Creating an Ecosystem for NFTs to Flourish
NFTs have been used to great effect for digital items like collectables and game cards
Their use cases are rapidly expanding into areas like art, designs and brand badges. You can easily access your NFT and interact with the item it represents when you visit the relevant Dapp that item is from. You can admire it, trade it and show it off.
However things become more difficult when you want to access and interact with your NFT outside the confines of that Dapp. It is not as easy and often it is either not as seamless or they just don’t work at all. As owners of our NFTs we want to be able to view and interact with them outside of these Dapps just like we would with say a game card in the physical world. I don’t want to have to log into another website to show off my art work or tokens.
NFTs cannot be universally displayed
Further to this point Rizwan Virk wrote a great piece about the visual limitations of NFTs. Have a read, its easy to understand and to the point (The One Thing Missing from the ERC 721 Standard for Digital Collectibles on the Blockchain). We are not associated with Rizwan in any way, we simply thought it was an insightful article..
In this article the argument is that ERC721 NFTs currently have limitations as collectables because there is no standard way to associate images with that collectable. Images are often stored and accessed through the servers of the third party and not on the blockchain itself. Thus in order to view the collectable you often need to do so within the app it was designed for. Furthermore if that app were to no longer exist for whatever reason, you may be left with just a piece of code and no visual representation.
One of the most important aspects of digital items is how we view and interact with them. Visuals are important for humans so being able to physically see your items rather than just having a bunch of code or words is important. If you can’t easily view your collectable then it loses some of its tangibility and potentially some value.
Just think about digital items such as game cards, badges, artwork, designs, photographs, avatars, game skins, digital animals of all kinds, videos, gifs etc. All of these have important visual elements to them and in order for us to get value from them in a similar way to physical collectables we need a good way of viewing them in the digital world outside of their respective apps. Even if you have items where visualisation is not so integral (e.g. maybe its a key that gives you access to something) some kind of visual component is still useful and it adds to its tangibility.
Improving this situation starts with the NFTs themselves. Creating NFTs that have accessible and displayable images across a wide range of Dapps will reduce friction and improve how we experience and interact with NFTs. Its important and is one of the barriers to expanding the use of NFTs beyond the blockchain community.
So how can we view and interact with all of our NFTs outside of their respective apps?
Creating an Ecosystem for NFTs
Mintable’s vision is a standardised ecosystem with reduced friction where NFTs representing all sorts of digital items can be easily created, managed, viewed and exchanged. We see a decentralised world where you can tokenize any digital item and freely share and exchange these items with others with trust, speed and efficiency.
Mintable is creating an ecosystem for NFTs to flourish:
- By creating a single place where anyone can go to interact with and view their NFTs no matter what DApps they are from. So you can view and manage NFTs like your Axies, Gods Unchained and any NFTs you made in Mintable all within Mintable.
- Expanding who can make an NFT — why go through to a ‘review’ process to be approved to make an NFT? Its the blockchain, make one yourself! Within seconds! (Seriously, its like super easy, try it out).
- By providing an easy way to mint your very own NFTs for any digital item. You have complete control over how you set up your NFT, what your NFTs represent, the image they show and how you use them.
- Changing how NFTs are used. Right now its for images, collectibles, etc. But what if there was more you could use an NFT for? Say…. something that has around 150 billion a year globally in trading volume. (and its not a financial instrument
With this, we see Mintable as your home for NFTs.
Remember: We don’t have a token or ICO, we are a free tool to help manage your NFTs and a freemium way to make them in seconds.
What can you do on Mintable Beta?
Right now you can view and manage most ERC721s on the Ethereum blockchain with Mintable.
You can also create your own NFTs for digital items including adding your own images. The tools are there for you to get creative and make whatever you want. If we can make it easier to create NFTs, this will go a long way to improving the ecosystem.
Mintable is currently in the Beta phase so its not perfect. For example if Mintable cannot associate an image with your NFT from another Dapp you will still not be able to view it. Also if you don’t have your own API hosting your data, then you'll need to use ours to make your NNFT work across the board of dapps and wallets., (Mintable will read this and show it as an image) but we are working hard to make it as seamless as possible and expand its functionality.
Visit Mintable Beta and start creating your own NFTs in minutes. There is no coding required and our step by step guide will help you through the process. We would love to hear your thoughts and we are always open to hearing improvements or functionality you would like to see.
Also if you have ideas for an NFT and aren’t sure how to deploy them reach out to us and we will help you figure it out.
Make an NFT: https://mintable.app
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fUEmc8d
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mintableapp
