Mojang has drawn a line in the sand against NFTs in Minecraft, it said in an update (opens in a new tab)we wrote today that NFT integration with the game “is generally not something we will support or allow.”
The update begins with a quick overview of what NFTs are, including a note about their extreme volatility, before laying out the current policies on Minecraft servers. The overall goal of these guidelines, Mojang said, is “to ensure that Minecraft remains a community where everyone has access to the same content.” NFTs, on the other hand, are specifically designed to “create models of scarcity and exclusion”, which obviously conflicts with that principle. And then they’re out.
“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not allowed to be integrated into our client and server applications, and Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona elements or other mods cannot be used by blockchain. technology to create a scarce digital resource,” Mojang wrote.
The update was apparently prompted by the fact that many Minecraft-associated NFTs and play-to-earn servers are already available, taking advantage of the gap in official policy and dividing the community into “the haves and the have-nots, ” said Mojang.
It’s also worrying that some NFTs “may not be reliable and could end up costing players who buy them,” which is a remarkably polite way of putting it: The Unofficial Minecraft NFT Game Blockverse (opens in a new tab)who disappeared with more than $1.2 million in January is just one of many examples of NFT-related misconduct (opens in a new tab) and crime (opens in a new tab) we have seen in recent years. This is particularly relevant to Minecraft because its audience tends to skew younger than many other games, and is therefore likely to be more prone to fraud.
The official guidelines for Minecraft use (opens in a new tab) is being updated to address the matter in detail, but the short version of the bottom line is a hard no: “NFTs associated with in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona elements, or other mods” are strictly prohibited.
That’s not necessarily the end of it: Mojang said it will continue to monitor the development of blockchain technology to determine whether it will “enable more secure experiences or other practical and inclusive applications in games,” hinting that official support may be possible at a time in the future. However, for now we have no plans to implement blockchain technology in Minecraft.
