Smart Contract Platforms

Note: Data in this section last updated May 28th, 2022

Smart contract platforms are the computers that run the entire NFT ecosystem, allowing users to create, store and trade digital assets.

1. Create: NFTs are minted through smart contracts which assign them an owner, unique ID, description and “map” to the location of the asset (via a URL)

2. Store: The smart contract platform hosts the NFT on its blockchain

3. Trade: NFT transactions happen in the same way as any other crypto asset – a smart contract triggers a sale, the transaction is signed by a digital key, miners confirm the transaction and the blockchain is updated with new balances

I won’t go into too much detail on smart contract platforms here as, given their extreme importance, I wrote another 10,000+ word article (link to smart contract overview) on them, but I will highlight some of the important players in the ecosystem.

As of May 2022, the largest smart contract platforms by Total NFT sales are Ethereum, Ronin, Solana, Flow, Polygon, Wax and Avalanche.

Ethereum Leads the Market with over 75% of NFT Sales

Source: Cryptoslam as of 5.28.22

Figures as of 5.28.22

Once again, smart contracts platforms are not only extremely important to NFTs, but also serve as the foundation for DeFi, DAOs and the decentralized economy as a whole. As such, I’d highly recommend learning more via this article (link to smart contract overview), which dives into how they work, why they are important, who the key players are, how they stack up against one another and what’s next for the space.