INTRODUCTION TO UTILITY NFTs ON NEAR PROTOCOL

What Is An NFT?

NFTs are unique digital assets that have their identifying information recorded on a smart contract. The information on the smart contract is what makes an NFT unique. Fungible assets like Bitcoin can be exchanged, meaning you can send or receive bitcoin without any hitches. Fungible assets are also divisible, allowing you to send smaller amounts. Non-fungible assets are not divisible. For example, you can’t send someone a part of a painting or a ticket.

NFTs are digital certificates of ownership for digital assets. An NFT is a smart contract that is utilized for securing a digital asset. Once written, it is published into a token (ERC-721) on the blockchain. Anything can be turned into an NFT, with the most popular being videos, GIFs, or JPEGs.

NEAR Protocol And NFTs

The NEAR Protocol is the perfect platform for NFTs as it has many advantages over Ethereum. The protocol is significantly faster than Ethereum. Ethereum also has substantially higher gas fees, while NEAR allows transactions to be processed for a negligible fee. These factors make NEAR ideal for buying and selling NFTs.

As mentioned earlier, there are already several NFT projects that have been created on the NEAR blockchain. 

Mintbase

The Mintbase platform allows users to create and sell NEAR NFTs. Users can mint different digital assets as NFTs. These assets could range from event tickets to crypto art and everything in between.

Mintbase allows pretty much anyone with access to the internet to make an NFT and make it available for sale in their NEAR NFR marketplace or on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Minters can create a smart contract and limit the transferability of the tokens minted, helping prevent fraud or the illegal transfer of unique items. Mintbase is focused on creating an NFT creation experience that is unique, which is why, as mentioned earlier, it supports different digital assets. This is contrary to competing platforms that focus on one specific NFT category.

Why Did Mintbase Switch To NEAR?

So why the switch from Ethereum to NEAR? The answer is Gas fees. Ethereum Gas fees had started to become ridiculously expensive. To mint NFTs on Mintbase, a user needs to create a digital store. This involves the user creating a smart contract and pay Ethereum a Gas fee. Initially, the fee was low, and users were able to deploy the store quickly. However, with increasing congestion on the Ethereum network, the fees started to get higher and higher, with store creation costing hundreds of dollars. The cost became so high that Mintbase had to tell its users to wait for Gas prices to drop before deploying a store. Ethereum quickly became untenable to buy, sell or create NFTs.

Mintbase saw NEAR as a better platform compared to Ethereum, with significantly lower Gas fees thanks to a more efficient contract execution model. It also uses Nightshade, a dynamic approach to Sharding. However, there are several other reasons why Mintbase switched to NEAR.

Mintbase saw NEAR as a better platform compared to Ethereum, with significantly lower Gas fees thanks to a more efficient contract execution model. It also uses Nightshade, a dynamic approach to Sharding. However, there are several other reasons why Mintbase switched to NEAR.

•The use of Rust or AssemblyScript for smart contracts on the NEAR platform makes it easy for developers to write code

•NEAR features human-readable addresses for both contracts and accounts

•Developers can onboard users quickly, thanks to NEAR Drops. They can pay for their NEAR accounts and send NEAR tokens

•Developers and users can move assets quickly thanks to the ETH-NEAR Rainbow bridge

•Other DeFi platforms such as Aave and Balancer are also on NEAR, which will make any future integration easy.

Here are some cool utility NFTs on Near 

NPunks

After the tremendous success of Cryptopunks, Solpunks, and Tpunks, NEAR finally have its own version of the project, called Npunks. As with the original Punks project, there are 10,000 unique NPunks with their own rarity traits. The collection will have 9 aliens, 24 apes, 88 zombies, and 111 bots. 

To avoid hoarding and ensure fair participation, everyone has the chance to buy one (or more Npunks). The purchases are made randomly and the identity is kept a mystery until the transaction is deemed complete. Users are free to sell their Npunk in the secondary market post-mint.

NEARNauts

NEARNauts is a community-driven, randomly generated NFT that aims to grow an organic and loyal community around the project. A pool of rare traits ensures verifiable uniqueness. This Verifiable Random Function (VRF) includes three algorithms – generated, proof, and verification. 

•Generated: This produces two pairs of keys – a secret key (SK) and a public key (pk).

•Proof: Takes the SK and message (x) to provide a random output (y) and a proof.

•Verification: The verification algorithm takes pk, x, and y and uses the proof to verify the validity of the output.

NEAR Misfits

NEAR Misfists are NEAR’s first cryptographically complete NFT collection. The MIsfits consists of 1,600 Normie, 150 Zombies, 101 Skellies, 50 Meerkats, and 22 Glitch Misfits.

Back in November 2021, 1,923 Misfit NFTs were sold out in under 36 hours. As of now, you can buy these NFTs on NEAR NFT marketplaces like Paras and Mintbase. 

Conclusion 

NFTs are the another source  to generate passive income on Near protocol. NFTs are the future of investing. With low costs, and the potential for high returns, it is easy to see why many investors are switching to this form of investing. The key to success with NFTs is diversification. Diversifying into multiple NFTs will help to mitigate risk and reduce the impact of any one investment. NFTs are a form of investment that is well suited for passive income. Unlike stocks, which require constant monitoring, NFTs can be purchased and forgotten about. 

Additionally, the low cost of NFTs means that the profits can be reinvested for more growth. While it is true that many NFTs are considered risky, diversifying will help to mitigate risk. Additionally, as the NFT market matures, there will be less volatility and higher potential for return. NFTs are a great way to diversify your portfolio and earn passive income. With low costs and high potential for return, it is easy to see why they are becoming a popular choice for investors.