What is Enjin Coin (ENJ)?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Enjin Coin is the token of a project that provides infrastructure for treating in-game items as NFTs. Its distinctive design locked ENJ inside each NFT as backing, so melting an unwanted NFT returned that ENJ. In 2023 the project migrated to its own Enjin Blockchain.
Key points
- Started as NFT issuance infrastructure aimed at game developers
- NFTs are minted with ENJ locked inside, recoverable by melting the NFT
- Contributed to ERC-1155, a standard for handling multiple token types in one contract
- Migrated from Ethereum to its own Enjin Blockchain in 2023
Definition
Infrastructure for turning in-game items into NFTs, and the token locked inside those NFTs as backing.
Game items normally exist only inside that game's servers and disappear when the service shuts down. Enjin's aim was to issue them as NFTs so they could be held and traded outside the game, with SDKs and minting tools provided for developers.
The design's distinguishing feature is locked ENJ. Minting an NFT binds a set amount of ENJ to it, and the holder can melt the NFT to recover that ENJ. The idea was that even if a game shuts down, the NFT retains some floor of backing.
Enjin contributed to ERC-1155, a standard that handles both fungible tokens and NFTs in a single contract. Games routinely issue a thousand copies of the same sword, and doing that in one contract rather than a thousand is far more efficient, which is why the standard saw wide adoption.
In 2023 the project moved from an ERC-20 token on Ethereum to its own Enjin Blockchain, built on Polkadot-lineage technology. NFT minting is a built-in chain function there, so items can be issued without writing a smart contract.
Watch out for
- · The locked ENJ only defines what is returned on melting; it does not guarantee the item's value
- · The migration from Ethereum to its own chain means you need to confirm where holdings sit and which wallets support them
- · Demand for game infrastructure depends on how many games adopt it and how many people play them