> in-game virtual goods. But as certificates layered on top of collectibles... I'm not so sure.
I agree - the problem with most NFTs at the moment is that you can't actually do anything with them, apart from trade them.
There are games coming out now (e.g. Goal Revolution[0]) where your NFTs' properties (and, by extension, value) change based on what you do with them (how you use them). If the NFT thing is going to have any future, it needs to follow this example.
Have you played Aavegotchi? [0]
- The Beacon Chain is already live (since December last year). It's going to act as the coordinating entity in the PoS system. Future validators are already staking Ether on it.
- Shard chains support is expected to be launched later this year. The plan is to have 64 shards to improve scalability. Together with Layer 2 solutions (which are on the verge of becoming mainstream, e.g. Jack Dorsey's tweet was minted using a L2) that will bring the throughput to ~100-200k transactions per second.
- The last step is "docking" the old Ethereum Mainnet to the Beacon Chain as one of the shards of the new PoS system.
[0] https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/