Blockcast.cc: NFT is a much talked the topic right now in the crypto space. We have a guest today and we will talk about that. Hi Sheng Chao, please introduce yourself.
Sheng Chao: My name is Sheng Chao, the founder of iNFT. From 2007-2015, I have been working in the e-commerce field, starting a business. After 3 years, I founded Jiaguan Home Furnishing brand, and opened flagship stores on Taobao, Tmall, JD, Suning and other famous online platforms, all being among the top ten in the industry by transaction volume. From 2015 to 2018, I served as the regional head of Meituan Dianping. I have been rewarded many times by the business department. I am also been an outstanding lecturer of BU and a certified lecturer of BG. Entered the blockchain in 2018, I served as an executive in the public chain and exchanges and is an early NFT player.
Blockcast.cc: What is NFT? What are your views on the current NFT industry?
Sheng Chao: There are only 2 types of tokens in the blockchain field, one is FT, fungible token, and the other is NFT, non-fungible token.
Common tokens (such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) are fungible token, using ERC20 and QRC20 as the basic standards. There is no difference between each token, and tokens can be exchanged and segmented. The characteristics of FT make it can be used to represent various substitutable things in the real world, such as currency, points, stocks, etc. These things need to be segmented and then exchanged between users.
The important feature of NFT is that each NFT has a unique identification and cannot be segmented (1 is the min unit). Popular NFTs are Crypto Kitty, tokenized digital tickets, etc.
If FT is regarded as a currency concept that circulates in the market, NFT is the concept of goods. In theory, all that is inseparable is NFT.
The current NFT market is still in a very early stage, especially the Chinese market. If the overseas market enters the 10th stage, the Chinese market is only in stage 2. I believe that the Chinese market will catch up and create a big project.
Blockcast.cc: What are the possible adoptions on NFT? Is NFT only used on digital artworks or can it also be applied to other digital assets? (eg. Game asset, Finance NFT and more)
Sheng Chao: The current use cases of NFT are mainly concentrated in collectibles, artworks, games, and virtual worlds, but other fields such as sports, fashion, and real-world assets are also developing steadily. An interesting tweet from virtual land investor Dclblogger lists about 25 industries disrupted by NFT.
1. Collectibles
Collectibles is currently one of the most popular applications of NFT. CryptoPunks was launched in June 2017. It is one of the earliest collectible NFTs on Ethereum and has sold for thousands of dollars. Since its launch in November 2017, CryptoKitties is still one of the most famous collectibles use cases, and the total historical sales of virtual cats have reached more than 38 million U.S. dollars.
As NFT is used to create tokenized versions of star athletes and celebrities for fans to collect, this application continues to flourish. Sorare, a soccer game, allows players to collect “limited edition digital collectibles” of their favourite athletes from 100 football clubs.
As early as the NFT NYC in February 2020, members of the NFL and NBA expressed their interest in technical cooperation with the NFT. Later, in cooperation with the NBA, Dapper Labs, the creator of CryptoKitties, has launched the token-driven NBA TopShot.
Terra Virtua has launched a character-based 3D animated creature series called “vFlects”, as well as 2D and 3D authorized collections from “The Godfather”, “High Aspirations”, “Sunset Boulevard” and “Lost Space”. They provide an interactive market for a series of unique authorized digital collections, and also launched an ecosystem through their art gallery app and Terra Virtua Fancave to create a cross-platform display tour. The art gallery application allows owners to store, display, interact and show off their unique digital art collections. Terra Virtua Fancave is a personalized and customizable VR environment where users can display their collections.
2. Games
Game players are the perfect target market for NFT because they are already familiar with the concept of virtual worlds and currencies. NFTs are thriving in the gaming industry because they allow the items in the game to be tokenized and easily conduct peer-to-peer transactions or transfer or trade in the market. This is completely different from traditional games where in-game items such as rare weapons and skins are prohibited from being sold or transferred. NFT also makes the gaming experience more specific and valuable because players have real ownership of their digital assets. They also created a new economy, because players now have the possibility to make money by building and developing their in-game assets.
There are three popular blockchain games, namely “Axie Infinity”, “Gods Unchained” and “My Crypto Heroes”.
Axie Infinity is a digital pet community centered on collecting, training and feeding a fantasy creature named Axie. The game is built on the Ethereum blockchain and is the first game on the blockchain featuring animated characters and immersive gameplay.
Gods Unchained is a digital collectible card game. The cards in the game are issued in the form of NFT. Players can own and trade these cards.
My Crypto Heroes is a Japanese-style multiplayer role-playing battle game. The game uses heroes and in-game items as tokens to be issued on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can raise the level of heroes through tasks and fighting.
Cryptopick is another example of users earning rewards in the game. Players can learn encryption knowledge by playing games without taking any financial risks. More importantly, they can earn their first cryptocurrency (ETH) and NFT, which means they will learn to own a wallet, conduct transactions, etc., making the game an attractive way for many people to join the crypto field.
Art
One of the biggest challenges for digital artists is to protect their works from copyright infringement. NFT is a solution because it provides proof of ownership, authenticity, and solves the problem of piracy. An article from Coindesk pointed out that due to the forced closure of museums and galleries during epidemic, many artists have turned to NFT and online exhibition halls.
The first record of NFT art auction prices was refreshed in July, when “Picasso’s Bull” was purchased for more than US$55,000. Subsequently, the highest transaction price record was repeatedly refreshed. For example, “Right Place & Right Time” was sold at a price of more than 100,000 U.S. dollars, and “Portraits of a Mind” more than 130,000 U.S. dollars.
Use cases for platforms and markets for digital art include SuperRare, Makersplace, and Rarible. These platforms and markets have similar operation, allowing users to easily create original digital artworks and sell them on their markets.
Virtual world
Another use case for NFT is the virtual world. Decentralized virtual reality platforms such as Decentraland, The Sandbox, and Cryptovoxels allow users to create, own, and tokenize virtual land and other NFT projects in games.
LAND in Decentraland is permanently owned by the community and allows players to fully control their creations and virtual assets.
Assets and files in the real world
NFT can tokenize real-world assets such as real estate, stocks or qualification, licenses, medical records, birth certificates, and death certificates. However, this is still in its early stages, and its use cases are relatively rare. But with the continuous development and growth of the crypto world and NFT, who can say that you will not one day own a vineyard in another country thousands of miles away? Your digital wallet may soon contain proof of every certificate, license, and asset you have.
Blockcast.cc: Tell us something about iNFT? And what is the main objective of your project?
Sheng Chao: iNFT is the world’s leading NFT asset trading platform, which can forge, collect, auction, and trade various digital collectibles. iNFT supports Ethereum’s ERC721 and ERC1155 asset protocols, based on the underlying development of Ethereum, and adopts a decentralized transaction matching method to make NFT asset transactions more secure, open and transparent.
The main businesses of iNFT currently include:
• Provide P2P NFT transactions. Sellers sell NFT assets on the platform and give them a fixed price. Buyers pay the price and get the NFT asset;
• Provide British auction: the price is called higher and higher, and after 3 strike, the deal is made;
• Provide Dutch auction: the price is reduced when reaching the specified time, and the deal is completed at the time;
• Provide OTC transactions. Sellers and buyers can conduct transactions between theri two parties through the platform and actively complete the transaction;
• NFT casting. We will launch Ethereum’s casting solution first, and later connect the asset issuance of other public chains;
• NFT blind box. We will create a blind box center, which is convenient for users and projects to launch blind boxes on the platform.
In the future, we will also support the NFT assets of mainstream public chains such as EOS, Polkadot, TRON, bsc, and heco, and provide more tools to assist eco-development.
Vision:
We are committed to building the world’s greatest NFT asset trading platform, empowering the entire digital asset through blockchain technology and concepts. By combining mobile terminal, PC terminal, Web terminal and other terminal products to enhance the transaction experience for users, we want to develop and create a safe, efficient and valuable transaction eco network.
Blockcast.cc: What differentiates iNFT from other NFT platforms? What’s your strength?
Sheng Chao: At present, the NFT trading platform is mainly overseas, and the English interface is not friendly for non-English users. Not only is the process complicated, the transaction threshold is also relatively high, requiring users to be highly professional. In this context, iNFT is born.
Before the iNFT project was established, we were positioned as globalization to provide users around the world with products that adapt to their cultures and usage habits. iNFT will respectively launch localized products and UI design for users in the East and the West.
At the same time, iNFT has improved the gameplay. We will start the zero-cost casting, low transaction fees, and make NFT assets more flexible. There are also one-to-one transactions, Dutch auctions, and English auctions.
For brand building, we will cooperate with well-known KOLs and well-known creator IPs to jointly launch various NFT products.
At present, we are developing dynamic NFT casting, the first in the market. It not only infinitely magnify the cost of fraud but also make the NFT unrepeatable.
Blockcast.cc: How individual investors like us can benefit from it?
Sheng Chao: Let me walk you through.
• You can participate in the construction of the iNFT platform. In the later stage, inft will adopt a voting system and make subsequent product plans based on users’ votes.
• The mid-to-later economic model adopts the mining mechanism of trading NFT, similar to Rarible. Users can enjoy the platform’s incentive policy after trading NFT on the platform. In addition, we also think about distribute incentives tokens when casting assets, or incentive any effective actions that have an effect on the platform.
• The official nft card will be issued in the plan, which is a synthetic asset. For example, users who hold 1,000 tokens can generate an advance card (DID), and users who hold cards can enjoy the share of handling fees and other incomes.
• We expect to conduct IDO in May, and users can participate in it early.
• With tokens/official cards, you can enjoy various rights and interests brought by different gameplay on the platform, such as deduction of handling fees, reduction of casting costs, and pre-subscription of INO project.
Blockcast.cc: Did you invested in NFT personally? If yes what is the reasons behind it? If not what is the reason behind it?
Sheng Chao: I think the investment of NFT should come from true love and appreciation, not for speculation.
I prefer NFT assets such as cards, games, and virtual worlds. Such NFT assets are more understandable, and the ip behind them is famous and popular.
When we get a star card of James from the blind box in NBATOPSHOT at a very low cost, I think it’s the moment of getting the precious card that thrills us most, not the large profit margin.
I am not good at art, so I never invest in art. I suggest it’s best to invest in what you understand and like.
Blockcast.cc: What is the possible next hot concept in NFT?
Sheng Chao: NFT is a big concept. If art is the first that jumps out, I think that the card is the next that may be implemented and hyped on a large scale.
The virtual world of game cards, because of its entertainment attribute and user base, will be applied largely.
The outbreak of finance NFT: NFT-based hash rate tokens and uniswap’s LPs. With open and fair prices, users can better accept NFT.
Blockcast.cc: What are the main criteria you are looking for on a project? How you make up your investment decisions?
Sheng Chao: Usually, asset IP, team composition and product display are the main factors that determine whether the project is invest-able.
Also the choice of track is very important, the larger the track, the larger the size and scale of the users carried, the greater the market value.
Sometimes, projects focus on different sides, user-oriented or asset-oriented.
Blockcast.cc: Can you provide a quote or what you believe in for the readers?Â
Sheng Chao: Sure.
“NFT is a solid proof of the authenticity and ownership of digital assets.”
Blockcast.cc: Thanks Sheng Chao for sharing with us today. This is Jenny Zheng, Cofounder of Blockcast.cc signing off.Â
To read more about our interviews sessions, visit us at www.blockcast.cc.
