In a recent report, nonfungible.com noted that over $2 billion was spent on NFTs during the first three months of 2021, marking a 2,100% increase over the fourth quarter of 2020. Per DappRadar, NFTs generated more than $1.2 billion in sales in July 2021 alone, more than half of the cumulative sales volume between January and June of 2021.
The milestones mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg as the NFT ecosystem continues to expand, setting new records with every passing day. Between 2020 and 2021, NFTs have established themselves as one of the most prominent sectors within the decentralized finance (DeFi) economy, enabling thousands of creators globally to start a parallel (and recurring) source of income.
However, getting started with NFTs isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Besides blockchain’s steep learning curve, the complications of creating multiple wallets, purchasing the required tokens to pay gas costs, and identifying the right marketplace for affordable NFT listings all make it difficult for artists to mint their own NFTs.AF
The process of minting NFTs may vary broadly, primarily due to the availability of several blockchain platforms that support NFTs and the rise of hundreds of new marketplaces. Moreover, most platforms bump up against limitations or face challenges when dealing with a surge in NFT demand.
For instance, at present, the vast majority of NFTs and NFT marketplaces are built on the Ethereum network. Due to the influx of artists and collectors, the Ethereum network has come under unprecedented pressure, resulting in network congestion, low throughput, and rising gas fees.
A Fully-Featured Platform For NFTsWhile several alternative blockchain solutions like Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, and more have started supporting NFT solutions, not all offer native support. In fact, most underlying blockchains are totally oblivious to the available NFT assets minted or traded on their platform, as related activities like registering wallets, purchasing tokens, and trading is made possible using smart contracts constructed by third-party developers.
Relying on smart contracts built by third-party developers may lead to several problems, including security risks, higher costs, and increased centralization. This is where Ardor emerges as an impressive solution for developers and individual artists, conveying several features designed specifically to support NFT tokens and assets.
Conceived by the team behind Jelurida and Nxt, Ardor is a multi-chain proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain platform with a unique parent-child chain architecture alongside extremely powerful customization features. Ignis, the child chain of Ardor, delivers out-of-the-box features and supports advanced privacy mechanisms like coin shuffling and encrypted messaging for secure sharing between third parties.
Unlike existing blockchains that support NFTs via smart contracts, Ardor and Ignis support a built-in transaction type to deliver rich functionality while offering the flexibility required to facilitate a wide range of use cases for NFTs.
With Ardor, features such as NFT registration, trading, and transfers are supported natively by the core platform’s decentralized asset exchange. The cloud data feature handles NFT storage, and other activities like account registration, ownership validation, transfer, and other related aspects are overseen by Ignis.
Additionally, all of these actions can be orchestrated within full-fledged dApps using Ardor’s energy-efficient PoS-based smart contract mechanism and a built-in hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallet, ensuring lower transaction fees and enhanced user experience. Several notable projects like NFT Magic, DeFiMAGIC, Cycle4value, TreeCoin, Triffic GeoMorfs, Sigbro, Mythical Beings, among others, are already harnessing the power of Ardor.
Together with the parent-child architecture, myriad functionalities, and support for real-world use cases, Ardor has emerged as a capable platform for native NFT support, complete with high-grade security, lower fees, and a better user experience.
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