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Cross-chain NFTs: What are they?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken over conversations on social media and the rest of the internet. Most of the layer 1 (L1) chains such as Ethereum, Cardano, Avalanche, and Solana have vibrant and growing NFT communities. Each chain has hundreds, if not thousands, of NFT projects and collections. The downside to having a variety of L1 blockchain solutions and ecosystems is that, in many cases, you need different marketplaces and different wallets to accommodate the diversity of these NFTs.
Think video games: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo each have their major gaming consoles, which are Playstation, Xbox, and Switch, respectively. There are games exclusive to each console, and to play those games, you’d have to purchase another console to run/play the game. Cross-console or cross-platform games available to more than one video game console solve that issue — and that’s the idea behind cross-chain NFTs.
Blockchain Basics & Interoperability
Different blockchains can be conceptualized as different ecosystems. Most major cryptocurrencies run as the currency for transactions or even operate as a kind of “fuel” for the network.
For much of the early development of crypto and blockchain, there was no interaction or communication between different blockchain ecosystems. Building a blockchain was challenging, and interacting with another ecosystem was complex in the early stages. As this article is being written, we are just starting to see some interoperability between the blockchains, with many more literal and figurative bridges under construction.
Ways of “wrapping” the cryptocurrency of one chain to allow it to be used as currency on another has now been made possible on a variety of chains such as Ethererum, Cardano, and Polygon (a L2 or layer 2 protocol). Metaverses are already discussing the possibility of “interverse” bridges that may span different blockchains. We may very well likely see players and cyber citizens of Cardano’s Pavia metaverse easily “bridge” or “port” over to Ethereum-based metaverses such as Decentraland or Sandbox.
Cross-chain NFT Examples
Some of the most obvious cross-chain NFT examples are between L1 blockchains such as Ethereum and its layer 2 chain Matic (technically called a scaling solution). Think of them as two closely compatible chains, but not exactly. It’s like a video game console is backward compatible. Imagine Ethereum being a Super Nintendo, then you can easily imagine Polygon Matic as the N64.
Games that are built on Polygon Matic are technically on a different “system,” but they are compatible with the Ethereum ERC-20 token standard (all ETH NFTs are “ERC-20 standard”). Popular gaming company Animoca brands have their REVV Racing game, one in which players can purchase race cars in ETH on Ethereum marketplaces such as Opensea and go on to race those ERC-20 NFTs on the Matic network. Doing this greatly reduces fees and transaction speeds.
Another example that’s early in the development stages is Elvantis, a sci-fi-inspired play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game with NFTs and currency on both Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum. Each chain has its unique advantages, and Elvantis is leveraging the power of two large blockchains to create its NFT game universe.
What's Next for Cross-Chain NFTs
With many marketplaces already offering cross-chain NFT collections (such as Opensea’s recent support for Solana NFTs) and every major L1 chain possessing metaverses or multiple iterations of metaverses, increased “bridging” and cross-chain interoperability is going to be essential going forward
Keep in mind, however, that we are still in the very early days of Web 3.0 and blockchain development. That is an exciting but also among the most frustrating aspects of the current crypto space. However, if you have the patience to do your research and stay involved in the space, blockchain and NFTs may surprise you with their creativity and utility.
