Interests in NFTs skyrocketed when Mike Winkelman, a 3D artist known as Beeple sold his art NFT Everyday: The first 5,000 days for a whopping $69.3 million in 2021. Seeing how much income they could make from NFTs, many creators began to create different NFT projects. Collectors also became more interested in NFTs for investment purposes.
As influx into the NFT community increases, tens of new NFTs drop every day. Following this, it is becoming clear to the NFT community that if collectors continue to buy into NFT projects just for the beauty of the NFT, there's a high likelihood that many NFT projects will become worthless in a few years NFT collectors will lose their money.
To combat this, several NFT projects, especially blockchain games, are creating projects that have utility; NFT collectors are also focusing on the utility they can get from NFTs.
A significant way project creators can inject utility into their projects for the long-term benefit of collectors of their NFTs is through Breeding NFTs.
What Are Breeding NFTs
Breeding NFTs is a mechanism in which two breedable NFTs breed to form a new NFT offspring. Think of two animals breeding to create offspring to understand how the mechanism works.
NFT project creators and startups employ NFT breeding to create long-term utility for collectors of their NFT. Rather than depending on the ever-shifting value of NFTs based on public sentiment, project creators go a step further to create real methods and ways in which collectors can benefit from buying their NFTs.
Breeding NFTs to get a new NFT (that's usually seen as more valuable and unique) is a significant way for collectors of an NFT to gain more from their initial investment. When a project uses NFT breeding to create utility for their NFTs, some or all of the NFTs in the collection of games are made to be breedable.
Generally, each NFT in a collection or game is unique and distinguishable from others. This is how they're perceived as valuable. When the NFTs are breedable and breed with another breedable NFT, what results is a new NFT that did not previously exist. This NFT will possess a combination of the unique features (usually the best traits) of the parent NFTs.
Because of these unique features, the NFT offspring is a rarer and more unique NFT, increasing the collector's portfolio value.
History of Breeding NFTs
With the advent of blockchain, gaming came breeding NFTs. CryptoKitties, besides being the first widely recognized blockchain game, first imbibed the concept of NFT breeding.
In the game, each Kitty is an NFT that's unique and valuable. Players can own and trade these Kitties just like holding other NFTs. Players can also breed these Kitties to generate offspring.
Since the mechanism of NFT breeding became a successful and well-encouraged function in CryptoKitties, many other blockchain-based gaming projects have used NFT breeding to bring more utility to players who buy character NFTs in their games.