Minecraft-based NFT project in disarray after Minecraft bans NFTs

On Wednesday, Minecraft developer Mojang Studios announced that they are banning the integration of NFTs into the game.

Part of the rejection of NFTs stems from rules in place to ensure that all players have access to the same functionality; for example, there are rules for how people charge for server access.

“We have these rules to ensure that Minecraft remains a community where everyone has access to the same content,” the blog post goes on to explain. “However, NFTs can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our policies and the spirit of Minecraft.”

To that end, the company completely rejects blockchain technologies and will not allow them to be used on client and server applications, nor will NFTs be allowed to use Minecraft content in the game.

On news of the decision by Mojang Studios, a popular NFT project that sits on top of Minecraft saw tokens and NFTs drop in value. NFT Worlds sells NFTs tied to “world seeds”, which can be used to create Minecraft worlds using the base game client. To date, the project has generated over $75 million in transaction volume at today’s crypto prices. Following Mojang Studios’ announcement, the minimum price for an NFT Worlds NFT cratered, from 3 ETH ($4,500) to 1.4 ETH ($2,100) at the time of writing. The token was also down over 70 percent.

In a statement shared on Twitter, NFT Worlds’ developers mocked the decision as “out of nowhere” and said they were trying to get in touch with Microsoft to discuss the decision, find out “what the true internal motivations might have been” and find an “alternative outcome.” If this is fruitless, the developers said, “we pivot.” As for what the project could be about, they were essentially building their own version of Minecraft, or developing a “GameFi as a service” platform.

However, all is not lost for NFT Worlds. A Microsoft spokesperson told Motherboard that someone who has a world seed from NFT Worlds will continue to be able to use it with Minecraft, and even host it as a destination for other players; an NFT associated with that world seed somewhere else on the web is kind of beside the point. What is not allowed is its APIwhich allows players to send and receive token payments inside Minecraft.

Before the onset of the crypto winter that has lasted about eight months now, companies jumped at the chance to roll out NFTs precisely because they offered artificial scarcity and the chance to generate new rents or profit from speculative declines in digital asset prices. However, many of the projects that have jumped at the chance to integrate NFTs have struggled to sustain themselves let alone offer a viable use case that justified inflated values ​​before the latest crypto collapse began.

The incentives NFTs have against exclusion and profiteering, along with the rampant fraud and potential harm to players were all listed as concerns by Mojang Studios in the blog post.

“Some third-party NFT implementations also rely entirely on blockchain technology and may require an asset manager that can disappear without notice,” Mojang Studios went on to explain. “There have also been cases where NFTs were sold at artificially or fraudulently inflated prices. We recognize that creation within our game has intrinsic value, and we strive to provide a marketplace where those values ​​can be recognized.”

In particular, Mojang does not completely rule out integrating blockchain technology or NFTs into its platform one day. “We will also closely monitor how blockchain technology evolves over time to ensure that the above principles are upheld and determine whether it will allow for more secure experiences or other practical and inclusive applications in games,” the developer said in its announcement. adding that it has no current plans to integrate blockchain technology into the game.