Only recently, however, did the public catch on to another blockchain-based trend: non-fungible coins, also known as NFTs. NFT-related interest has grown at an alarming rate, prompting a multitude of digital art pieces and making headlines due to their multi-million dollar valuations. We have NFT-based video games like, which generates $220.3million in monthly sales and has recently raised $152million in Series B funding round.

It’s clear that NFTs have seen a spectacular rise. Innovators from different industries are attracted to such success. This isn’t an unusual case. The lullaby that is NFTs has ended. We will soon witness the rise of many non-fungible tokens to serve every need of consumers and businesses. In fact, the first bunch of new “hot” NFTs is already here. These are non-hashed, upgradable and time-limited. They seem like perfect tools for artists, brands, and metaverse – a trending concept of a shared multidimensional digital environment, creation of which has been undertaken by Facebook (NASDAQ:), Fortnite, Sensorium, Roblox among several other players.

These are some of the new NFT types. What can they do for the metaverse?

Digital Space: Driving collaborations

The name implies that upgradable NFTs can evolve over time. This allows different players to modify the NFTs as well as the corresponding content while avoiding its ownership. This feature is very useful for many entertainment industries. For creators, this is a promising advancement allowing, for example, an artist or a musician to legitimately take on another creator’s artworks as the basis for their own. This allows two or more pieces of content to be combined into one, without having to deal with the creative and legal headaches that we see so frequently in non-crypto. Global fashion houses are now able to launch collaborative projects without having to deal with bureaucratic red tape or involve third parties. Valentino, Louis Vuitton and Burberry are just a few of the companies that have embraced crypto. They issued NFTs from all-digital collections, and they’ve been increasingly exploring metaverses using AR and VR in the last year.

Smart Contracts: Facilitating

Users can save details directly on smart contracts using non-hashed NFTs without having to code a single line. The metaverse concept is associated with advanced technologies and futuristic settings. This implies ease and less bureaucracy. Non-hashed NFTs will significantly facilitate the administrative procedures among all the metaverse’s participants from users and content creators to developers and investors.

Boosting Users’ Engagement

Time-limited NFTs serve as a powerful gamification tool to boost users’ engagement. These NFTs allow companies to tokenize tickets and increase their expiry and access settings. This allows attendees to either exchange the tickets in the secondary market or preserve them as collectibles with a certain rarity. For example, Fortnite could have used them as an additional long-term tool to engage the attendees of its recent Ariana Grande’s virtual concert, some of whom complained the event ended too soon. A metaverse, in which assets are tied to specific timesframes is another example of time-limited NFT, could also be a promising use.

Origins

Noteworthy, the above types of NFTs were in fact unveiled by metaverse developers from Sensorium, the company behind the Sensorium Galaxy metaverse built in collaboration with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and chart topping artists like David Guetta and Armin Van Buren. Upgradable, time-limited and non-hashed are all the features of Wakatta, Sensorium’s new blockchain geared specifically for the needs of the entertainment industry. Sensorium Galaxy, London’s Token 2049 event announced that the Wakatta blockchain will be integrated into Sensorium Galaxy within months. This will allow users to create NFTs from their virtual creations and then monetize them through transparent markets. According to Alex Blagirev, Wakatta’s Project Lead, – the Substrate-based blockchain will offer low transaction fees of $0.001 and capacity to handle thousands of transactions per second.

A booming market

While we have yet to witness upgradable and time-limited non-hashed NFTs, the future looks bright as there has been unprecedented success in the non-fungible tokens market. NFTs’ versatility, as well as their ability to integrate across many industries have attracted investors. NFT sales reached over $2B in 2021, a 2100 increase in volume compared with the same quarter last year.

The numbers underscore the potential of NFTs – and blockchains are seizing the moment. Take Flow, developed by Dapper Labs following the company’s partnership with the NBA that has led to NBA Top Shot, a widely popular marketplace for digital basketball collectibles. In the first half 2021, the company made more than $500 million. Recently, the company revealed that it would be extending its NFT services to the NFL and other major sports leagues, including Spain’s LaLiga.

The same strategy is used by iconic brands such as Marvel, whose first venture into NFTs was with Captain America digital collectibles and Spider-Man. Spiderman NFTs, worth approximately $4 million, were gone within 24 hours.

Similar booms are being experienced by NFT-marketplaces. DappRadar’s recent survey found that the top 30 NFT markets have a combined total revenue of $11.53B. OpenSea, for instance, sold $160,000,000 in digital assets in June 2021, a 45x growth in the volume during the first half 2021. MakersPlace generated more than $100 million in sales in the past year and witnessed Beeple’s artwork being sold for $69.3 million on its platform.

Bright Future

CB Insights’s recent survey found that there are over 90 companies currently involved in creating metaverses. As more brands will turn their attention to metaverse – whether building one or entering it to sell its products and services – the demand for NFTs and its numerous various will continue to grow. NFTs are still a relatively new technology and, more important, an opportunity that is not available to everyone: investors, users, businesses and even consumers. That’s the momentum new players, like Wakatta, are hoping to ride out in this newly-minted market.

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