Cardano NFT Column: PlayerMint

Seeing the positive response of the Cardano SPO Column, we decided to start a similar segment about NFTs that live on this Proof of Stake blockchain.

The first guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a project building a play-to-earn layer that integrates with existing games like Fortnite and Rocket League: PlayerMint.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: PlayerMint

Hi Aidan, thanks for being the first guest on my column. Could you tell us a bit about yourself, where are you from, what is your background?

Of course, my name is Aidan Rankin-Williams and I am from the warm and sunny coast of California. I jumped into the crypto space back in the 2017 bull run, with the first video really pulling me in being Charles Hoskinson’s TEDx Talk. After doing some research I made an effort to get involved at a project level. This started with giving presentations on crypto to family friends and ended up with the founding of PlayerMint.

Why Cardano? What are the reasons for choosing this particular blockchain over others?

Blockchains are meant to be decentralized and run by the users that submit transactions to them. This means they live in a sort of perma web, where code and transactions can’t be recalled or redacted. When entering this perma web you want to be sure the code you are building on top of is rock solid. 

What better way to ensure this than committing to a peer review research and development approach that makes novel commitments to the industry? This is highlighted by Cardano’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, eUTXO model, the hard fork combinator, smart contracts in the functional programming language Plutus, and on-chain governance. 

These commitments and the result of them make Cardano an ideal layer 1 blockchain to build on top of. I can have confidence that the base layer parameters are well researched and when the chain needs to innovate governance is in place to do so. 

What is PlayerMint? And how are you integrating NFTs in your project?

PlayerMint is a play-to-earn protocol that integrates with existing video games like Fortnite and Rocket League. This means gamers are able to earn a fungible token, PMX, based off of in-game performance that is paid out in 5 day epochs. Once PMX is obtained it can be spent in a NFT Marketplace. 

NFT integration comes in 2 forms for PlayerMint. The first is that our marketplace will enable any Cardano based NFT to be traded with PMX, while supporting the CIP-27 royalty standard. The second is that we created our own collection of NFTs called PlayerMint Founders. These Founder NFTs will enable their holders to exclusively earn PMX for the first few epochs of PlayerMint once it hits the mainnet, and purchase the token for product usage.

What excites you the most about a future where blockchain technology is mainstream? Where do you envision PlayerMint in such a future?

I am actually most excited about a future where blockchain enables any individual to participate in mainstream finance. Especially for blockchains like Cardano the true mark of success will not be seeing the blockchains logo across advertisements and on the side of football stadiums. Rather it will be when someone born into a poor part of the world without a unique identity is able to have access to the same financial services and security as someone on Wall Street. 

As for PlayerMint, I hope it can illustrate the power that digitally scarce assets can have on matching incentives to what people already enjoy doing. I would love to see PlayerMint having a strong impact on how studios develop games so the focus is on an open player made economy where the studios revenue comes in the form of a small royalty on after market sales. For PlayerMint more specifically I would love for it to reach a level of decentralization so the holders of PMX are able to make decisions on what games we integrate with, what in-game actions are rewarded, and even the team developing the protocol. 

I would love to see PMX becoming the social currency used by content creators and their communities to transaction digital assets and support one another. Ultimately I would love it if PlayerMint could make people’s lives more enjoyable by putting value in their wallet for doing something they love, and then feeling the want to share that love with others. 

Thanks again for being our first guest. Any final words? Where can people find you?

Of course! Thank you so much for having me on. My final words would be that of an invitation. If you ever wanna chat blockchain, gaming, PlayerMint, or anything else on your mind feel free to stop by our Discord for a chat. If you’re looking for more info on our project I suggest heading to our website. 

Finally have a beautiful day and thanks for reading what I have to say!

Best,

Aidan – Chief Experience Officer of PlayerMint

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes only, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.