The Exciting Future for Crypto + ‘Crypto-collectible NFTs’ Gets Closer...

A lot has been happening in the crypto-sphere since our previous posts, which anticipated what we now have, in full swing: a crypto bull market.

 

Here at GrabFreeMoney.com, we’ve been tracking things closely and testing out various platforms for their money-earning opportunities. Cryptocurrency and blockchain happens to offer some of the most interesting returns out there. Luckily, you can swap the points earned with us here, for the major cryptocurrencies - when you have enough saved up. (And, if you sign up you can access the free demo of how it all works.)

 

Major players are starting to hedge into Bitcoin, and this is likely to continue and bring retail buyers back into the space again too. With the value of the dollar set to suffer well into 2021, Bitcoin is (still an early realm) for investors and institutions to retain or increase their wealth. Its diminishing volatility also means it has less interest for traders and speculators. 

 

It would be true to say that Covid-19 has given Bitcoin a boost, although in fact it was brewing up on its own just fine since the big rise of ‘de-fi’ (decentralised finance) this year. 

 

Although this is all good for progress and adoption of de-fi, blockchain, and bitcoin, we need to keep in mind the spectre of government regulation. While this always has the potential to knock prices sideways for a while, the tech itself is pretty unstoppable. Bitcoin is here to stay. It’s more a question as to how governments around the world are going to adapt to Bitcoin (via their own ‘official’ versions of it.) Bitcoin, even limited, will - likely - remain something of a watchdog or alternative for government-controlled versions of money. 

 

But it’s likely that the enforcement and policing of Bitcoin will also improve, or the ability at least to track or ‘freeze’ amounts of stolen cryptocurrency attempting to move out of exchanges. (Although, it should be noted, that greater privacy features for Bitcoin transactions are also evolving.)

 

This isn’t a recommendation to ‘FOMO’ in on bitcoin, but to continue to ‘dollar cost average’ on a regular basis, if this has been your strategy during the bear market. There is always risk, as with everything under the sun.

 

Meanwhile...

 

It’s likely that many ‘altcoin’ projects will grow too, and in this article we need to mention the exciting future for crypto-collectibles or ‘NFTs’, which can be anything from insurance to domain names, but are mostly, creative artworks right now, which can be owned and traded, since they are unique, digital items. 

 

You may have heard that many major game companies are planning to get involved with crypto-collectibles, including (this year) the likes of Microsoft and the massive ‘Minecraft’ game, boosting the trading of interactive game ‘assets’ (and virtual land perhaps) that can now possess global, real value. 

 

Like ‘de-fi’, this has all come about thanks to Ethereum, but it’s likely that trading and marketplaces will accelerate and transfer onto other networks too.

 

Where to invest?

 

There is one marketplace with its own cryptocurrency token that has attracted significant interest here in 2020.

 

Rarible, with its RARI token, rewards levels of engagement on its marketplace, which incentivises the creation, buying and selling of NFT collectibles. 

 

 

The website itself is easy to use and there have been some recent developments, including plans for a stablecoin to be used to trade NFTs. The RARI token will also allow users to participate in direct governance of the platform. 

 

It’s important to note a key feature about NFTs: that since they reside on the blockchain, and are compiled into contracts they can be viewed across any NFT marketplace.

 

What does this mean? It means that items created (or ‘minted’) via Rarible will also be viewable, for example on other marketplaces like Cargo, Opensea or Mintbase. Some allow you to ‘burn’ your own NFTs if you want them erased from a collection, perhaps to increase their rarity. So there are advantages of choosing just one platform for creating NFTs, but using multiple for selling them. And you only need a Metamask or similar web3 wallet to log-in to all.

 

Cargo: also an (earlier) opportunity?

 

 

Cargo have implemented their own tokenomics too, and are a lesser-known, younger (October 2020) but very exciting project also. 

 

They have 2 tokens, Cargo Credits (used for creating or managing your NFTs, and planned governance) and Cargo GEMs (used for staking crypto inside NFTs). These Cargo GEMs allow anybody to basically attach in-built rewards into their NFT collectibles. This ‘NFT staking’ is done via some simple transactions.

 

This means, even if their creations don’t sell, they can still earn rewards from the crypto they’ve ‘staked’ inside their NFTs, unless one sells or is transferred to another user, who automatically inherits this ‘virtual piggy bank’ if you like. A ‘Gem Portal’ gives members an overview of all the NFTs they own or have staked and have earning passive income from GEMs. [An example of one here.]

 

This is all covered in the documentation, which is recommended reading. 

 

There’s a strong case that NFT and ‘crypto-collectibles’ which, despite growing in popularity, have been held down (as with de-fi) by rather clunky websites, high Ethereum fees and slow transaction times this year.  

 

But, as Ethereum 2 takes its time to get going, and wider interoperability and rival networks develop their own marketplaces, this could all change quickly next year. 

 

Indeed, the rise of NFTs - everything from limited edition music to writings, artwork and event tickets - will be significant in 2021 as their trading websites and networks improve in tandem.

 

It’s not too crazy to state what all this means: it means it will be possible to ‘own’ one’s digital content online like never before (including blog posts like this) and in time, every website will adapt to respect and present material for the value it contains, instantly, and also hopefully, directly rewarding their creators for such value, in some way.

 

Hopefully, this post has generated some interest in NFTs as the big opportunity they will continue to be.

 

Stay tuned to this essential GrabFreeMoney.com blog to get our next post featuring latest advice and investment opportunities.

 

Contributed by Ade @ Ade’s Crypto Press
Note: I also make crypto-art NFTs featured on my site, such as one-off ‘inkGEMS’

Nov 2020

 

Disclaimer - Always do your own research too. This is not professional financial advice so you invest at your own risk. There is always risk with early projects. The cryptocurrency market contains speculative and volatile projects so never invest more than you can expect or afford to lose.