Minecraft, a best-selling game and worldwide phenomenon, made its debut in the non-fungible token (NFT) business in the last quarter of 2020. Enjin, a blockchain company that offers in-game items, partnered with the Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck to support the trading of Minecraft NFTs. Enjin Coins enabled Minecraft players to use in-game items imported from non-fungible Ethereum tokens.
Enjin played the role of the third party for Minecraft. However, you must know that it was not a partnership with Mojang or Minecraft. Instead, it was a collaboration between Coincheck and Enjin. Moreover, it should bring to your awareness that Minecraft is a customizable game space with different third-party expansions. These developments always enhanced the game’s mechanics and features. So, it is no surprise that the Minecraft community has produced thousands of mods since its release, which included blockchain and NFT-based add-ons.
Mojang Studios announced its ban on NFT integration with Minicraft due to the disintegration of its values. The ban disabled blockchain and NFT products in the game. The ban posed bizarre problems for the Minecraft extensions based on NFT, especially NFT world.
The ban announced in July 2022 shook up the NFT world. Following Mojang’s announcement that NFT integrations would be banned, NFT Worlds’ stock went down to less than a third of its original price. Let’s further learn about Minecraft, the reasons behind the ban on Minecraft game, and the possibilities of unbanning.
What Is Minecraft?
Minecraft is a game where players place blocks and embark upon adventures. The game allows players to craft simple items like containers or weapons, build structures like houses, castles, and cities, or even make complex mechanical devices, all within the game’s world. You may compare it to an endless world of complex LEGOs that allows players to imagine, design, and create anything they imagine or dream of.
Over time, the game has become more complex, considering its add-on features and techniques. Mojang created Minecraft in 2009 and is the brainchild of Markus “Notch” Persson. The game resulted from inspirations such as Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Infiniminer, but it takes the free-form, sandbox gameplay seen in those titles to new heights.
It was the company’s first official game and has become the best-selling game of all time, with almost 2 million copies. However, Microsoft owns this game and purchased it for $2.5 billion.
How Did NFT World And Minecraft Work Together?
NFT Worlds didn’t precisely play the role of moderator. You may better describe it as an extension of Minecraft’s existing mechanics allowing blockchain integration and NFT trading. More specifically, the project produced 10,000 different Minecraft worlds, each being an NFT that can be built upon and customized.
The NFT Worlds team built an NFT space within and around Minecraft because of the game’s easily accessible and highly customizable features. The NFT community appreciated the team’s innovation since the Minecraft NFT opened many possibilities for traders. For your ease of understanding, let’s share how exactly NFT and Minecraft worked together.
Which Ecosystem Did Minecraft Use?
Synex Coin added Solana blockchain support to Minecraft, which allowed the game to utilize custom blockchain-based economies and play-to-earn servers. Synex Coin allowed servers to make blockchain-based economies, reward players for their time, and let the Minecraft community purchase ranks on a low-cost, eco-friendly blockchain.
MCR Token
The MineCrypto Token is Minecraft NFT’s governance and utility token. Players used it to:
- Purchase of battle passes and ranks
- Upgrade ranks
- Stake for game rewards
- Trading on the marketplace
- And many more coming in the future
Players could simply earn tokens by playing Minecraft. Players only had to get their crypto wallet address in-game via a command and receive tokens directly in the wallets.
Tokenomics Of Minecraft NFT
Below is the Tokenomics of Minecraft NFT before Mojang banned it:
- Rewards | 55%
- Marketing | 10%
- Ecosystem | 9%
- Team | 9%
- Development | 7%
- Sale | 6%
- Treasury | 3%
- Advisors | 1%
Migrating the NFT Space from Minecraft
The disintegration of blockchain with Minecraft was terrible news for the NFT world. Mojang announced a ban because the NFTs shifted the game’s focus from playing to earning profits. Minecraft represented an attractive potential market for NFTs, with a user base estimated at more than 141 million by August 2021; already engaged in sharing unique digital items developed for the game.
Mojang Studios and Minecraft laid out a few reasons why they are against NFTs. They clarified that fake scarcity plays a significant part in it. NFTs are digital assets stored on a blockchain. A unique token is minted and connected to a media file to declare ownership of that piece which has turned NFTs into speculative investments.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates negated NFTs as “100% based on greater fool theory.” The statement hinted that an overvaluation asset could be inflated in price if a “greater fool” is willing to pay for it. Prices for the project’s NFTs plummeted 70% following the ban announcement, though the project’s developers say they won’t be abandoning the community.
Is Minecraft An Ultimate Metaverse Teaching Platform?
Web3 metaverse platforms focus on “x-to-earn” tokenomics, making them lack flexibility beyond just social entertainment and utilizing the platform for other purposes. Minecraft had around 93 million players in 2021, making it one of the biggest actively played games, with most players being about ten years of age.
Minecraft has an education edition, which is an addition to the original game built for classroom engagement and learning. This edition allows teachers to simulate scenarios and locations, showcase historical events in the 3D world and teach kids about it with active interaction.
Metaverse has the potential to support the idea of Minecraft offering an educational purpose on its platform. It will enable players to expand the platform beyond just a commercial shopping land into a world where users can decide if they want to create, explore, or just socialise with each other.
Final Thoughts
Minecraft is not the first significant game in the industry to take a stand against NFTs. Steam the world’s largest gaming platform banned the use of blockchain games and NFTs on its platform on October 15, 2021. Other mainstream industry leaders continue experimenting with the idea instead of rejecting it. The Epic Games Store is slowly greenlighting a few web3 games, and Square Enix announced a line of Final Fantasy NFTs. So the war isn’t over yet.
However, Minecraft making a stand is an enormous deal and should alter the course of what people see the metaverse becoming. Minecraft mentioned how NFTs are in disarray with the primary purpose and values of gaming. I believe there are so many fraudulent activities going on, which create a harmful impact on decent players. Hence the NFT world must focus on rectifying the problem so the gaming industry can also be benefitted from Web3 technology.
