Almost as soon as they burst onto the scene with CryptoKitties back in 2017, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been hailed as the future of digital collectibles.
With their innate scarcity and the ability to represent just about anything digitally, NFTs have a lot of potential for a wide variety of applications. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a boom in their popularity over the past few years, with more and more people becoming interested in collecting and trading them.
In fact, NFTs became so popular last year that the market surpassed $40 billion. However, the volume has dropped significantly in recent months as the overall market sentiment has cooled off.
But even though the hype around NFTs has died down a bit, there are still a lot of people who are excited about their potential. And one area that seems to be particularly promising is the use of NFTs in a social media context.
What are SNFTs (social NFTs)?
The term “social NFT/SNFT” is used to describe a type of NFT that is connected to a social media platform in some way. This means that the owner of the SNFT will have access to the social media account that it represents, allowing them to take control of the account and use it however they want.
For example, if you purchase an SNFT that is connected to a Twitter account, you will be able to tweet from that account and view the account’s followers just as if you were using your own personal Twitter account.
The main difference is that, since the SNFT is stored on the blockchain, it can be traded or sold just like any other NFT. This makes SNFTs a unique and interesting new way to monetize social media accounts and the digital assets that they represent.
How do SNFTs work?
Currently, Smashverse, an upcoming blockchain-based battle royale game, will be the first and only platform to utilize SNFT technology in this way. In the game, players can purchase SNFTs that represent playable characters, otherwise known as “Titans”, which they can use to battle against each other.
However, rather than being stored on the game’s servers, the Titans are stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
As a result, Titan SNFTs can be ported to other games (or even other metaverses), which means that they could potentially become a valuable commodity in the gaming world.
Of course, as with any other NFT, they can also be bought, sold, or traded on secondary markets, allowing players to monetize their in-game progress. But here is where it gets interesting.
Smashverse automatically connects each of the Titan SNFTs to its very own Twitter account,
thus allowing the SNFT owner to create and build the digital brand of their Titan. So, if you’re good at promoting your Titan and are able to gain a large following, you could potentially earn a healthy profit.
Managing your SNFTs
In most cases, it is likely that SNFTs must be accessed through a proprietary platform that has in-built wallet integration so that you can easily manage your SNFTs.
For example, in order to access SNFTs on Smashverse, you must first authenticate yourself using your wallet before you will be given access to core Twitter features such as Tweeting and commenting from the portal.
Image Source: Smashverse
How are SNFTs traded?
The good news is that SNFTs can be traded just like any other NFT, which means that they can be bought and sold on a variety of different exchanges. Since you must hold the SNFT in your wallet to access the social media portals, they will benefit from the same trustlessness, security, and immutability that are characteristic of other NFTs.
As the technology grows and becomes more widely adopted, it’s likely that we will see more platforms emerge that allow users to buy, sell, and trade SNFTs exclusively. For now, however, Smashverse appears to be leading the way in this space.
A new way to express digital identity
Overall, NFTs have become a critical part of expressing digital identity. SNFTs further develop this notion by giving NFTs their own existence on social platforms. It’s a way of building an even stronger connection with your NFT, and also allows you to interact with other like-minded NFT collectors.
While the technology is still in its infancy, it’s clear to see the potential SNFTs have, and not just in the gaming world. We could easily see SNFTs being used to represent all sorts of digital assets in the future, from social media accounts to blog posts and even digital art.
Adding value to NFTs in such as way has never been done before, and it will be extremely interesting to see how the Web3 industry takes to this novel concept. In the meantime, we’ll just have to wait and see if SNFTs prove to be a success for Smashverse and whether or not other platforms decide to follow suit.
