invest in. We say this because someone made a killing when they sold their CryptoPunk for approximately $532 million (the equivalent of 124,457.07 ETH).

CryptoPunks was one of the top NFT projects that won the attention of NFT whizzes and newbies in 2021. Considering how optimistic these folks remain about it, you can be sure that the project will remain on top throughout 2022.

3- Axie Infinity

Besides the fact that NFTs are permanent and allow you to leverage the benefits of digital ownership, practically anyone can participate. NFT projects are not only for digital artists and content creators but also for buffs of more relaxed pursuits. Like gamers. This is where a project like Axie Infinity is the bomb.

Axie Infinity is a favorite among online gamers because they can get their hands on the token while they play the trendy game. In other words, you wouldn’t need to go through a crash course on YouTube to learn how to make an NFT. You can simply thrive where others are still ‘cracking the code’ by doing something enjoyable—playing a game.

You see, compared to other NFT-based projects, Axie Infinity is easy to mine. Any gamer can make good money from investing time and effort in their game sessions. Thus, you can collect a treasure chest of the Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), the primary token, and trade them for other cryptocurrency tokens, among the many other things you can use AXS for. Think about it: if you can trade tokens that cost around $75, and you can get these tokens from essentially managing virtual creatures, what are you waiting for?