The virtual goods market has seen a spontaneous surge in market demand since the launch of the first non-fungible token (NFT) in 2015, with investors and developers demonstrating more interest with each passing day.
One of the industry-leaders, making a difference in the NFT space in recent time is Enjin – a blockchain project that empowers users which are mostly developers to create and manage their own customized NFTs.
A brief history of Enjin
Co-founded by Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski in 2009, Enjin was launched as a community-centric gaming platform dubbed ‘Enjin network’. Notably, the platform enabled developers to build websites, forums, and gaming applications.
However, the platform subsequently transitioned into a fully-fledge Ethereum-based project following its initial coin offering in 2017 where it sold approximately $18.9 million with its native token, ENJ.
The ENJ token otherwise known as Enjin Con is based on the ERC-20 token standard and has served as the foundation for the network’s blockchain ambition, as it has now built its own suite of blockchain tools and services cutting across NFTs, and blockchain SDKs, among others.
Barely a year after its ICO, Enjin officially launched its blockchain-based platform on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing developers to access the same services as old-time, albeit, leveraging the decentralisation and other benefits of the host blockchain.
By offering what can be described as ‘platform as a service’, Enjin allows developers to create, issue and manage both fungible and non-fungible tokens (FT and NFTs) as in-game assets.
Also in 2018, Enjin proposed a new ERC token standard dubbed as ERC-1155, which was subsequently approved in 2019, and is currently implemented on the Enjin platform. Giving the implementation of the new token standard, Enjin recently created a marketplace within which buyers and sellers can trade the ERC-1155 asset.
Current data shows that there are more than one million wallet holders with at least 3,000 projected created using the Enjin SDK so far.
What is Enjin?
Enjin is a blockchain-based platform that makes use of the ‘platform as a service’ model, thus enabling developers to create and manage virtual goods such as fungible and NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Specifically, the Enjin platform is designed to facilitate the development, distribution, and trading of tokenised digital assets, as well as their integration within the platform.
While it is primarily focused on the gaming community and enterprise-level users, Enjin adopters are building projects that are backed by the network’s native digital asset. Prominent use cases for the Enjin platform, as mentioned earlier include token generation, NFTs, digital vouchers, and other in-game items that can be used across multiple decentralised gaming protocols.
According to industry stats, more than 20 million Minecraft users have benefited from Enjin’s community management tools, especially in building a robust network of like-minds, while staying in touch with one another.
By leveraging a user-first approach that prioritises developers and end-users above anything else, Enjin has successfully pivoted into an ultimate all-in-one tokenisation network.
How does Enjin work?
A GraphQL-based API is at the heart of Enjin’s operations, allowing game developers to facilitate smart contract interactions as well as other services that require interfacing with the Ethereum blockchain.
In addition, the Enjin platform makes use of a back-end service known as ‘trusted cloud’ which acts as the cloud hosting service that connects hosted games to the underlying technology – Ethereum blockchain.
The trusted cloud is also responsible for logging the requests made from game servers and by clients, which in this case refers to the end-users, and subsequently processes and relays them to each of the hosted gaming protocols.
The cloud service also links end-users’ existing game accounts to a block wallet address, and by extension, grant them access to other gaming protocols as well as their in-game item which can be traded or used interchangeably within different gaming titles.
Enjin’s smart wallet
Because the Enjin platform is an encompassed marketplace, it made provision for a crypto wallet where all digital items including in-game items from hosted games can be stored. This further implies that each game built on the platform is linked directly to an Ethereum address leveraging the Enjin wallet which comes in form of user identity.
Enjin is currently developing ‘Wallet Daemon’ – a tool that automates transaction requests to and from the Enjin platform. Similarly, the platform is working on Efinity, an Ethereum scaling solution that will be implemented within the Enjin platform, according to the network’s whitepaper.
According to Enjin’s whitepaper, games will be able to open channels within the Efinity network, which will help improve the speed with which information is relayed between smart contracts and game servers.
Generally, there are five major procedures between creating and destroying in-game items within the Enjin platform. The first is known as ‘acquisition’ where developers buy ENJ tokens, followed by ‘minting’ which requires a designer to develop in-game items using Enjin’s SDK. A developer, though, must first acquire ENJ tokens in order to develop an in-game item.
The third process – gaming – involves end-users who acquire ENJ token and use it to facilitate other in-game functions. The fourth process is ‘trading’ where players can trade tokens amongst each other, while the last process – melting – requires players to sell in-game tokens for ENJ.
Enjin native token – ENJ
The ENJ token is the Enjin platform’s native currency, and it’s mostly used by developers who need it to create new projects on the network. Developers can build and issue in-game assets as Ethereum tokens whenever a new project is created.
Furthermore, any asset created using Enjin coin, which is built using the ERC-20 token standard, can be ‘melted’ or traded for Enjin coin at any time. Ultimately, the Enjin token is used in accessing features on the Enjin platform.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.