Runi Fever!

So, finally the wait is over and we, the community can mint their own Runicore! This is the first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) by Splinterlands which is available at the ETH chain NFT shop OpenSea. We can obviously already argue that we have NFT for a very long time (4 years +), but that was on hive blockchain. This is the first time we are selling them at ETH blockchain, and that too on a primo shop. That all swells! So far it is little more that 24 hrs and it is selling decent with a volume of 73 ETH at the time of writing.

Image Courtesy @jacekw

Congratulations Team! I'd say the first day was a success. This whole ETH based NFT thing is completely new to me. Thanks to Splinterlands, I get to learn more about it. For new folks reading my blog, I like to put the official definition here.

Before we dive into NFTs, it’s important to understand the “non-fungible” part of “non-fungible token.” When an item is fungible, it means it’s interchangeable with another of the same item. A classic example is a $1 dollar bill: you could swap dollars with someone and you’d both still have $1.

Non-fungible, on the other hand, means the item is totally unique, and therefore has its own unique value. For example, two cars of the same make and model might have different values based on how many miles are on the odometer, their accident records, or if it was previously owned by a celebrity.

Story

Ok, with the basics out of the way, I must say a Runi is nothing but a Splinterlands card. However, the reality is far from it. Traditional Splinterlands cards are not "True NFT". My Yodin Zaku looks the same as your Yodin Zaku (although mine does have a unique mint number, which is different from yours, so there's that!). Look is everything in art. This means at least, in terms of look, my Yodin Zaku is technically not unique. Being unique in terms of digital pocessions is a new trend, it is the same trend as art collections or rare wine collections. NFTs are meant to be collectible. Then again, Splinterland NFT are collectible with a twist. This is one that actually does have an use case!

Source

Each Runi is an actual card in-game. It is a 6 mana, 4 attack, 1 shield, 5 health, 1 speed slow Legendary neutral card! Four abilities to speak of here; Opportunity, Rebirth, True Strike, and Reflection Shield. It is an interesting card at reverse speed and can be very strong with Grandmaster Rathe (since it is neutral), also perhaps an interesting defensive card against an expected Zaku attack.

However, the card stat is still not all of the story. Since each Runi is unique, we can build our own story with Runi. See what @jacekw created above in pictures! I do not want to add words to ruin it. I am telling you, the possibilities are endless!

My Runis

First of all, I was on a very long business trip overseas when Runi whitelist was activated. The months September and October been extremely busy for me. You can see that from my post frequency. So, unfortunately, I didn't get a whitelist. Later I was so busy I didn't even ask anyone for an exemption either. But, fortunately I have many good friends within the community to whom I am always grateful! And look, I have two of them! One is a beautiful gift! I will likely purchase more and perhaps mint a few during the general sale!