Decoding Polkadot NFTs: A Polkadot Decoded Review.

NFTs at Polkadot Decoded.

The just concluded Polkadot Decoded was a 2-day long event hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, and online for the global community. With over 12,000 attendees (virtually and IRL), representatives from various companies within the ecosystem gathered to discuss their organizations, educate the community on their projects, share ideas, and interact with other builders also in attendance.

Some speakers at the event.

Arguably one of the largest blockchain events, service providers in the DeFi, NFTs, and web3 infrastructure were all invited to speak during the conference. And particularly from the NFT community, projects like Moonsama, Unique network, Ajuna network, etc, all came up to talk about their projects, partnerships, new utilities, and what the future is like for them.

From novel ideas like investing in cloud storage, to protecting wildlife, and community development, here is a summary of how Polkadot-based projects are pushing the boundaries of NFT use-case, tech, and interactions, directly from the presentations at the Polkadot Decoded.

NFT PROJECTS AND THEIR INNOVATIONS.

NFTs application in decentralized storage/data ownership.

SPEAKER: Ludwig Trappe. Business dev; Crust Network.

NFTs that serve as access and proof of ownership to cloud storage space, decentralizing data from web2 platforms to the web3 community.

Ludwig began his presentation talking about how much data humans generate daily, and how only a few web2 companies “manage” this data (up to over 300M+ TB of users data, daily). Highlighting tenets of web3 and decentralization, Ludwig was able to compare the availability and privacy of data, citing the importance of decentralized (web3) storage over its web2 predecessor.

Introducing Crust network, Ludwig goes on into details of how they are revolutionizing data storage using IPFS, incentivizing node operators, and connecting them with users who need data storage space. Combining NFTs with decentralized storage/hosting, Ludwig gave insight into how Crust is decentralizing storage service using NFTs. Here, he talks about Crust Cloud, the network’s commercialized storage solution which uses “storage buckets” to provide cloud storage capacity as utility for Crust Cloud pioneer NFTs. Simply put, these NFTs unlock access to a gated cloud storage unit (storage bucket), which belongs to the (holder of the) NFT (as a usecase). And as typical NFTs comes in ranks and rarities, buckets very based on sizes, as users can mint from 1GB to 1TB (of storage bucket) NFTs, depending on their decision.

Web3 Storage Buckets.

Holders of the (bucket) NFTs can use, sell, or monetize their units of cloud storage as they like. This again, is another first from the Polkadot community, in terms of usecases developed using NFTs.

Gaming and Ecology: Using NFTs to protect wildlife.

SPEAKERS: Catherine Bischoff, CEO Sovereign Nature Initiative; Adriana Momsama, COO Moonsama.

Cub NFTs is the first ever NFTs collection that fuses real world data from wildlife into NFTs, gaming, and web3.

Catherine started by introducing Sovereign Nature Initiative, their mission, and how they’re introducing wildlife ecology into web3. Adriana began by explaining Play2Conserve, a term that describes the vision of the Moonsama and Sovereign Nature Initiative partnership.

According to both speakers, the Play2Conserve model is an important gaming model that enables gamers create an economy using data obtained from endangered animal species. The aim of this model is to empower digital creatives to bridge the gap between the real world and digital universe, and to generate revenue to provide care and avoid extinction for these animals.

Wildsama NFTs.

Adriana talked about their collaboration project, Wildsama Lions, and how they are already achieving their goals. According to Catherine, data from real life lions in Kenya are collected using DEEP, a technology developed by SNI, and interpreted as metadata used for NFT creation. The Wildsama Lions NFTs was described as a “first grade bridge between web3 gaming and nature”, as the NFT cubs will eventually evolve into full grown lions, using the data provided by DEEP and SNI in each NFTs metadata. This way, each NFT stays unique and immutable, as their real life self.

In terms of usecase, Adriana talked about how Moonsama was able to gamify the data and the rarities of these animals into a web3 product. She continued shedding light on how the idea was welcomed and developed by the Moonsama community, and how they’re already making a difference with the Play2Conserve model. And as for the NFTs, users can use them in metaverses, take them on “netventures”, and much more.

Catherine wrapped up by talking about the future for Sovereign Nature Initiative, and how they plan to push ecological conservation even further, by collecting, processing, and generating revenue with the data of endangered animal species using NFT technology. This way, fusing real world elements into web3 to create a better world for all species.

Future of NFT Utilities.

SPEAKER: Adam Nagy. Co Founder/CTO-Moonsama.

Although most of Adam’s speech was on the Moonsama ecosystem itself, he gave an educative lecture on the structure of Moonsama, and the future for their NFTs.

Starting off with how Moonsama began as a community for gamers, Adam explained the importance of the use of fungible and non-fungible tokens in dApps development, as well as how utility (for the dApps and tokens) can be created by forces outside of the blockchain itself.

Using Moonsama’s tech stack as reference, Adam talked about the importance of building (public) utility first, as the only way for a project to achieve its aim. From their parachain infrastructure, to building the tools necessary for achieving their proposed use cases, Adam’s talk covered how Polkadot’s substrate network and features like cross-chain messaging (XCM), and EVM compatibility has empowered Moonsama into creating a utility platform for NFTs in the Polkadot ecosystem.

And when he talked about how other NFT projects can learn from Moonsama’s growth, he advised projects to build their communities on-chain, set their own governance models, NFT staking models, resource economy, etc, so they can do “all the cool things Moonsama is doing”.

Rounding up, he talks about the tools Moonsama is building including their

• Multiverse portal,
• NFT composer,
• Moonsama Metaverse, and other projects still in their pipeline.

Visit here to learn more about Moonsama and what they’re building.

NFTs in the future of on-chain entertainment (Music and Film).

SPEAKERS: Giulia Maresca, Founder/CEO-Public Pressure; Ed Hill, SVP-Beatport; Finn Martin, Founder-Define Creative.

As a broad concept, the future of NFTs in the film and music industry is still developing, heading towards a future where users will be involved in decision making, ownership, and management.

In an interview styled discourse, Ray Salmond from CoinTelegraph sat with the speakers to talk about the role of NFTs in the future of music and movies industry. Ray began with a short speech about the web3 and NFTs narrative, introduced the guests, then the topic.

Throwing his first question to them all, Ray began by asking what they all thought was the most exciting development in web3. Talking about Public Pressure’s partnership with Diesel, Giulia begins by citing how web3 allows creative people thrive, referencing how the partnership provides independent creators a direct connection with their fans through the power of blockchain technology. Buttressing her point, Finn stressed his belief in the value of community, that without the community, nothing at all can be done.

Ray’s second question was on narratives and how they can influence mass (and corporate) adoption. Giulia believes that to achieve mass adoption, more “user-friendly” and less “techy” products will need to be developed. Finn goes on about how Define Creative is simplifying the onboarding process for web2 brands into web3, and how they can grow in and contribute to, the ecosystem. And for Ed, he believes that trust is key, emphasizing how trust in the system can encourage brands to remain in web3.

Answering how brands can build authentic products that appeal to users, Finn highlighted the level of enlightenment in the space right now, and how end users can easily identify and support genuine builders. Using Beat Pro as an instance, Ed believes that community input is key for builders to succeed, as web2 business models cannot work in web3.

On IP rights, branding and revenue sharing, Ray queried how creator’s desires and company’s policies would align for mass adoption. Ed and Giulia talked on how the direct access to their fan base makes it possible for creators to be able to directly own and market their content without hindrances, unlike in web2. Finn goes on to talk about how the tenets of web3 enables these creators to generate revenue by themselves, rather than relying on any web2 platform.

Rounding up, they all shared their thoughts on the extra utilities that music and movies NFTs may have for their holders. These include;

• Access to backstage at events, shows, concerts, etc,
• Share in ownership and decision making,
• Direct connection to their favorite artists and creators,
• Receiving “special drops” from their favorite artists and creators, and so much more.

Other speakers whom we also saw come up to discuss included;

Sumeet Patel; Co-Founder of Exiled Racers, who spoke about the adoption of web3 gaming in a web2 world;

Sergio Mottola; President of Public Pressure, who spoke on the combination of music and gaming for driving web3 adoption;

Nicholas Douzinas; Co-Founder of Ajuna Network, who spoke on tips and tricks to kickstarting a web3 gaming community on Polkadot; and others.

To see a full list of speakers and their topics, download the Polkadot events app and enjoy every video uploaded there.

Takeaway Points.

For mentee builders, this event was an expose of new opportunities and ideas for development using NFTs. Particularly with what the speakers shared, other builders must have gathered several insights as to how they can effectively make use of blockchain technology, even in solving real world problems. Some of the key takeaway points highlighted were;

• Use of NFTs to impact social and environmental change;
• Use of web3 to solve web2 problems and offer solutions;
• Reliability in the Polkadot ecosystem for advanced security and environmental protection (green technology);
• Application of blockchain technology in areas where web2 business models fail users;
• Opportunity for community development and user interaction with web3;
• Wide spectrum of possibilities, all thanks to blockchain technology, and several others.

Summary.

As we’ve learnt now, NFTs usecases exceed PFPs and “quick flips”. From Moonsama influencing nature positively, to Crust solving data privacy and access issues, and others, NFT projects in the Polkadot have continued to push the boundaries of utility from the regular expectations. And as the ecosystem continues to grow, and adoption increases, more usecases will arise, and other builders will lean more towards Polkadot. But for now, builders in the Polkadot ecosystem will continue to build, setting the standard for others to follow.