How AR Technology Empowers the NFT Space
Every day, exciting new possibilities are opening up in the NFT space. Off late, it’s been AR or Augmented Reality that has recently taken the NFT world by storm. Developing NFTs and digital assets based on blockchain technology has been incredibly beneficial for artists and creators, but AR takes it even further. And today, several creators are tapping into the potential of AR to make their NFTs even more amazing.
To truly understand how AR has been revolutionizing the NFT space, we need to first look at how NFTs themselves are beneficial for the creator community.
Digital assets: Empowering the Creator Community
For the uninitiated, an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a type of digital token that serves as a unique proof of ownership for a digital asset. Essentially, NFTs are digital copies of physical collector’s items, and no two NFTs are alike. For the creator community, NFTs have been beneficial in two primary ways.
For starters, NFTs allow creators to define scarcity. The scarcity of NFTs enabled in conjunction with blockchain technology makes digital assets more valuable. Additionally, NFTs also allow creators to prove the authorship and provenance of their digital assets and resell them without relying on a third party.
Essentially, this gives creators a new way to generate income, as they will be able to earn royalties through each sale and resale and take advantage of the inherently volatile nature of the crypto market.
Augmented Reality in NFTs
The concept of Augmented Reality describes a way of digitally augmenting the reality around a person when they look at it through sunglasses, phones, or other digital viewing devices. Through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other stimuli, AR provides an enhanced experience of the physical world. The most common types of AR-enabled NFTs include live filters of digital art NFTs, face filter NFTs, 3D product NFTs, Fashion NFTs, etc.
As opposed to regular NFTs, which are mostly representations of art, images, videos, etc., AR NFTs include Augmented Reality elements and cues, such as the ability to visualize digital objects in your environment. Hence, creators can use this functionality to provide additional depth and context to their digital assets. As a result of AR, an NFT can now be enhanced with 3D augmentations, sounds, and other virtual components that interact with the environment around them.
Why Does AR Matter in the NFT Space?
Similar to how NFTs add value to completely virtual objects, AR can add value to NFTs as well. By being able to value digital artwork, one can value the utility that can be offered by an Augmented Reality asset or experience.
AR NFTs also have the potential to generate new revenue streams for artists, auctioneers, and commerce retailers. Shawn Mendes, for example, recently issued NFTs of some of his most well-known accessories, like his vest, earrings, gold ring, and so on, which fans could use on their digital avatars. Furthermore, AR NFTs allow artists and creators to interact directly with their fans without the need for intermediaries.
AR-powered NFT solutions also add a new dimension of engagement to the consumer NFT experience, for instance, by bringing NFTs to life in a personalized way through virtual try-on capabilities. With this solution, brands will be able to transform and digitize their assets across multiple categories. This also provides brands with simple and time-efficient product digitization and NFT creation processes.
Using the underlying blockchain, NFTs can turn Augmented Reality content and experiences into verifiable assets that are easy to buy, sell, and access. Consumers will be able to access customized AR experiences as a result, and artists will also be fairly rewarded. Wearables NFTs are another key trend that will emerge within the space and are bound to allow consumers to express themselves and enrich their digital personas in an exciting new way as we begin to connect with the digital world of the Metaverse.
StraightFire: Taking the AR NFT Space to New Heights
With several exciting trends like these driving the NFT space, a slew of new platforms offering rich functionalities and features on NFTs have also emerged. StraightFire is one such platform that has introduced the world’s first-ever NFT Social dApp, which allows users to view and share their NFTs in one place. Users can experience NFTs on their smartphone in front of any location they’d like — the Eiffel Tower, Printworks London perhaps, or just their home. In short — they can construct high-quality prints or holograms and feel them in real life.
The NFT Lab, one of the most striking features of the NFT dApp, provides a variety of AR lenses, filters, and music shorts that users can apply to their favorite NFTs when creating NFT Stories.
Straight Fire’s TGE (Token Generation Event) is slated for end 2Q/ beginning 3Q 2022. Some of the other standout features of Straight Fire:
- Minimal gas fees when on minting NFT stories, often less than $10 and reaching as low as $0.02.
- Custom-made and pre-made filters that are dynamic and unique in all possible ways.
- The ability to share NFT stories that give users the chance to earn rewards via Straight Fire’s share-to-earn model, in the form of the native $SFIRE token, NFTs, or unique filters.
To learn more about StraightFire and to follow the development closely, click here.
