The NFT Portal Beta is officially LIVE which means players can start importing their Upland Collectibles assets from the WAX blockchain into the Upland ecosystem! This is a huge achievement for the Upland team and a critical innovation in the blockchain space that gives true meaning to the word “metaverse.”

While this first iteration only supports assets from the Upland Collectibles: Blockchain Heroes card packs, it represents a huge step towards fully realizing our vision for true ownership and interoperability. 

What is the NFT Portal?

Simply speaking, the NFT Portal is a bridge to other blockchains (such as WAX, Ethereum, or FLOW) that will enable players to port their gaming assets both in and out of the Upland metaverse. Players could potentially purchase assets on a decentralized marketplace (like OpenSea or Rarible) and then manage those assets inside Upland with the ability to freely use and trade them! This will allow for the trading of NFT assets from anywhere with added exposure to new markets that are both lucrative and accessible for everyone, not just blockchain aficionados.

This is something that has never been seen before in the world of gaming. Imagine for a second that your Fortnite or World of Warcraft assets were suddenly able to be taken out of the game and used (or sold) elsewhere. This means that these assets have far more utility beyond their original use, and potentially makes them more valuable. 

Most gaming ecosystems have existed as a walled garden, where the developers are in full control of the production and distribution of gaming assets. Upland is seeking to break these walls down and create an entirely new layer of user-generated content. Players in Upland won’t just be members of the ecosystem, they will be designers, distributors, businesspeople, traders, and more!

Bridging Worlds & Communities

Cross-blockchain interoperability will rapidly change the way that players interact with their gaming assets by enabling an entirely new layer of monetization for players. The ability to move your assets between ecosystems will allow for a truly open marketplace for gamers, further strengthening Upland’s core tenet of allowing players to “Earn.”

The NFT Portal isn’t just a bridge to other blockchains but is also a bridge to other worlds. Internet and gaming communities are typically segregated from each other and there is little room for interaction between community members. Cross-compatible gaming assets will create opportunities for these communities to engage with each other in an entirely new way! 

Using Non-Upland NFTs

We are actively working on the ability to port NFT assets from other blockchains into the Upland ecosystem. However, we want to make sure that this feature is actually useful in Upland before we expand the scope of the feature. In other words, until features like galleries become available, there won’t be sufficient utility for these NFTs in Upland.

Once player homes, galleries, and businesses are introduced into the Upland metaverse, the NFT portal will allow for countless new opportunities for players!  Players will be able to take advantage of their NFT assets by putting them on display, trading them with other players, selling them in player-owned shops, and more!

How Does it Work?

NFT assets that are ported into Upland are essentially being wrapped with a separate ownership token called the “UPLD Token.” It’s kind of like stuffing a turkey with another turkey. Further down the line, assets that are native to Upland and then ported out will be wrapped with an ownership token called the “Download Token” on the new blockchain. Token wrapping is a popular method for porting cryptocurrencies into other ecosystems. For example, BTC is sometimes wrapped so it can be used as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain in the form of WBTC (Wrapped BTC).

The NFT Portal essentially duplicates this process for NFT assets in particular. When an NFT is ported into Upland, the asset becomes locked on its native platform and is unusable on that platform until the ownership token is burned on the Upland side. As long as the asset exists in the Upland metaverse, the original NFT will be kept under the custody of Upland. If the uploaded NFT is traded inside of Upland, the owner is free to reclaim it at any time on the original blockchain. This process is fully automated and does not require the intervention of the Upland team. If the uploaded NFT is reclaimed on its native platform the respective UPLD token will then be burned. Upland does not reproduce the original data of the NFT (be it a jpeg, 3D object, etc.) and instead reads the data from wherever it was originally stored. 

NFT Portal Guide

Players who wish to use the NFT portal should follow closely the in-game instructions to port Upland Collectibles assets into Upland. In addition, there is a guide that is accessible on the web alongside a video tutorial which players can find below.

Click Here for the NFT Portal Guide

Closing Thoughts

The NFT Portal helps Upland realize the vision for a true metaverse where gaming assets are no longer bound by the constraints of their original platform. It is also a huge milestone for interoperability in the blockchain space by allowing the transfer of assets not just between platforms but between blockchains. We’re incredibly excited about the future of the Upland metaverse and are eternally grateful to everyone who has joined us on this journey thus far!