Why is Utility Important for NFTs and Why Silks is Raising the Bar

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Silks is primed to become one of the best NFT collections on the market when its collection of Horses hits the market on September 29.

The project offers varied utility and real-world earning potential that should ensure long-term growth sets it apart from a lot of NFT collections that have limited use cases. 

Silks has been rated a top 50 listing by leading NFT market analysis site Nansen and was featured in CoinTelegraph after raising $2 million in seed funding earlier this year.

What is Silks?

Silks is a horse racing-based NFT game that combines play-to-earn mechanics with digital horse and land ownership, and horse breeding.

The game is unique because it has an exciting real-life crossover – when a horse is born and registered as a thoroughbred racehorse in the US, a digital version will be minted as an NFT.

The horses are linked with their digital counterparts, tracking lineage, physical traits and development of the horse. When a horse wins a real race, the digital owner is rewarded with the native crypto token, STT, in the game.

The project also has a partnership with a thoroughbred training facility in Kentucky, Circle 8 Ranch, and breeders Tropical Racing through owner Troy Levy, a co-founder of Silks.

Despite the crypto bear market affecting many projects – especially NFTs – in 2022, Silks is building one of the best play-to-earn games in an area that is usually recession and inflation proof.

Horse racing remains largely unmoved by wider economic conditions and in fact is said to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually around the globe.

The project sold out of Silks Racing Avatars on September 19 – although they are some still available on the secondary market – and is next minting Silks Horses NFTs.

There is a special four-day presale price of $500 from September 29 to October 2, with the price increasing thereafter.

The roadmap states that after the sale of the Horses, play-to-earn gaming will begin in Q1 2023.

Silks Genesis Avatars are currently on sale on OpenSea with a floor price of 0.16 ETH – owners are also entitled to claim one plot of virtual land. 

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Silks Utility

As mentioned above, Horse ownership will bring rewards and income to their owners as they develop and race in the real world.

Further, Silks is developing its own massive metaverse where players can buy parcels of land and build stables, farms and training facilities on it.

There are 202,500 acres of virtual land available in the Silks metaverse, with each plot measuring 450×450 acres. 

To buy and build stables you must own 10 parcels of land, with the maximum size of farms 100 parcels.

Owners will be able to train and breed their virtual horses in a bid to win virtual races. 

Horses will be fully tradeable on the secondary market, so trainers and breeders could potentially make huge gains without ever having to win individual races, by developing and selling horses.

Later in the roadmap, stables will also become tradeable and can also become syndicated.

Why is Utility important?

Many NFT collections have fallen by the wayside by either failing to deliver on promises or having no real use case beyond their value as a profile picture or status symbol.

The best utility NFT projects not only promise the chance for immediate return on investment, but also offer long-term growth and utility that will continue to bring returns and attract new people to the ecosystem.

Play-to-earn gaming and metaverse land ownership are both set to explode over the next decade, with Silks developing a game in an area – horse racing – that should attract continued interest and investment. 

The chance to not only own and racehorses but train and breed them will also likely prove attractive to many investors, with the real life equivalent of horse ownership being unobtainable for many.

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