An Intro to 'Breedable' NFTs and Social Connections in the Metaverse

Lead image courtesy of freepik.com

It sounds too good to be true – NFTs that can 'breed' with each other, and produce more NFTs.

While it might seem too easy, with new breedable NFTs, owners can create new NFTs. Anyone who has been paying attention to Axie Infinityknows that the in-game characters, called Axies, can be bred.

So let's start with the biggest advantage that breedable NFTs offer – the ability to create your own NFTs once you invest in an NFT that can be bred. To be sure, this “breedability” makes it much harder to value an NFT, as the potential offspring for the NFT are almost impossible to value.

In addition to the potential value of offspring, breedability also opens up the door to leasing out a breeding NFT to people who may not be able to afford the purchase of their own. In other words, breedable NFTs open the door to passive income from an NFT that has desirable breeding characteristics.

NFTs Create New Opportunities

As a digital asset class, NFTs have some interesting capabilities that no other digital asset can match. To start, they are inherently a cross-platform asset, so they could be used in many different ways on numerous platforms.

For example, take an in-game character that is stored on an NFT. For the moment, the character can be used in a blockchain-based game, but the potential exists for other platforms to allow the use of the NFT as a character, or for the NFT to be displayed as a collectible or work of art.

With the massive Metaverse development push, it is very likely we will see platforms that allow the use of NFTs from multiple platforms in the near future. Platforms like Decentraland have demonstrated that there is already huge interest in shared online spaces, and as more well-funded devs enter the space, the sky's the limit.

Breeding New Tokens

With the advent of NFT-based gaming has come the breedable NFT. For anyone that likes online gaming, and creating new characters, breedable NFTs represent a tremendous opportunity. Every platform has its own rules for breeding, so it is hard to make blanket statements about how breedable NFTs work as a whole.

For example, Roaring Leaders, a new NFT collection, allows the Roaring Leaders NFTs to be bred, and produce Roaring Leaders cubs in a separate collection. The platform also created a novel, Tinder-style dating system that allows Roaring Leaders owners to look for a 'mate' if they don't have both a male and female NFT to breed.

Like other breedable NFTs, Roaring Leaders require payment in tokens to be bred. For this platform, the $ROAR token is used to pay for breeding.

More Connections in the Metaverse

With other Breedable ecosystems like Cyberkongz, There is no doubt that social connections will drive the development and adoption of the Metaverse. It should be very clear that the future of online social connections is going to be done in virtual space, and the massive interest in these platforms will speed adoption.

Another platform that seems to understand the importance of social connections is Gamerse. For the moment, Gamerse isn't laser-focused on Metaverse development, but its gaming-centric social model is a perfect fit for a global community that is already creating demand for next-generation online experiences.

People need to connect, and there is nothing like an open community to keep an industry honest. In the world of NFT-based gaming, open communication will be a vital part of keeping devs going in the right direction.

Let's be honest – the online games that exist today simply don't stack up to what is in development. Yet, these online gaming platforms have been incredibly seductive, and in some cases, have driven gamers to become addicted to the gameplay.

If we look at wearable VR tech, like the gear being developed at AEXLAB, it is pretty easy to see how NFTs fit into a much wider move to an online life that includes a level of experience that simply can't be understood at the moment. VR headsets are great, but fully immersive wearable tech will deliver a kind of real-life experience to gamers that will be alluring in a big way.

The NFTs in this project’s signature experience, VAIL VR, can also grow and change over time. Their NFTs represent in-game pets that can be interacted with and can pick up traits to become more useful. Evolutionary NFTs give the holder an opportunity to raise their asset’s value simply by using it as intended.

ChainRacers is another project with NFTs that can pick up new traits in-game. Each one is a car with its own unique traits that can be used to race against others. Weapons and upgrades can be added as the player wins matches and gathers resources. After they have had their fun, they can sell their souped-up rides to new players.

NFTs Are a Part of the Future

When 2020 ended, no one could have predicted how popular NFTs would be in the coming year. Now, novel technology like breedable NFTs are taking center stage, and demonstrating how powerful NFT protocols can be.

Could evolutionary NFTs reach beyond the world of collectibles and gaming?

Sure – why not.

We just saw a huge amount of money pour into an asset class that was niche until 2021. As more people adopt NFT technology, sub-groups like breedable NFTs may find support as an asset that grows in both usage and popularity. And with NFTs that can grow, users have a much better chance of adding that value to their own collection.