I’ve been thinking about why Loot has managed to stir up such a big wave in the NFT space.

If you want to say that profile-picture NFTs have already been played out, that’s not completely wrong. But honestly, from CryptoPunk to Bored Apes to Penguins, the ways people play these kinds of projects have started to feel a bit repetitive. Then, out of nowhere, a bunch of TXT files with a black background and white text appeared—instantly grabbing everyone’s attention. What’s interesting is that more and more people are starting to feel how fast this space moves: one moment they’re researching DEXs, the next they have to figure out DeFi, then NFTs show up, and now GameFi is here—and then Loot. It’s really hard to keep up.

When I first came across Loot, my first thought was a D&D campaign. If you’re a bit older and familiar with Western RPG culture, you probably feel the same. A lot of people compare Loot to “Ethereum of the NFT world,” and I think that analogy is pretty fitting.

Why? Because Punk has already become the “Bitcoin” of the NFT space—mainly a store of value plus social attributes. But Loot is different. It’s more like an open platform. Anyone can build, create, and imagine based on Loot. Just like how Ethereum allows developers to submit EIP proposals, Loot gives creators infinite possibilities. JPG gives you something fixed, but the text in Loot can really run wild with imagination.

Just a week in, there are already too many derivative projects built on Loot to count—Xloot, Ploot, all kinds of tools, plugins, and more. The ecosystem is expanding rapidly. That said, I’m also a little worried: as a pure equipment-type NFT, could Loot be too limiting? It’s a bit like NXT back in the day—an advanced concept, but not flexible enough, and eventually surpassed by better things.

But almost immediately, we saw something more fundamental and more abstract emerge. For example, AC directly created Rarity—building a game framework with its own setting on Fantom, complete with classes, leveling, skills… it’s totally reminiscent of a D&D campaign. This also explains why FTM has been so hot recently, because high-frequency interactive chain games like this simply can’t run on Ethereum.

From a developer’s perspective, a lot of people will ask, “What does Loot do for my game?” But I think that question is backwards. Loot was never designed for existing on-chain games. Looking back, DEXs originally tried to mimic CEX order books, and later realized that wasn’t the right direction. It wasn’t until Uniswap and AMMs appeared that the real potential of DEXs was unlocked. NFTs are the same: the most popular ones have always been blockchain-native things—Beeple, Artblock, Punk, Bored Apes—rather than moving real-world assets onto the chain.

So what Loot will ultimately turn chain games and NFTs into is still hard to see clearly. But one thing is certain: what really catches fire won’t be some old project integrating Loot’s equipment system. It’ll be entirely new native games created based on Loot.

From an investment perspective, it’s also pretty interesting. People who entered Loot early really did make a fortune. But some people looked at the floor price being only 2 or 3 ETH, and still thought that spending $10,000 to buy a few words wasn’t as good as buying a Bored Ape JPG. That’s a difference in perception. When you can’t understand something new, most people can’t understand it either—so that’s where the real Alpha is. And by the time everyone finally understands it, you can at most capture the Beta.

So when facing something entirely new, if you’re confident it’s something that hasn’t appeared before, it’s worth trying it with an amount you can afford to lose—play while studying as you go. YFI, Loot—basically all follow this logic.

Finally, two quotes come to mind. One is about Loot: the future development depends on collectors—if nobody builds on it, Loot has no value; but if someone creates content, the possibilities are endless. The other is about the entire NFT space: NFTs are essentially software protocols, and their value isn’t in individual traits, but in how many nodes adopt them and how big the network can become. Just like people in the era of canals couldn’t understand the value of railroads, traditional media couldn’t understand the value of search engines and social media. The value of NFTs isn’t in the art itself, but in the community recognition and the network potential behind it.