The invention of NFTs has opened the door for the popularization and boom of art. A growing number of artists are joining the NFT community for creation and speculation, and investors are also actively involved, which enables a booming market. For many NFT owners, an NFT might be a picture, a song, or a video. It represents a symbol of collection and status. However, as the industry advanced, some NFTs have grown more malleable and interactive. Today, we will classify and review such interactive NFTs.
An interactive NFT, as its name suggests, features interactions. Some interactive NFTs are stored on the corresponding mainnet through smart contracts that track the unique elements of these NFTs and allow holders to change certain elements. For example, holders can upgrade some NFTs since a new NFT will be minted while the original NFT will be destroyed or retained according to the protocol. Moreover, the newly-minted NFT will retain the upgraded/changed elements.
Such NFTs are called upgradable NFTs. There are also interactive NFTs that allow non-holders to interact with them. The logic behind such interactions is to store a piece of code (program) on decentralized storage protocols like IPFS, which enables interactions between the program and participants. However, such interactions do not change the coding of an entire NFT, and when the next participant opens the NFT, it will return to the default state. These NFTs are referred to as non-upgradable NFTs.
1. Mutant Ape Yacht Club
BAYC is now one of the leading NFT projects. At the end of 2021, Mutant Ape seized the opportunity and offered holders of Bored Ape NFTs free Mutant Serums that facilitate the mutation from Bored Ape NFTs to Mutant Ape NFTs. It should be noted that each serum comes with a different rarity and that the resulting mutations also differ. Of course, there is plenty of reason to say that Mutant Ape is a hype project.
For instance, Taylor Gerring, the co-founder and former CTO of Ethereum Foundation, purchased an unused Mega Mutant Serum at a high price of 888 ETH and then created his Mutant Ape in a live stream. Using a Mutant Serum does not affect the original Bored Ape NFT but creates a new Mutant Ape NFT, which makes it a typical upgradable interactive NFT.
2. CryptOrchid
CryptOrchid is a lesser-known yet fascinating flower-themed NFT project that asks you to plant potted flowers. In this project, you’ll first have to acquire a CryptOrchid seed and have it germinated by taking good care of it. You will need to water your CryptOrchid every 7 days; otherwise, it may die. Once a CryptOrchid is dead, it cannot be sold or transferred. In addition, each CryptOrchid comes with a water level, an on-chain indicator updated in real time.
Moreover, you will have to pay a gas fee for each watering operation, and a CryptOrchid can only be watered by the holder. With a low trading volume, the project is far from popular. Though it has been migrated to MATIC to ensure low gas fees, many CryptOrchids have died due to the lack of effective promotions and new players. Meanwhile, the project has not introduced any upgrades.
3. Workshop.Blue
Workshop.Blue is building an iterative NFT project. It has launched a game called Crypto Slots. Players can hit the “SPIN” button in the middle to roll slots, and the dynamic drawing process will be shown on the page. In particular, the result of each draw will change when it is traded to a new address. Therefore, Workshop.Blue NFTs are also upgradable NFTs.
4. NFFGAME
In NFFGAME, an air combat NFT game, players control the aircraft to avoid enemy bullets and get bonus points by hitting the enemy. The game is available on phones/computers. Since NFFGAME NFTs are non-upgradable interactive NFTs, the aircraft will return to its initial state after each game, leaving no records.
In addition to ETH and Polygon, interoperable NFT projects have also kept growing on other chains.
5.OLTA
OLTA, an outstanding interactive NFT platform on AR, was created by Terence Reilly, a master of animation. In addition, the entire platform is stored in the AR network. Backed by the design expertise and brilliant animation skills of the master, as well as its unique AR storage capabilities and blockchain technology, each OLTA NFT is delicately designed, which enables both high artistic value and fun interactions.
For example, in Meanwhile, an OLTA NFT created by an Argentinian artist named Laurenano, you can change the child’s actions and the background environment through mouse zooming. Moreover, you could also adjust the NFT to any angle you prefer. The child sings alone at night and swings his body along with the notes. He becomes troubled by mosquitoes at dusk and is depressed in the rain during the evening. You can switch to different scenes and pick an angle to appreciate the NFT. Featuring aesthetically-pleasing effects and fun interactions, this NFT artwork impresses us with its changing colors and fluently-shifting scenes.
Athru, an interactive NFT bot personally built by the founder Terence Reilly, allows you to adjust each component of the bot and even restructure the entire bot as if you are a robot engineer. Moreover, the NFT also supports temporary save/load functions, which means that any changes you’ve made to the bot can be temporarily stored.
In addition to these two representatives, OLTA attracts and includes premium interactive NFT works, each of which comes with ingenious designs and high artistic values. This promising platform allows you to admire artwork while enjoying interactions, creating experiences that differ from regular NFTs.
6. TEIA
Unlike OLTA, which is backed by great artists, TEIA allows any developer to put their NFTs on the platform for exhibition and sale. On TEIA, an NFT platform based on Tezos, you can upload pictures, videos, music, and HTML to mint NFT. Most importantly, the platform is extremely developer-friendly. As a developer, you can use ZIM (an online editor based on javaScript) to generate NFTs directly and have them uploaded. Even users with entry-level programming skills could easily create their HTML interactive webpages and generate NFTs on TEIA. Thanks to Tezos’ strong support for NFTs and its low gas fees, many retail users have joined TEIA to mint or collect NFTs.
7. DOGAMI
NFTs in the field of GameFi or the metaverse are also a major part of interactive NFTs. To ensure smooth operations and fun gameplay, most GameFi projects store the assets on the chain instead of player behaviors. In such games, you can interact with others by operating your character or using in-game items. Your character can be upgraded or changed, and the in-game items will be generated or destroyed from time to time. As an AR-based pet breeding game, DOGAMI is one of the most interactive GameFi NFTs recently launched. In this game, players can interact with NFT dogs on their phones and get rewards by improving the friendliness of pets.
Conclusion
Interactive NFTs have brought practical value and interactive scenarios to the static NFT market. Each interactive NFT is fun in its own way, which has added new joys to the cycle of hype-purchase-price surge-sale and attracted more participants who are not NFT investors. Such participants can not only admire the artistic value of NFTs but also interact with them. In the future, we might see the emergence of more upgradable or non-upgradable NFTs, and NFT interactions may become more vivid and interesting, with a wider range of interactive scenarios.
