Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been subject to intense criticism in recent times, despite their meteoric rise in popularity in 2021 and subsequent decline. The recent NFT hype wave led to astronomical valuations, such as the sale of Bored Ape Yacht Club #8817 for 3.4 Million USD, CryptoPunk #5822 for 23.7 Million USD, and artist Beeple's "The First 5000 Days" Collage for a staggering 69.3 Million USD. So, why were these NFTs worth so much and what led to the NFT bubble bursting in 2022?
The emergence of NFTs has revolutionised the concept of digital ownership by providing a mechanism to guarantee true scarcity of digital assets. Prior to NFTs, the ease with which digital assets could be replicated and shared made it difficult to establish their uniqueness and ownership. However, NFTs assign a unique identifier to each digital asset, which is then stored on a blockchain, creating a permanent and unchangeable record of ownership. This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for creators, artists, and collectors who can now create, own and trade unique digital assets.
One of the key factors that influences the desirability and the value of a collectible is its scarcity. In 2021 we saw the rise of "10,000 profile picture" NFT projects, which involved minting 10,000 nearly identical digital images as NFTs, with subtle variations between each image. There was a mad rush for creators to generate hype for their own projects, so that they could raise the prices on their NFTs and sell them to the new people coming through the door at the peak of the hype so that they could make a huge profit. This led to an overinflated market of mainly speculators, with the vast majority of these projects crashing alongside financial markets in 2022. The projects that have survived through to today are alive only because they have been able to provide their NFT holders with utility, which is where the true power of this technology lies.
NFTs can have utility in games that have defined rules, which makes them a great fit for fantasy sports. In GameDay Squad, all Player Cards will be NFTs built on the Polygon blockchain. The smart contracts have already undergone the auditing process and will be deployed later this year. Each Player Card is one-of-a-kind, even if there are multiple cards with the same rarity, because each card has a distinct identifier in the form of a serial number imprinted on it. These Player Cards have utility as they can be used to play fantasy sports on the GameDay Squad platform. We can also speculate on what possible utility these Player Cards may have in the future.
Owning a GameDay Squad Legend Player Card is a rare feat and places you amongst an exclusive few. These one-of-a-kind assets offer the largest Player Score Multiplier possible in GameDay Squad, providing them with great utility as a fantasy sports asset. However, we are planning for Legend Player Cards to have even more utility through giving owners access to special bonuses and privileges within the GameDay Squad ecosystem, including discounts and VIP treatment at live events. This means that even if you pack a dud Legend Player Card, it doesn’t mean that it’s worthless.
Players who have hung up the boots won’t be worthless either! In upcoming Squad Building Challenges, coaches will need to collect specific Player Cards to be eligible for a special reward, with some of these players having retired. This ensures that our Player Cards will continue to have utility long after they are no longer relevant as a fantasy sports asset. GameDay Squad is also planning on building in a delist feature, where coaches will be able to exchange their unwanted Player Cards for draft tokens, which can be used in the annual GameDay Squad draft event, more details coming soon!
At GameDay Squad, we are always looking for new ways to add utility to our Player Cards. The blockchain has provided us a creative license to offer new ways to play that just aren’t possible with regular fantasy sports. If you’ve got some great ideas of how else we can add utility to these digital assets, we’d love for you to share them with us on the GameDay Squad Discord. Come join a dedicated and welcoming community of fantasy sports fanatics and be a part of the revolution!