Microsoft Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Revival Shakes Crypto Market
High profile multinationals have been very keen on adopting the blockchain technology in the recent years. Harnessing the potential of the technology is no doubt the future and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are likely to transform the gaming and entertainment industry.
Amplified by CryptoKitties in 2017, NFTs has attracted the interest of developers and crypto enthusiasts as well. Multinationals are already developing various NFTs backed projects and Azure, a Microsoft cloud based outfit have developed “Azure Heroes”, a Non Fungible Token project that will reward its developer community.
What is Azure Heroes? 
Simply put, Azure Heroes is a platform that Microsoft is set to use to reward technical individuals from different backgrounds. It is an inspirational tool aimed at empowering the community to become part of the project through learning, coaching and building the platform.
Through the Ethereum ecosystem, the project intends to issue and transact the “Badger” collectables which can be held as NFTs. Azure has partnered with Enjin, a major player in the video gaming industry. The partnership will make a strong use case for the NTFs.
As a developer, to earn Badgers, you have to nominate yourself or get nominated by the community. Once nominates, you will be vetted by the community moderators depending on your performance before you receive the Badger. Once you win, you receive a QR code that you use to redeem your Badger through an Enjin wallet or any other Ethereum address compatible with NTFs.
NFTs Growth and Popularity
The demand for fungible items is on the rise where users can interchange items of the same value. In a fungible economy, you can mutually agree to interchange items. Simply put, NFTs are unique digital assets whose history can be traced through the blockchain technology.
With NFTs, you can interchange ownership of any digitalized asset. However, its use cases have been successful in the gaming sector. It is very easy to purchase in-game items virtually and treating them as tangible or real world assets.
Adoption of these Non Fungible Tokens has been on the rise and the gaming community reception of the concept appears to keep growing. For example, Gods Unchained has been a hit throughout 2019. This is a game created by Immutable, an Australian startup ad rides on the Ethereum ecosystem.
Apart from Microsoft’ Azure, other players trading in NFTs collectables include OpenBazaar, RareBits and OPenSea. However, according to the CryptoAssets Institute director, Ethan Pierse;
“Indiegogo and GoFundMe have also shown that people are willing to spend plenty of money supporting causes and products that they believe in. On Indiegogo, the product you get is called a Perk, and on Kickstarter, it is a reward, and people have contributed billions to those crowdfunded projects.”
He goes on to add that sense of identity and brand loyalty are other factors set to push the NFTS and tokenized collectable items uptake to the next level;
“If those tokenized collectibles also have value as an asset to encourage hodling and trading, then we are looking at a digital version of the same craziness seen with Beanie Babies or Magic: The Gathering cards. A $90000 Magic card was just tokenized for 124 investors on collectible assets platform Mythic Markets.”
