Metaplex has introduced a new standard with its latest release – Metaplex Inscriptions and Engravings. This innovation is a huge shift towards fully on-chain and immutable digital assets on the Solana blockchain.
Metaplex is a Web3 firm that has developed an open-source protocol and toolset for creating, minting, and managing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Solana blockchain.
The Metaplex ecosystem includes four smart contracts: Token Metadata, Token Vault, Auction, and Metaplex, which work together to provide developers with the tooling they need to create, launch, and trade NFTs on Solana.
Known for its fast and affordable NFT ecosystem, it has attracted many developers and builders. The platform has been used to create NFTs for various purposes, including digital art, gaming, collectibles, and more.
Metaplex enables creators to build their own communities by managing their own branded storefronts, and it allows developers to hard code perpetual royalties into NFTs, ensuring that creators will receive a percentage of future sales.
Traditionally, NFTs on Solana relied on services like Arweave, IPFS, and S3 for storing media, creating a dependence on systems outside of the Solana network. Metaplex Inscriptions, however, will transform this landscape by enabling on-chain storage of an asset’s metadata and media.
This eliminates external trust assumptions and opens up new possibilities for on-chain attributes and smart contracts.
A key feature of this release is the introduction of Engravings, bringing true immutability to Solana’s NFTs and inscriptions. The Engraver, a component of this innovation, enhances security by preventing any changes to Engraved NFTs, even if the originating program is immutable.
Both Metaplex Inscriptions and Engravings have been deployed to the devnet, allowing users to mint new NFTs and convert existing ones. The Inscriptions will be numbered on a first-come, first-served basis, creating anticipation within the Solana community.
Metaplex has had several successes in 2023, including significant growth in its user base and revenue. In November 2023, 239,000 unique wallets directly signed transactions with the protocol, representing a 45% month-over-month increase.
The company has also proven its potential for generating annual revenue, with estimates ranging from $4 million to $14 million in 2022. Metaplex has become an established NFT infrastructure protocol in the Solana ecosystem, facilitating over 99.9% of NFT mints.
The platform has been used to create NFTs for various purposes, including digital art, gaming, collectibles, and more.
In August 2022, Metaplex announced that it had surpassed $1 billion in direct NFT sales after one year, with creators minting 14 million NFTs on the Solana network using the Metaplex Protocol, generating over $3 billion in direct and secondary sales.
The company has also announced plans to further the sustainability of the protocol, including converting the Token Metadata program into full immutability and introducing a small fee for usage of the program.
