Since then, the booming trend of non-fungible tokens has emerged, this trend has been picked up and implemented by numerous mainstream NFT game developers. Such an NFT or digital object (with ownership) should not be copyable and may be, but is not limited to, a film, a piece of music, a work of art, or digital content for a video game.
In short, NFTs are digital "assets" of a special kind that can be bought and sold in specific markets, like real estate, but have no tangible form.
NFTs are generally described as certificates of ownership of specific digital objects to which they are linked – digital objects made into unique and non-replicable files by the blockchain, a system of control managed by thousands of computer terminals. Cryptocurrencies work in the same way.
From the concept of gambling to making money
The concept of combining gaming with making money is not new when it comes to gaming in general. Although the blockchain industry has made it much fairer by increasing the profitability of items earned through gaming.
Playing these blockchain-based games allows players to earn NFTs. These can be used while playing and allow to participate in various game development decisions.
This new trend of NFTs in gambling, which cannot be related to gaming such as online slots, has received mixed reactions from both players and developers. Just like Rollbit NFTs.
Why are NFTs controversial in gambling? What criticism is there?
In principle, the benefits and the basic idea of NFTs sound very positive, but there is also some criticism of them. The three main arguments are as follows:
- NFTs are detrimental to the buyer as they have essentially no value.
- NFTs harm the environment by using blockchain technology.
- NFTs also hurt the seller when you look at it over the long term.
The artistic value of NFTs is low
In particular, a discussion that has arisen between experts and art critics concerns the reasons why, in many cases, the artistic value of NFT is little or non-existent, despite the exorbitant sums for which they are sold.
As an example of this dynamic, the recent interest in certain collection items (files) that have not had the commercial value achieved in recent months for a long time is cited. Such is the case with “Kryptopunk”, an NFT project started years ago consisting of 10,000 images in avatar format very similar to the graphic files widely used on the internet and PCs in the 2000s.
These images, which aren't exactly digital works of art, have even garnered attention from auction houses like Christie's. This attention from NFTs associated with digital artworks came as investors were willing to pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for “cryptopunk” collections.
What further influence NFTs will have on the development of online casinos and whether this technology has a future in gaming remains to be seen in the near future.
Evolution Gaming: The NFT Megaways Slot with Cryptopunks
The large and well-known provider of casino games Evolution Gaming presented the world's first slot machine with NFTs in September 2021.
NFT Megaways is a slot developed by subsidiary Red Tiger. To do this, Evolution Gaming has purchased four different NFTs from Larva Labs' CryptoPunks collection, items 914, 3008, 4701 and 8143.
CryptoPunks are among the first variants of digital NFT collecting art.
NFT Megaways is a six-reel, seven-row slot designed in a colorful pixel world in the style of CryptoPunks NFTs.
The CryptoPunks appear here as wild symbols that can substitute for all winning symbols. All four CryptoPunks can collect winning symbols and thus start a multiplier that can bring wins up to 30 times. Megaways slot machines have up to 200,704 ways to win.
Evolution Gaming has clearly jumped on a trend with the NFT Megaways while also demonstrating how NFTs can be deployed or used post-purchase.
With the purchase, the rights of use or copyrights are often transferred to the owner, verifiable by the blockchain technology. In this case, that is the Ethereum blockchain. CryptoPunks was the first Ethereum NFT project.
The Atari Casino in the Metaverse
Atari is known to most people as a manufacturer of computer games in the 70s and 80s. The company was able to land big hits with titles like Pong, Pac Man or Centipede. Atari now employs its own blockchain boss, Manfred Mantschev, who collects NFTs himself and sees Atari's future closely linked to NFTs.
The company owns "virtual land" in the Metaverse worlds Decentraland and The Sandbox.
In 2022, Atari will be celebrating the company's 50th anniversary. After Atari has already founded a casino in Decentraland, among other places, the company wants to start its own Metaverse project in 2022.
There is already the Atari Chain with the Atari Token, a cryptocurrency that is intended to be used for stakes and purchases in the Atari Casino.
Users can design their own avatar and also purchase virtual outfits as NFTs. Other virtual items and apartments are also available for Atari tokens.
The Metaverse project is said to contain a large, open world of which the Atari Casino is only a part. There, players can use and win Atari Tokens in gambling and skill games.
Online Casino NFTs: More DeFi Gambling Projects
Decentralized Finance or simply DeFi is one of the most important and interesting aspects of cryptocurrencies. This allows transactions and transactions to be carried out without central institutions such as banks.
DeFi games and gambling are a new and rapidly growing area of application. These are games or game-like applications that use cryptocurrency as an integral part.
Users can earn cryptocurrency by playing according to the play-to-earn model. NFTs can play a cosmetic role here, for example affecting the character's appearance.
However, they can also give users the chance to win a share of the profits and include other benefits, similar to a VIP membership in a conventional online casino.
Popular DeFi games include Axie Infinity, Decentraland Casino, The Sandbox, Alien World, MyDeFiPet and CryptoBlades. Among the numerous possible types of games there are also casino games and games of chance. We give an overview of interesting online casino NFT projects.
Discussions about the prospects for NFTs and the significant environmental impact of the blockchain technology on which they depend are becoming more frequent. More and more critical debates are taking place about the aesthetic value of what is commonly defined as “digital artwork”. The primary concern is to what extent some of their commercial value derives from that aesthetic value or from something else.