Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) & Architecture.

The future of architecture in metaverse

What are NFTs?

NFT is a virtual certificate of authenticity based on blockchain technology that certifies a digital file’s origin and ownership. It can represent any digital asset, image, video, music etc. Well, anyone can download the NFT file especially when it is online and available to everyone, right? Ownership and copyright. In traditional ways, we don’t know which pictures are real. Is it stolen art? So, NFTs helps an artist to prove the originality of their creations and protect their own copyright. As an example, the Mona Lisa painting where we know that there is only one piece available in the world. If we were to replicate the painting by printing it out and hanging it in a frame, we would immediately know that it isn’t the original piece. The same principle goes to NFTs however, with this technology we would instantly have authentic ownership of it via a cryptic wallet address that only the owner will have.

So what are the utilities of NFTs?

There are a variety of NFTs available in the market. Some have little to no utilities and are there as an aesthetic piece. Whereas, most artists provide utilities for their holders/buyers such as rarity traits; for reselling at higher prices, future metaverse access and sometimes giveaways. As a whole, the most important factor and utitility of NFTs are the community. With an active and supportive community, they play a huge role in defining the future of the project. Ranging from educational purposes in sharing certain skills and also supporting smaller NFT projects with a similar goals in mind. With that, the project community can grow larger and diversify in different aspects. For example; a member of the community may have a skillset in coding, thus they can provide the project with a more cohesive website. or a game developer can add their knowledge into the project for future developments in a gaming platform for said NFT project. Again, the possibilities are endless.

What roles can Architects play in the future of NFTs?

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The metaverse is a whole different topic under NFTs. Metaverse as of now is very similar to a virtual game world. It takes the NFTs to a limitless level above. For example, I purchased a character-based NFT such as the above (Kidzen City), ‘Kidzen’ can create a whole virtual world based on their NFTs, only accessed for the owners/holders of their collection. This world/metaverse can become a virtual hub where the owners of Kidzen NFTs can develop and build their city with various perks such as virtual housing, pets and activities just to name a few. The metaverse is limited in functions as of now due to technological limitations but with the rise and awareness from companies such as Facebook and Reddit, the possibilities are endless when incorporating the data and resources that these social media giants have in providing a concrete platform of where the metaverses can be held.

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Where Architects fits perfectly are in the gap of making these worlds possible. The metaverse can benefit greatly in the layout and designs from Architects, Town Planners and Artists to create a cohesive and stylised virtual world. These are some of the works from this amazing project that I came across, and they were developed by a UiTM architecture students called ‘Bandar Krypto’. As stated in their project name, they have a goal in preserving these iconic architectural buildings in Malaysia in a metaverse world. These buildings will have a future use as an art gallery event venue to showcase featured NFTs, hold virtual music concerts and a place to ‘borak kopi and lepak’ . This is just a slice of what we can expect for the future in digital arts and technology .

Thats all from me but do check out the video from ‘Bandar Krypto’ below , and if anyone want to ‘sembang sembang’ more also can, no problemo! – Zaim