As the world progresses technologically, blockchain and associated technologies shape various industries, pushing the limits to greater heights. NFTs have especially caught the world’s attention with their several use-cases in in-game finance, rare item ownership, metaverse, etc. With knowledge of the industry and its growth potential, it attracts giants, especially those already in industries like the gaming industry, where NFT usage changes everything for the better.
It is no wonder Enjin, a gaming company that was founded in 2009, adopted blockchain into its products and services starting in 2017.
This article is primarily concerned with providing a comprehensive overview of the Enjin ecosystem and how its components interact to form an all-in-one integrated blockchain system.
What Is Enjin All About?
Enjin is one of the pioneers that pushed the gaming industry from the trenches of just being a fun activity to being an adventure with earning possibilities. The goal has been to keep building products aimed at satisfying gamers. When it entered the blockchain sphere in 2017, it focused on solving problems with high Ethereum gas fees and the mitigation of issues regarding the management and transfer of virtual assets. To do so, Enjin boasts several software development kits (SDKs) that make NFT creation seamless with incorporating them into games and other platforms.
Incorporating blockchain technology into its work, Enjin created a new NFT token class, ERC 1155, approved in 2019, allowing cheaper transfers compared to the ERC-20 and ERC721 token classes currently in existence. This NFT type also allows for batch transfers of NFTs, which eventually saves costs for its users.
The key to the Enjin ecosystem is the token, $ENJ. Every NFT minted in the Enjin ecosystem has several features attached to it;
- They are fully customizable to fit in terms of utility, aesthetics, and functionality of the desired platform.
- It is embedded with smart contracts, giving it speed, immutability, and network security.
- It has a preassigned ENJ value that can be recovered via melting.
The Enjin Ecosystem: Its Products
The goals of the Enjin network, being to solve asset incorporation and management, gas fee issues, and asset transfer issues, are solved within the Enjin ecosystem. The Enjin ecosystem is comprised of;
- Enjin Platform
- Enjin Wallet
- Enjin Explorer and Marketplace
- Beam
- JumpNet
- Efinity Network
The Enjin Platform
Enjin’s most exciting tool is one that allows developers, individuals, business owners, etc., to set up their NFT projects. It provides all the SDKs and toolsets users need to create NFTs, initiates NFT implementations in the protocols, and incorporates blockchain infrastructure using programming languages they are most familiar with, including Unity, C#, C++, and Java.
This could include sports, gaming, art, or even music projects. The best part about this is that users do not need to have any coding knowledge. Cool, right? This makes it an exciting tool for business owners who want to incorporate NFTs into their primary structures. It is also easy to imagine the opportunity it gives to traditional game owners who can mint their in-game assets and take full advantage of the economic value offered by NFTs.
The Enjin Wallet
As the name suggests, it allows users to store their assets. It supports Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Dogecoin (DOGE), Polkadot (DOT), Kusama (KSM), ERC-20 tokens, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 blockchain assets. Users can also create multiple wallets for various users, e.g., a savings wallet, a gaming wallet, a trading wallet, etc. More than that, you can add frequently used contact addresses, melt assets, in-game exchange tokens, etc., in the wallet. The Enjin Wallet is downloadable on both Android and iOS devices.
Here is a recent article by Robert Baggs on the wallet app’s 2.0 update.
The Enjin Explorer and Marketplace
EnjinX is an ad-free, user-friendly Ethereum blockchain explorer and marketplace. This is where users can have their created NFTs displayed or shop for thousands of NFTs, including fashion items, collectibles, gaming assets, art, etc. Users also get a chance to explore different gaming NFTs within the Enjin Ecosystem.
Beam
Beam was created to deliver futuristic, cutting-edge technology to the Enjin Ecosystem. It embodies a QR code via which blockchain assets can be distributed through any visual means, and this includes via email, magazines, websites, videos, etc.
How It Works
- Blockchain assets are minted via the Enjin Platform.
- The assets are placed in a smart contract — a “vault” of sorts — via the Beam interface, and a QR code is generated.
- Users scan the code with the Enjin Wallet app and receive a blockchain asset directly into their wallet.
Types of Beams
- Airbeam: All users receive the same blockchain asset.
- Lootbeam: A Lootbeam includes a variety of different blockchain assets. The chance of a user receiving an asset depends on the number of assets held in the smart contract; the fewer assets there are, the less likely a user is to receive them.
JumpNet
JumpNet is a Proof of Authority (PoA) method of consensus blockchain that allows instant and gasless transactions on-chain. It is essentially a private version of the Ethereum blockchain, and it relies on the token $JENJ.
JENJ is a private version of Enjin Coin (ENJ) which operates on the JumpNet network. Every NFT you create on JumpNet is backed by JENJ, the equivalent of ENJ on the JumpNet Network. With JENJ, you can create, mint, and distribute NFTs backed by JENJ, all free and instantly. To get JENJ, users need to convert their ENJ to JENJ in their Enjin wallets. Such conversion from Ethereum to JumpNet gives users several advantages, including the ability to do the following without gas fees;
- Send and receive ENJ and ERC-1155 tokens
- Trade ERC-1155 tokens on the Enjin Marketplace
- Create and mint ERC-1155 tokens via the Enjin Platform
- QR codes can be used to distribute ENJ and ERC-1155 tokens
- Distribute ERC-1155 tokens automatically from your app or game
It also aims to build a cross-chain bridge that connects Ethereum, Jumpnet, and Enjin’s Parachain, Efinity, on Polkadot. It would thus create a system where both fungible and non-fungible tokens are more dynamic and cost-effective.
JumpNet also produces a lower carbon footprint than Ethereum, giving users a fast, eco-friendly blockchain solution.
Efinity
Efinity is a cross-chain decentralized blockchain on Polkadot. Efinity launched in August 2021 in collaboration with the Enjin team and Polkadot. It exists as a parachain on Polkadot, allowing it to have its own economic value, data, and blockchain network. As a parachain, it taps Polkadot’s cross-chain technology to communicate freely with other layer 1 blockchains. As such, developers can take advantage of this to incorporate NFTs into their different ecosystems. Minting and trading of NFTs can thus be performed and shared across various blockchain networks, allowing Enjin to expand its use cases into the Polkadot domain. To this end, Efinity is building a bridge that would enable the transfer of tokens built on one chain, e.g., ERC 1155 to Polkadot.
Being a hot market, Efinity plans to launch its own NFT marketplace in 2022, featuring a new NFT concept, NFT 2.0. According to a medium article, NFT 2.0 would have far more features than the sluggish NFT 1.0. Its features would include;
- The ability to be linked with other NFTs
- An NFT DAO possibility where the NFT is fragmented and owned by several community members
- Nested NFTs are a type of NFT in which one NFT owns another.
- Multi-resource and reactive NFT possibilities where NFTs can change from being an image to a gif to a video, etc., and react to daytime or nighttime moods.
How Do Enjin Tokens Stay Afloat?
Enjin, with its ecosystem, has 3 tokens: ENJ, JENJ, and EFI. How are they managed to maintain a stable or increasing value? ENJ has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with over 85% already circulating. Whenever users mint an ERC-1155 NFT, they create an asset infused with ENJ tokens. To retrieve the ENJ value, users can “melt” the NFT, which means destroying the NFT completely and thus gaining 50-100% of its ENJ value depending on the developer who receives the remaining melted value.
Users who want to mint ERC-1155 must possess ENJ. More ENJ is locked in the NFTs created for gaming and business models, which can be retrieved when melted, and ENJ is a must-have for those who want to tap into the JumpNet advantages. These are use cases that signify continuous value for the ENJ token.
Jumpnet gives users some valuable tools as outlined above. To enjoy them, users must convert their ENJ to JENJ, which is the token used within the JumpNet network, and this ultimately gives value to the JENJ token.
However, experiencing the fast, free network of JumpNet has a caveat attached. Users have transaction limits as follows;
- 20 transactions per minute;
- 240 transactions per hour; and
- 2,880 transactions per day.
However, this can be bumped higher simply by holding the Efinity Token (“EFI”) on JumpNet (referred to as “JEFI”). All the user needs to transfer some EFI to JumpNet, which is not used up or locked in the process and can be migrated back easily. For every 100 JEFI that is held on JumpNet, transaction limits will be increased, up to the following limits:
- 60 transactions per minute;
- 3,600 transactions per hour; and
- 72,000 transactions per day.
This use case for EFI, along with the several use cases as the core utility token on Efinity parachain (its use to pay for transferring, bridging, and trading tokens) on Polkadot, evidently gives EFI a strong intrinsic value.
Conclusion
Enjin has been associated with some big names like Microsoft with Azure Heroes, Samsung with Samsung blockchain Keystore, and BMW with Vantage, which integrated Enjin products and services. This shows they are doing something right.
Enjin has strong traction and they aim to break the norms associated with NFTs and compete with the big NFT marketplaces like Opensea and Rarible. With the continuous innovation they show they are capable of, we can only imagine what’s next from Enjin.
