NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. They are something that you can own and trade on a crytogrphic blockchain, such as the Ethereum chain, but they are not fungible, meaning they are wholly unique entities and cannot be exchanged for other NFTs.

Today NFT technology is used in various games such as CryptoKitties, Etherbots and Decentraland. One advantage of this technology is to solve the problem of duplicate items in video games by providing a way to make every individual item unique and distinguishable from one another. Another advantage is that a suitably robust blockchain can include metadata about a token’s unique providence and history.

NFT technology can also provide game developers with an opportunity to create game economies with less friction and without traditional constraints on the player's freedom.

This means that gamers can now both spend time and money on games which offer real world value. NFTs allow for gambling with cryptocurrency, trading of in-game items or digital assets, which were once exclusive to the players but can now be shared by all types of users.

The growth in NFTs shows how successful it is as more companies are getting interested in its potential use cases. But the problem is the people making blockchain games are treating NTF technology like a feature. It is not. Using NFTs is no more a feature than using an API.

Yet every game on the market that is exploiting this technology is pushing the use up front and center and into the player’s face. This is the absolute last place a technology should be in games, unless its graphics I suppose.

Every two-bit “Crypto-Game” out there keeps shoving the notion of blockchain, tokens, and crypto so had that now significant segments of the industry thing that NFTs are a scam. And that’s the real tragedy.

Because NFT technology is the future of game assent and inventory management. This technology will be the cornerstone of the next decade’s game economies and will have significant impact on the economics of the entertainment industry as a whole.

And I plan on being on the bleeding edge of that revolution. But the reality is that we won’t se the benefits of this technology so long as it’s treated like and end user feature for a small shrinking audience of enthusiasts. Rather, my fellow game makers need to treat the technology like the tool it is – a back end component of superior inventory structure and economic design and implementation.

Speaking of technology, my AI writing assistant helped put this blog post together for me. Good Bot.

Providence: NFTs are not a feature, they are a technology