Besides being used as JPG avatars, what other innovative uses and projects can NFTs have?

Author: Nianqing, Chain Catcher

Since last summer, the NFT market has been rapidly developing amidst controversies like the "JPG image frenzy." Currently, the historical sales of NFTs have exceeded $40 billion. This year, the performance of the NFT market has even outperformed the cryptocurrency market, with an ETH return of 103.7% year-to-date. Blockchain data analysis company Nansen predicts that by 2025, the NFT market valuation will reach $80 billion.

More and more people are trying to get a piece of this growing market. However, in reality, most NFT projects have quickly cooled off due to severe homogenization and a lack of narrative space, failing to attract attention and "consensus." NFTs can actually have many different play styles; they are not limited to a JPG image or a small avatar but can possess richer combinability and more added meanings. Perhaps a highly creative NFT could even fundamentally solve the problem of poor liquidity.

This article selects several innovative NFT projects in terms of gameplay, which may bring new inspiration if you are an NFT creator or enthusiast.

1. Pak: Merge/Censored

Keywords: Interactive Art

You are probably already familiar with the name Pak. Pak is the creator of the record for the most expensive NFT artwork, The Merge, which was purchased by over 20,000 buyers for a total price of $91.8 million, the highest price for a publicly auctioned artwork by a living artist. Pak has created a unique NFT gameplay style, known for its strong interactivity, with his NFT works almost always completed in collaboration with the public.

The Merge was auctioned in early December last year. Buyers could purchase any number of small mass balls at a price of $299 from December 2 to December 4. However, as the name of the work "Merge" suggests, although an unlimited number of masses could be bought, each wallet address could only own one ball. If you bought two or more masses, they would merge into one ball, resulting in changes in volume, color, and more. Ultimately, 28,983 buyers participated in the purchase, with a total of 312,686 masses sold.

Merge is a work co-owned and co-created by a group of people. It embodies a form of interactive art written into the smart contract, with its form and outcome unpredictable as the established contract triggers changes. Just like the game Snake, the "big ball eats small balls" game is played every day. Currently, the largest Merge ball consists of 4,233 masses.

Pak's latest NFT series, Censored, is also like a social experiment. Censored consists of two parts, with the limited edition Clock being the core of the entire series. It is a dynamic work, with the main part being English numerals that increase every 24 hours, recording the time Julian Assange has spent in prison. The second part is an open edition, available to everyone for 48 hours, where anyone can input any character (limited to 72 characters, supporting only English letters and spaces) to generate their own work. Like a public open art project, words and phrases input by people, such as "Freedom" and "Assange," are "censored" and will be blacked out.

In early February this year, the main work Clock from Censored was sold for a high price of 16,593 ETH. All proceeds from this auction have been donated to the Wau Holland Foundation to cover the legal costs needed for Assange's release. During the open period, a total of 29,767 NFTs were minted in the public edition, but users could choose the amount during minting, resulting in a sales volume of 670 ETH. Pak stated that this money will be used entirely for public welfare projects related to human rights, information freedom, digital privacy, children's education, and health organizations.

Currently, the open edition cannot be traded. Only when Assange is freed, and the numbers on the Clock return to zero will all NFTs be unlocked, and the sealed text will reappear.

Related Reading: “What Have We Learned from Top Crypto Artist Pak's Works?”

2. VeeFriends

Keywords: Practical Utility, Membership

When the connotation of NFTs is attached to a series of meanings and practical utilities in the real world, it becomes more than just a JPG image; it can be a ticket, a membership card, or even a key to unlock another world.

Veefriends is a social NFT community launched by Gary Vaynerchuk, themed around creativity and business. The stark contrast between its elementary school hand-drawn style and a floor price of up to 10 ETH has left many newcomers puzzled. However, the high price of Veefriends is determined by the added value behind it.

The founder of VeeFriends NFT is Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee, one of the most influential figures on Crypto Twitter and one of the largest collectors in the field. Gary Vee is an angel investor who has provided substantial funding for well-known tech companies like Venmo, Snapchat, and Uber. He personally created and illustrated 268 characters in the VeeFriends NFT, each with a name, such as "Adventurous Astronaut," "Brave Parrot," and "Compassionate Elephant." This naming convention reflects positive attributes about people.

VeeFriends NFTs grant holders access to the VeeFriends community and VeeCon. Each VeeFriend carries information and meaning and contains metadata stored on-chain. The smart contract accompanying each VeeFriend NFT essentially provides the key to enter Gary's world.

VeeFriends NFT holders can attend the VeeCon conference for three consecutive years (VeeCon 2022, 2023, 2024). VeeCon is a multi-day event specifically for NFT holders, focusing on themes such as business, marketing, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, and competition. Gary aims to curate the best experiences for the community through NFTs, bringing access and informational value to all attending VeeFriends holders. An NFT serves as a ticket, and the same person can hold multiple tickets. The first VeeCon will be held from May 19 to 22, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The benefits enjoyed by VeeFriends holders vary; VeeFriends acts like a membership card that symbolizes identity, similar to the significance of a regular card, gold card, or black card. In addition to the right to attend the summit, some NFTs also provide gift experiences curated by Gary and the VeeFriends team. Some holders may also enjoy various experiences such as dining, playing sports, face-to-face communication, or participating in garage sales with Gary.

Currently, over 10,000 people hold VeeFriends Series 1 NFTs, with a floor price of 10 ETH on Opensea, peaking at around 26.84 ETH.

Perhaps Gary Vaynerchuk has successfully run this membership-based NFT business model through VeeFriends. He subsequently launched the Flyfish Club, with the current floor price of this NFT series at 3.4 ETH. This is the world's first NFT membership-based private dining club. Flyfish Club holders can enjoy gourmet food at a private restaurant in New York, covering over 10,000 square feet. During the initial sale, Flyfish NFTs were divided into two categories: 2.5 ETH and 4.25 ETH, representing different membership qualifications. For example, a 4.25 ETH member can not only reserve for eight non-holding guests but also enjoy Flyfish Omakase room service. Flyfish Club NFT holders can earn income by selling or renting their NFTs, as they are endowed with more tangible meanings, and related NFT-FI has gained more original momentum.

In this usage scenario, NFTs are not just membership cards; they can also participate in company governance based on NFT ownership. For example, the food brand BurgerDAO provides NFT holders with rights and services to create proposals that directly impact the brand, naming rights for franchise locations, and monthly free burger vouchers through burger-themed NFTs.

3. Bored Breakfast Club

Keywords: Interaction between Virtual and Reality, Derivatives

Bored Breakfast Club is a web3 NFT coffee subscription project created by the digital design studio Kley in January this year. Bored Breakfast Club is essentially a derivative of the bored ape BAYC, with its NFT art primarily showcasing a bored ape enjoying breakfast in front of different landscapes. However, Bored Breakfast Club does not belong to BAYC or Yuga Labs; it was created because many members of Kley's founding team hold BAYC and love coffee, so they decided to merge the two elements (BAYC allows individual holders to use the commercial rights of their specific NFTs in any way they wish).

The uniqueness of Bored Breakfast Club NFTs lies in the fact that they are not just digital collectibles but also serve as membership tokens that unlock continuous free "airdrops" of freshly brewed coffee from Yes Plz studio. In addition to real-world coffee benefits, members can access a growing online community, live events, a digital content library, and discounted prices through the newly launched e-commerce platform.

The founders of Bored Breakfast Club created a concept called Community Coffee Wallet, funded by royalties from secondary market sales and a percentage of profits from coffee and merchandise sales. Once the community wallet reaches a certain threshold, the club will distribute new coffee blends to its members. The funds in the community treasury will be used to cover packaging, roasting, and free global delivery for holders. Additionally, because NFT holders receive coffee rewards continuously, as long as they hold the NFT before each snapshot time, they can receive coffee and breakfast rewards, which does not affect the sale and resale of NFTs in the secondary market.

Currently, the floor price for Bored Breakfast Club NFTs is 0.059 ETH. As a derivative of the bored ape, there will be greater marketing potential in the future, and the gameplay is essentially about building consensus through existing strong consensus. Perhaps there will be "dream collaborations" with the parent project in the future, developing more gameplay.

Crypto Baristas is similar to Bored Breakfast Club, combining the elements of NFTs and coffee. Holders of Crypto Baristas NFTs will receive permanent benefits in all coffee shop spaces opened by the team in the future, discounts on exclusive coffee and Crypto Barista merchandise, and on the website of coffee partners (Coffee Bros.). The first season of Crypto Barista will launch 60 coffee-loving characters, and the funds will help establish the world's first NFT-funded coffee shop.

Additionally, Crypto Baristas also has some charitable nature, with 15% of project revenue going to the "Barista Bank" fund, and NFT holders have the right to decide how the fund is used, such as supporting charitable organizations in the coffee field. Furthermore, the offline coffee shop will serve as a physical space at the forefront of art and innovation for members to learn from each other and participate in activities.

4. Mirror World

Keywords: AI Intelligence

Many people like to position Mirror World as GameFi, but evidently, the project team hopes it is primarily an NFT project.

Mirror World is a large NFT project and also a term for a virtual cyberspace. It is positioned as an interconnected and interoperable metaverse game world. Once users own a Mirror NFT character, they can travel between various connected games, and the NFTs obtained from different games in Mirror World can also be used across games.

Another major feature of Mirror World is the intelligence of NFTs. The project employs smart NFT technology from AI startup rct AI. This allows each Mirror to have not only unique visual characteristics but also a unique soul. According to the project team, they are not just a JPEG image but a "Smart Life" based on the ERC-721 standard (NFT).

It sounds very interesting. Simply put, when NFTs are combined with AI technology, NFT characters can interact intelligently with players in the game world. Ideally, these virtual NFTs can actively adjust their behavior based on environmental changes. They learn from the data left by humans on social networks, continuously iterating their thoughts through self-learning and can keep upgrading.

Last month, Mirror World announced the completion of a $4 million seed round of financing. Investors include Galaxy Interactive, Republic Crypto, Alameda Research, YGG SEA, Avocado Guild, OKX Blockdream Ventures under OKX, Infinity Ventures Crypto, LD Capital, and several other well-known institutions.

Currently, the floor price for Mirror World is 0.039 ETH, and several games are still in the early stages of development.

Related Reading: “What Attracts People to the GameFi Platform Mirror World?”

5. Rich Baby

Keywords: Combinability, Derivatives

What kind of spark would be created if the Bored Ape BAYC and CryptoPunks projects teamed up?

Last month, Rich Baby merged these two dominant projects through "building families."

Rich Baby is an NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain. Each baby inherits traits directly from a CryptoPunks parent and a BAYC parent. CryptoPunks and BAYC holders can pair to mint a pair of Rich Babies, and the minted Rich Babies will directly "inherit" the traits of their parents—one from the BAYC parent and one from the CryptoPunks parent. The two babies are likely to look different, but there is a small chance of producing nearly identical twins.

The issuance of Rich Baby is divided into three phases, currently in phase one: only users who own BAYC or CryptoPunks can pair to mint, making them "real" Rich Babies, as these two are indeed at the top of the NFT pyramid. The Rich Babies minted in the first phase all come with a unique golden pacifier element and do not require minting fees; users only need to cover the Ethereum gas fees, and each Punk and Ape can only be used once. The second phase will still occur before public minting, and the team will announce NFT projects that can mint Rich Baby for free in the future. The third phase is public minting, where anyone with money can participate.

Rich Baby brings traffic and heat to its project by pairing the two, making it easier to gain "consensus." The project design itself also carries social attributes, with many posts on Twitter looking for partners for their BAYC or CryptoPunks. If Rich Baby is purchased from the secondary market, the official provides a traceability section where users can input their ID to find their NFT parents, siblings, and family portraits.

The project positioning of Rich Baby is as a derivative project, aiming to build a new project through fresh and interesting ways and mature communities, allowing existing NFTs to increase their gameplay and liquidity. Currently, the floor price for Rich Baby is 0.8 ETH.