Fun Fuels Web3

Today, fun is the fuel that drives the most successful internet products. The app stores have entire sections dedicated to games, and the next-most popular categories are social media and dating apps, which are so heavily gamified that they're essentially games too. As a successor to the internet, Web3 will be defined by fun even more so than its predecessor, and those projects who harness this potential will lead the space.

While many were drawn to Web3 for the chance at a quick buck, everyone who joined the party was exposed to a playful alternative way of life. Where else can you solve riddles while collecting incredible art, flex your interests in investing and technology, and plug into a diverse and global community? Now that the crypto bubble has burst, those who remain in Web3 are here because they can't go back to the way things were. They've seen the vast and unexplored potential for fun within the space and want to bring that better future into reality. At JIO, we believe the most successful Web3 brands will be the ones who tirelessly push the "fun envelope” and prove to their holders that Web3 can be more engaging than anything Web2 can offer.

Dynamic Collectibles. Where We’ve Been.

I still remember the thrill of buying my first NFT - buying digital collectibles is like opening presents on Christmas day. But there’s still so much room to improve this core experience. Many projects have already dipped their toes into improving the fun factor of buying and holding their NFTs. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some innovations that have been popular in the space so far:

• Breeding mechanisms where your collectibles can interact to spawn unique combinations (Cryptokitties, Axie Infinity, among others)

• Mutation serums and tokens which can be applied/burned to mutate your original art (RTFKT CryptoKicks, Bored Ape Mutants, among others)

• Multi-stage reveal processes that allow users to play with the game theory and economics of holding or selling their pieces (Renga among others)

• Staking and loot boxes that reward users for holding their collectibles (Nanopass among others)

• Re-rolling mechanisms that give users opportunities to have more control over their collectible (Valhalla among others)

All of these mechanisms make digital collectibles more “dynamic”. Recently, the space has begun to see further moves toward gamification, and that pace is rapidly accelerating. As established game studios like Epic Games (Fortnite) and Nexon (Maplestory) make their entry, Web3 projects will face intense pressure to innovate and make their collectibles more fun and dynamic. Luckily, Web3 is on the brink of innovations that finally bring on-chain functionality to parity with what’s possible in Web2 games. The result will be a Cambrian explosion of creativity where projects will be limited only by the depth of their imaginations and engineering talent.

The Future of Dynamic Collectibles

To get a glimpse of where things are headed, think of how most RPGs work: players collect items through quests and social actions like trade or combat with other players. Players can "equip" these items to their characters in a way that provides aesthetic value but also empowers their character with buffs or abilities that affect core gameplay. These items can be upgraded, scrapped for parts, or crafted into new forms. Generative PFP projects and digital collectibles will soon be just as dynamic as these RPGs.

The first innovation that will pave the way for this next phase will be the emergence of individually collectible and modular traits. Instead of NFTs with immutable metadata, we’ll have dynamic NFTs that hold traits and modifications as separate on-chain collectibles. This world is here today with innovations like ERC-6551 launching in the next few weeks, giving every NFT its own wallet. This will allow all NFTs to hold items and traits in a more customizable and fluid form than a single, hard-to-update metadata file. Many projects are already gearing up to implement this experience, with Stapleverse SAPIENZ, Doodles 2, and more leading the charge. In the coming months, dynamic traits will become table stakes for this new era of utility and customizability.

In a world with individually collectible traits and items, what new and interesting experiences will come to the forefront? These new forms of functionality fall into two categories: Conditions and Behaviors. If you want a quick way to understand these terms, think of the sentence: “If (Condition), then “(Behavior)”.

1. Conditions are the name we give actions or events that can lead to things happening on-chain. In World of Warcraft, a condition could be reaching Level 60, meeting or fighting with a particular NPC, or visiting a certain destination. Some real-life conditions could be meeting with a friend who owns a Bored Ape, purchasing an NFT, staking an NFT for a certain amount of time, or traveling to a real-world location.

2. Behaviors. Behaviors are on-chain logic that can be coupled with a condition. This is the interesting stuff that happens after you do something. Imagine things like a trait’s metadata updating to increase its rarity, getting airdropped a new trait, unlocking the privilege to mint a limited-edition trait, or even an existing trait being burned.

The exciting part is that conditions and behaviors can be combined and chained together to create incredible interactions. Here are some hypothetical use cases the space could see in the future:

Real World and Geolocation

• If a player is physically located in Japan, they can earn the right to mint a limited edition Japanese katana trait.

• If a player is next to an ocean, they can mint a rare water-based trait, or their base NFT can unlock a water-elemental skin.

Social

• If a player holding an Azuki physically meets a player holding a CloneX, then both are airdropped a limited edition collaborative art piece or trait.

• If more than X members of a community are colocated or work together online, they each earn the ability to re-roll a trait into a higher rarity tier.

Upgradeability

• Projects can continuously develop trait “packs” that expand or rework the artwork of the base collection in exciting ways, and share those packs through a variety of means.

DAOs

• If the project has a DAO, the DAO can make decisions that impact the rarity of certain traits, or the DAO could affect the base appearance and functionality of the existing traits within the collection.

Financial

• If a wallet has more than 1ETH in it, that player earns the ability to paint a single trait and turn it “Gold”.

• If the floor price of a project goes above 0.25 ETH, then all holders’ NFTs receive a special new trait variation.

These hypothetical examples illustrate just a fraction of what’s possible in the future of dynamic collectibles.

Conclusion. Where is JIO Heading?

As engineers, these boundless possibilities are what inspired us to create JIO and our JIO mobile app experience. We want to contribute to the frontier of new experiences that will shape opportunities for fun and joy for digital collectors worldwide. In our next post, we’ll share more about the specific direction of our mobile app and how it will expand the creative horizons of our brand.