NFT Adopotion, Utility & The Elrond Advantage
From multi-million-dollar JPEGs that grant entry into yacht parties with ultra-high net worth degens, to Secret Santa smart contracts created in the dev underground, the use cases for NFTs continue to shake the planet. Art, business, and other Web 3.0 examples of the technology are just starting to surface, and the best might truly be yet to come.
Think about it. Unless you are Sir Tim Berners Lee, you probably didn’t understand the internet’s full potential in the 90’s and early 2000’s. NFTs are just getting started. As NFT use cases continue to rise, more people will be introduced to the technology. The largest NFT marketplaces in the world are only starting to come online or are very new. People are still laughing at NFTs in the same way that they laughed at Bitcoin or even the internet itself.
ERC-721 tokens were only created in 2018, so it’s impossible to have an NFT company older than 3–4 years at this point. Even with the use cases that have come out, more features are being added like staking and what is known as reflective value, which will be discussed more in-depth later.
A Mad Dash for NFT Funding, Community, Utility, and Deployment
Right now, it’s a mad dash for funding, building community, adding utility, and deploying tech (unless of course you’re rug pulling, then the latter two won’t apply to you).
As the industry explores ways to provide utility, staking comes to the forefront of the conversation. Staking NFTs is a sticky subject depending on the jurisdiction that the entity staking the NFT is formed in, which we’ll get to in a moment (also, this is your first DYOR reminder)! The current set of regulations don’t yet understand digital assets. However, staking can undoubtedly leverage the value of NFTs similar to how staking more traditional crypto can leverage additional value.
NFT Staking is Like Having a 1980s Savings Account
Staking an NFT or any crypto can provide a unique opportunity that only previous generations had access to through traditional savings accounts or stocks. Before the global reserve currency crisis that we’re facing today, parking even a tiny amount of fiat currency in a bank account gave you high single-digit or even double-digit returns. Can you imagine how much more money you’d have in a bank account if you were able to get gains like that in today’s world? Now, unfortunately, we live in a world where central banks print money at will through the Modern Monetary Theory philosophy.
Of course, staking NFTs varies by regulation, so please take diligence to consult an attorney or financial professional when deciding on features of any NFT you’re building or buying.
We have an answer. We can fight back and participate in the Web 3.0 world of individual ownership and control. We can stake NFTs and other digital assets to get the gains that were once accessed by the people in government when they were our ages and building careers. However, instead of relying on banks like they had to, we can rely on ourselves and participate in non-custodial staking to leverage our assets. That’s the power of Web 3.0.
So how does staking your NFT work? Much like how savings accounts worked in the early days of solid APYs on fiat currency in the 1980s, a topic we cover in-depth here, staking is like parking your money in an account and gaining interest with a little more action needed. The participation level of staking depends on several factors, such as the chain you’re staking on and how deeply you want to become involved in the ecosystem (and how many tokens you can afford).
Doing Your Due Diligence Before the Mint
There are many unanswered questions to regulation surrounding staking and NFTs that no one has a clear answer to. What’s the statute of limitation for trading securities to the SEC, ESMA, or other regulatory bodies around? How long into the future can this potentially come back and haunt you? Find out the risks before you get into it. There are a lot of risks. Consult with an attorney or financial professional before identifying the risks.
Elrond and NFTs
The world of crypto has seen Elrond quickly emerge as a carbon-neutral alternative to Ethereum with lower gas fees and faster transactions. EGLD’s surge this summer only amplified that message when the price skyrocketed from $52 in June 2021 to $302 just three months later in September. The 437% rise demonstrated the world was ready for a better protocol. Now, Elrond is bringing that same network to NFTs.
What does the world think?
Elrond’s recent partnership with Audi-backed Holoride aims to build the future of in-vehicle experiences. A trusted brand like Audi that sells just short of 2 million automobiles per year is not going to risk a brand name that has taken 5 generations and 100+ years to build on a weak project. Audi is not going to partner with fly-by-night snake oil salespeople that pull rugs. Other Audi partners include brands like Ducati, Nvidia, and NPR. These are household names in many cultures. However, Holoride also works with household names. In just 2.5 years since being founded, the company has teamed up with Porsche, Disney, and Universal.
The fact that luxury car manufacturer Audi is backing a company that is building out NFTs on Elrond gives the Elrond network a significant boost of confidence.
What makes NFTs on Elrond so special, though? Besides gas and transaction fees, how are Elrond NFTs different from other NFTs like ERC-721 or ERC-1155?
Benefits of Elrond NFTs:
✅ Interoperable bridge: NFTs can now flow freely to and from Elrond Network, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and Fantom, with Tron, Algorand, Avalanche, Solana, Cardano and Tezos soon to follow.
✅ More Custodianship than OpenSea: It is now possible to mint entire NFT collections at a low cost on the Elrond Network and put them up for sale on established platforms such as OpenSea, or move your favorite pieces over to Elrond Network, to further own and manage them in a much more efficient manner.
✅ Makes Dev’s Job Easier: A recent NFT partnership focused on building a better working environment for devs.
“We have been working closely with the Elrond team for months and are ready to take things a step further. XP.network JS API library will now be integrated into Elrond’s framework, making it easy for developers to introduce chain-agnostic NFTs as part of new Elrond-based projects,” said Nir Blumberger, XP.network CEO.
Helios Staking + ElrondNFTs
As you might have seen on Twitter, Helios Staking and Elrond NFT (ENFT DAO) have recently announced a new partnership. This partnership was actually the first official partnership that was made with ENFT DAO. Despite working together silently in the background, we are now publicly announcing that ENFT DAO will help to facilitate the mint and artwork of the Helios Staking NFT. You might be wondering, what is the point of the Helios Staking NFT?
We recently announced that in our Community Wallet (formerly called the Reserve Wallet), you have the opportunity to farm $LKMEX in the $EGLD / $USDC pool, which compounds for $LKMEX in the $MEX pool. As a result, all of the $LKMEX profits will now be distributed evenly to all Helios Staking delegators each quarter through the NFT. In other words, Helios Staking Collection 2022 NFT holders will receive a revenue-share distribution that is airdropped every quarter starting this April.
To achieve this goal, the $EGLD / $USDC LP token will continue to remain in the reserves and continue to be added through the use of 5% of our monthly commission. In December 2021, we added 10.72 $EGLD and matched that with $USDC as a mechanism to increase our base. In total, there is now $15089.07 $USDC in the wallet, which will be used to match our monthly $EGLD contribution for a few months.
Reflective Value NFTs
To achieve this feat, we’re creating an NFT! Every Helios Staking delegate will be captured as part of a snapshot on or before January 1, 2022. The mint is expected to take place the last week of January 2022 and will be loaded with unique artwork and rarity traits. Additionally, the NFT will be free to any whitelisted address from the snapshot (a minimal gas fee will be required, however).
Each quarter, starting with April 2022, distributions will be given upon the successful capture of a delegator in a snapshot. However, 1 NFT will be issued each year to all Helios Staking delegators, which helps to fulfil our mission of adding utility to the Helios Staking 2022 Collection. In order to qualify for the distribution you will have to be still staking with us; however, because we’re giving each NFT an equal share it means you can still be somewhat liquid with your stake. Snapshots will be taken regularly to prevent users from un-staking after the initial snapshot. If you un-stake all your funds & have no stake with us at any point in 2022 you will no longer be eligible for distribution.
“NFTs on Elrond feature true ownership instead of ETH NFTs, which are perpetually owned by the smart contract. For example, look at Onchain Warriors — the first Elrond NFTs to be completely stored on-chain and on path to be among the first things in the metaverse that you own and control 100%. When you combine true custodianship with fast, low-cost transaction fees, the door swings wide open to new economic models, like reflection, which is sharing royalties between creators and owners,” said Chris Pham, Co-Founder of ENFT DAO.
“Reflecting royalties is simply not economical with ETH NFTs… everyone would lose money if they tried. This is just one example of new utility and use cases becoming viable. Staking NFTs, NFTs as experiences, and NFTs as collateral are among other exciting use cases that could be opened up soon,” said Pham.
In Conclusion
Staking NFTs can unlock additional benefits by providing a yield on an asset. Elrond specifically offers a lot of value to the world of NFTs… not just for JPEGs, but to other avenues like in-car driving experiences. Remember, we’re still in the early days of NFTs. With Web 3.0 offering a way to asset your leverages and still have custody over them, the possibilities are endless.
Elrond’s robust network of partners can help the community unlock previously unimagined use cases. It will be an exciting space to watch. We have no idea what is coming!
Tell us what NFT use cases you’d like to see on Elrond in the comments below 👇
