Leading Minecraft NFT project tanks after Mojang bans the blockchain

Minecraft developer Mojang has explicitly banned all NFT technologies from anything to do with its game, tanking the price of one project directly linked to the title.

In a new blog post, Mojang offered an "early look" at its new guidelines around Non-Fungible Tokens and blockchain technology associated with Minecraft. The short version is that "integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow."

Mojang explains that Minecraft's Usage Guidelines allow server hosts to charge for access but that "all players should have access to the same functionality." That ideal conflicts with NFTs, which "create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our Guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft."

"NFT implementations that are associated with Minecraft" already exist, but Mojang says that the scarcity is inherently associated with the tokens, and concerns that "some third-party NFTs may not be reliable" means that the developer is taking a firm stance. The post explains that "blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our Minecraft client and server applications, nor may they be utilised to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods." 

All of that is extremely bad news for NFT project 'NFT Worlds', which sells Minecraft seeds - the codes used to generate the worlds you play within - as non-fungible tokens. According to Vice, NFT Worlds has generated more than $75 million in transaction volume (at current prices), but the project may not have much longer left - the value of its worlds tumbled more than 70% in the hours after Mojang's announcement.

NFT Worlds developers slammed the ban as "a step backwards in innovation" in a statement posted to their Discord channel. The devs say they're attempting to get in touch with Mojang to determine "what the true internal motivators may have been," and "how if at all we can find an alternative outcome." If those attempts are unsuccessful, however, the team says it may be forced to pivot to a new engine or platform "with Minecraft and Microsoft entirely out of the picture with no ability to stop us."

The NFT bubble does seem to have burst after widespread attention throughout the latter half of 2021. That caused some developers - most notably Ubisoft and Square Enix - to take a look at the technology, but Ubisoft's 'Quartz' scheme swiftly proved extremely unpopular, with the game it was initially attached to, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, set to receive no further content updates.

Starting from scratch? Here's our list of best Minecraft seeds to check out.