A year after its main net launch, the NFT protocol Charged Particles is on track to check every item on its rather ambitious roadmap. The protocol has started pushing the boundaries of what an NFT can do, because it was created to enable people to do more with their NFTs.
NFTs have gained traction in mainstream media, while not a new concept for those invested in the industry. The public has created a rather one-dimensional idea of what NFTs are, based on the news of pixelated JPEGs selling for tens of millions of dollars.
Charged particles, on the other hand, are nothing but one-dimensional. Founded by two industry veterans, Ben Lakhoff and Rob Secord, it offers unique, fully programmable NFTs. While at its core are still standard non-custodial ERC- 721 tokens, NFTs issued through Charged Particles offer much more than just proof of ownership - they can represent a basked of other token holdings with fully configurable settings.
Its founders say that their function is similar to a traditional index fund, which holds hundreds of bonds, equities, and other products. In the case of Charged Particles, all of these products are locked in an ERC 721 token for users to own, trade and collect.
NFTs should contain more than just JPEGs.
In an interview with the Charged Particles community, the founders of the company said that while they sought out to offer thoughtful ways to use the token standard, they were caught off guard by the innovations proposed by the Charged Particles community. More use cases and mechanics kept popping up as the protocol developed, changing the shape of the products it offered.
He went on to explain that NFTs add a layer of realism to various digital objects. He noted that real objects' composability is a critical function we tend to take for granted in the physical world, and is something that is missing from our growing digital presence.
The basic premise attracted a huge user base to Charged Particles. Since its main net launch in February this year, the protocol has enabled more than $3 million in NFT sales on its Art dApp. Charged Particles launched a proprietary governance token, IONX to expand the protocol's use cases. It passed the Arcadia Group smart contracts audit, which ensured smooth operation and robust security.
A factor that contributed to Charged Particles success is Polygon, thanks to its experienced development team and tight-knit community. The scaling solution for NFT protocols has quickly positioned itself as a go-to platform due to its low fees and scalability. Charged Particles joined a long line of protocols in June to take advantage of this infrastructure and offer its users the smoothest possible experience.
This approach has resulted in a wide variety of use cases for the protocol.
One of the most interesting use-cases for Charged Particles came from Bars and Melody. The protocol was used by the prolific R&B duo to issue an entire generative collection. The music NFTs were composed of burnable utility tokens, which gave users access to things such as free tickets to a concert and having their name featured in a song.
The founders pride themselves on creating an environment that allowed different communities, projects, and subsets of the communities to grow and work together. Dozens of active community members have been working together with Charged Particles advisors and its thirteen-strong team. Every day, hundreds more are joining.
The team will be pushing Charged Particles V 2 in the last few weeks of the year to support the incoming growth. The company plans to launch NFT mining using Leptons in 2022, and a public API SDK that will allow Charged Particles to be used in a variety of dApps.