What is Enjin? (ENJ)
The Beginner’s Guide
Enjin is a software that gives developers the ability to create and manage virtual goods on the Ethereum blockchain.
The idea is that by using blockchain technology to manage in-game items across many different properties, Enjin can help reduce the high fees and fraud that have plagued the transfer of virtual in-game goods and collectables.
Toward that goal, Enjin has released software development kits (SDKs) allowing users to both create digital assets on Ethereum and integrate them into games and apps.
Each minted asset is customizable to fit the desired platform and recorded in a smart contract, giving the items the advantages of cryptocurrency, namely speed, cost and security.
Central to managing the digital assets on its platform is ENJ, Enjin’s cryptocurrency, and each in-game item created on Enjin is assigned a value in ENJ.
If you wish to keep up with the project, Enjin keeps users updated on the status of its roadmap through its official website and blog.
Who Created Enjin?
Enjin is a for-profit company created by co-founders Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski in 2009 and built as a community gaming platform.
In 2017, Enjin launched an initial coin offering (ICO), raising about $18.9 million by selling ENJ tokens to build its new blockchain. Enjin went live in 2018.
How Does Enjin Work?
Enjin’s main use case is to enable users to manage and store virtual goods for games.
These can range from in-game currencies to tokens representing unique game items like swords or accessories for characters.
To create and destroy in-game items, developers complete the following five steps:
- Acquisition – Developers buy ENJ
- Minting – Developers design in-game items using the purchased ENJ
- Gaming – Players acquire tokens and use them in-game for various functions
- Trading – Players trade tokens amongst each other
- Melting – Players sell tokens for ENJ.
The Enjin team has built a variety of SDKs to enable these functionalities, which include kits focused on wallets and payment platforms. (These SDKs minimize the cost and complexity of creating virtual goods by offering common functionalities for creating these items.)
In conjunction with their SDKs, Enjin has also created application programming interfaces (APIs) to help deploy these items in game.
Enjin Smart Wallet
Enjin has its own native wallet where players can store and trade items, and that connects all of the platform’s features together.
The wallet allows users to:
- Assess their inventory, enabling them to connect to multiple games and use their items within each platform.
- Transact between themselves through the Enjin wallet, meaning that they can trade coins and items outside of the gaming environment.
- Sell their digital goods for ENJ.
Why does ENJ have value?
ENJ enables developers to mint items for gaming environments on the Enjin platform.
In order to mint virtual goods, developers have to lock ENJ into a smart contract, thus assigning a value to the item. When a player acquires these items, they can either use them in games, trade them to others or sell them for ENJ, in accordance with the original minting cost.
When sold, an item is destroyed, and the ENJ that was locked into the smart contract gets released to the user who sold the item.
Adding to its value is that like many other cryptocurrencies, the supply of ENJ is limited, meaning only 1 billion ENJ will ever be created.
Why Should I Use ENJ?
Enjin may be of interest to any developer seeking to create new kinds of in-game assets, as they need to purchase ENJ to create assets on Enjin,
Investors may also find ENJ of interest should they want to gain exposure to a more transparent way to interact with digital goods for gaming.
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