Introduction

With the increasing prevalence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in blockchain gaming projects, new platforms have also emerged to become enablers for developers in the space.

Altura is one of these protocols, seeking to revolutionize NFT-powered gaming through smart contracts and Smart NFTs. The protocol has listed its native token, ALU, on PancakeSwap, and currently has a fully diluted market cap of ~USD32m. 

How NFTs are transforming gaming

Conventionally, in-game items that players earn and collect within games are owned by the game studios and do not reflect true ownership.

For example, in a game such as FIFA (football simulation), while players can purchase credits to acquire in-game items such as player cards, these items cannot be traded outside the platform and can ultimately be altered, revoked, and even deleted by game developers without the control of players. 

The use of NFTs in gaming has transformed this dynamic — developers are now able to create in-game items as NFTs which then enables true ownership of these in-game items.

Gamers who acquire these NFTs are able to utilize them as owned property, and can also trade these items freely on marketplaces and with other users.

It is important to note that these NFTs exist on the blockchain (as tokens) and do not exist purely ‘in-game’, even if their tangible use case is in a particular gaming project (i.e. the NFT / item will exist independently of the gaming protocol). 

This has been the key differentiation between conventional games and newly-developed blockchain games, which have utilized NFTs as basic units of intellectual property ownership.

For example, on the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, all Axies, items, and land are NFTs which can be freely acquired and owned by users, who are free to deploy them in-game (as playable / utility assets), or not (users can own these assets for capital appreciation, or even pure collection).  

Altura: An end-to-end platform focused on enabling NFTs in gaming

Altura is an NFT gaming enabler currently built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), providing a smart contract platform which allows developers to mint, distribute, and transact NFTs which represent in-game items.

Altura has already launched an open marketplace which is focused on gaming NFT items, although non-gaming NFT items can be listed on the platform as collections as well.

Smart NFTs – introducing dynamic attributes to NFTs

The team is also developing a system of Smart NFTs which have dynamic properties. Currently, the majority of NFTs represent static items which do not have the potential for dynamic changes and transformations.

Altura seeks to change this by creating Smart NFTs that are capable of possessing properties which can change based on certain conditions, such as an in-game sword that becomes more powerful every time a monster is slayed.

Altura seeks to enable cross-platform operability of its Smart NFTs, which means that users can utilize the same Smart NFT between different games while retaining their value, but with different configurations depending on the game. 

Furthermore, Smart NFTs will also enable developers to create Loot Boxes with NFT blueprints, where configurations allow new NFTs to be created when gamers open Loot Boxes as purchases or in-game rewards. Altura will integrate Chainlink VRF to achieve transparency and unbiasedness in determining the contents of on-chain loot boxes.

Why is Altura notable?

Altura gained attention after prominent NFT influencer and crypto-gaming personality Alex Becker tweeted about the platform, stating that Smart NFTs are going to become the ‘backbone of gaming NFTs and marketplaces that are launching’. 

While Altura continues to build on BSC, it has already secured partnerships with high-growth gaming and NFT protocols such as Wizard, Rune, and Cryptoblades in its initial phase of development.

While NFTs in gaming continues to be at an early phase of adoption, Altura has the potential to become the platform of choice for gaming developers who are looking to build towards Web 3.0 gaming. 

Featured Image Credit: Market Realist

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