According to the real-time data from NFTSCAN browser, as of January 14, 2022, 39.43 million NFT assets have been minted on Ether, 29,570 NFT asset contracts have been deployed, and there are 64.73 million NFT asset-related transaction records on the chain, involving 37.97 million wallet addresses. Moreover, the number of NFT assets minted on Ether is increasing at an average rate of 100,000 per day. There is no doubt that the NFT space we are focusing on is an extremely innovative and creative emerging market.

This past 2021, the NFT space kicked off on a wild ride. We open our eyes every day to see new faces. From Cryptopunks to BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club), from JPG avatars to Loot programmable assets, from Land to Metaverse, the NFT space has never ceased to see innovation emerge. Whether it's a flash in the pan or out of reach, the NFT space is always surprising you with new blood coming in. Throughout the market, only a handful of NFT projects have been able to settle down and evolve. The following chart captures the best of the best in the NFT field.

According to the current data, 29,570 smart contracts deployed on Ether, corresponding to the 30 or so quality NFT asset projects you can name in the current market, then the success rate of NFT projects is only 0.1%. When you think about it, that's a terrible number - it takes 1,000 NFT asset projects to create a blue-chip NFT project worth investing in. For the average investor, this number means that there are countless investment pitfalls waiting for us behind the boom in the NFT space. So, based on this, I share some valuable experience from the perspective of front-line practitioners and NFT investors in the NFT field, just for your reference.

How to determine whether an NFT project has the potential to develop into a head blue chip, I believe that the following aspects can be analyzed.

Declaration of interest: I really like and hold the project Doodles, which is the benchmark of the industry in my mind. Therefore, in the next content, I will take Doodles from time to time to give examples to facilitate understanding and description.

1, NFT asset protocol standards

Currently common NFT asset protocol standards are mainly ERC-721 and ERC-1155 protocol, investment properties of NFT assets are generally strong ERC-721 protocol standard, while the ERC-1155 protocol is more oriented to the more functional properties of NFT business scenarios.

When it comes to the NFT asset protocol standard, the main analysis is from the NFT asset contract code level, to examine whether it follows the ERC-721 protocol standard for code writing. Cryptopunks is neither an ERC-20 Token class asset nor a standard ERC-721 NFT class asset, and has its own built-in trading functionality. This leads to the NFT infrastructure, including Opensea, NFTSCAN, all need to actively compatible with it, which creates a lot of trouble for developers.

Therefore, the result of the examination of the protocol standards for NFT assets here is to ensure that the asset contracts of the NFT project should basically follow the ERC-721 protocol standard, so as to lay a good foundation for the development of the later.

2, NFT asset metadata storage method

If an NFT is only a ticket or a certificate, it does not matter whether the metadata is accessible or not; however, most of the NFT assets we are in contact with now have investment value and are more concerned about their financial attributes, so the security of the metadata becomes very important at this time, and it is one of the core elements that constitute the NFT to be an investment asset.

According to the data analysis of NFTSCAN, there are four main ways of storing metadata of NFT assets as follows.

1. Stored in blocks of the blockchain network. It is usually in Base64 format: data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMjkwIiBoZ...

For example: CryptoPunks and Uniswap V3 versions of LP NFT are stored in blocks, which is the highest level of security storage.

1. Stored in a node server based on IPFS protocol. The format is: QmYBYWMwGcyn1GoettFnn4yzpzRUwtaYrt3XscsxcyN6hD

1. Stored on centralized servers, various cloud servers. Common formats are: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oLO3z8c7Mxiu5PfIeSn6lPzWfhxr1gzZ1CcawJ3HK2bK0S7E6sv0yfuV- s1YCDKAV1JcA0vhU6xypYbPDixnMWMocd8eF4crksKU

This is the most common storage method and the one with the lowest security level.

1. In addition, there are a small number of projects that use the Arweave network for storage.

Through the above classification, we can see that the storage method of NFT asset metadata is uneven and not standardized. At the same time, the huge scale of non-standardized NFT data has caused a lot of trouble for developers in the industry, who need to invest a lot of manpower and computing power to parse the data and establish standardization. Recently, Numbers has joined hands with Protocol Labs and NFTSCAN to unify IPFS storage for NFT asset metadata and standardize access paths. In the future, developers who use NFTSCAN Open API can enjoy the benefit.

1. Openness of copyright of NFT asset creators

The degree of copyright openness is very important for an NFT project community, because it represents the subsequent development direction and scale of the NFT community. If the copyright is completely reserved, then it is difficult to expand the community based on the NFT asset, either at the secondary creation level or at the commercialization level.

There are roughly 3 types of copyright notices that are common today.

1. Copyright is completely open. That is, the copyright follows the NFT holder, who holds the NFT assets, who owns the copyright of the NFT material, and can be commercialized, a typical case is: BAYC NFT.
2. The copyright is fully reserved by the creator team, and the NFT holder cannot enjoy any copyright of any element carried by the NFT asset, a typical example is: CryptoPunks.
3. Limited open copyright by the creator team. NFT holders are allowed to make commercialization attempts on a small scale, a typical example is: Doodles, which allows commercialization attempts of less than $100,000.

We certainly choose the NFT project with completely open copyright, which is more in line with the essential spirit of blockchain and more popular with the community!