What Is It

RMRK is a standard for building NFTs on Kusama. It is a multi-chain NFT protocol that can be described as a set of rules for creating logic on a blockchain without built-in logic. The working operation of RMRK is discussed in more detail later, but for now, know that projects can leverage RMRK’s technology, providing a futuristic NFT experience to their users.

RMRK provides next-generation NFT technology where you can bring NFTs to life! Think of it as a number of NFT LEGOS that you can assemble, forming your ultimate NFT that can evolve and react to its surrounding ecosystem, making them even more unique and valuable.

An example of this would be – You hold a Bart Simpson figure NFT in your wallet. Imagine being able to add other NFTs (Barts skateboard, walkman, hair, glasses, slingshot, etc.) to that NFT! You can essentially build your own personalized version of Bart.

Now, instead of Bart sitting in your wallet gathering dust, you can give him utility. An example of this would be if a project launches a new game and you want to use Bart as a character in the game. Through RMRK’s genius technology, you can add multiple resources to Bart, one of which will allow him to have in-game utility. This is just a small taste of the exciting value that RMRK is bringing to the table.

What Is RMRK Solving

➤ NFT Marketplace Commissions inflicted on users.
➤ Interacting with NFTs is very expensive (buying, sending/receiving, etc.)
➤ Ethereum’s programmability and versatility is not capable of running RMRK’s unique functionality.

Value Proposition

➤ Unique NFT LEGO technology that is not available anywhere else.
➤ Adds long-lasting ever-evolving value to NFTs.
➤ Cross-chain interoperability through Kusama’s network.
➤ Cross-chain liquidity across NFT different marketplaces.

Under The Hood

Before we look at RMRK, let’s take a look at Kusama, where RMRK is running. Kusama’s architecture has a relay chain that connects all parachains, provides security, feature sharing, and many other functions. By design, Kusama does not allow logic to be written on it because little information or data is stored on the relay chain. Thus, if there is no logic, there is no NFTs on Kusama (without securing a parachain slot).

This is where RMRK’s remarkable technology comes into play. RMRK adds logic to the blockchain without on-chain logic. So how is this achieved? Substrate-based chains have a function called “remark” (where the name RMRK comes from). When arbitrary messages (NFTs) are sent to the chain, these messages are “remarked” onto the chain-blocks without changing the state or the chain’s values.

As described by RMRK, this is known as “graffiti” on Kusama’s chain–blocks. This allows them to write tools that know how to interpret this graffiti. The end result is NFTs and other programmable features on a logic-less blockchain. This, in turn, allows every project on Kusama the opportunity to interact with RMRK!

It is important to note that RMRK is currently working on a complete rewrite of RMRK logic using smart contracts (Solidity) for inclusion in EVM chains like Moonriver and FRAME Pallets (Substrate, Rust) for inclusion in chains’ native runtimes. This will make it so easy for projects on Kusama to implement RMRK and take advantage of their unique technology. This is planned as part of RMRK 3.0, which is scheduled for Q1 2022. Very exciting times ahead for RMRK.

RMRK & Statemine

Statemine (Statemint on Polkadot) is a permissionless Common-Good-Parachain. Statemine is designed to be the canonical balance-keeper of thousands of different fungible and non-fungible tokens. RMRK utilized Statemine for the launching of the RMRK token and it was the first Statemine asset to be listed on a centralized exchange!

How Can Users Interact With RMRK’s Technology?

Currently, there are two places where users can interact with RMRK’s technology, Kanaria, and Singular. Below is an introduction to Kanaria and Singular. However, RMRK’s cool features will be discussed later in the article. Both these are 100% owned and created by RMRK. You can connect to both app’s by using the polkadot.js.org/extension.

Singular

Created in May 2021, Singular is RMRK’s open NFT marketplace for official minting and trading UI for Kusama-native NFTs. Singular is currently running off RMRK1.0 protocols. However, the RMRK2.0 protocol is active and running smoothly on Kanaria. Once matured, RMRK2.0 will be migrated to Singular, where the users can also avail of RMRK true functionality.

Singular supports Statemine’s Common Good Parachain, but unlike Kanaria, it only supports primitive NFTs with little functionality.

Kanaria

Fundraiser
Hosted on Kusama, Kanaria is the world’s first NFT Launchpad framework using the RMRK standard. Kanaria was a fundraiser for the RMRK Association. The fundraiser consisted of 9999 unique NFT eggs that hatched into unique and rare Kanaria birds (canaries) with special upgradable traits. There were only 8861 eggs out of 9999 birds claimed. With the current prices these birds are selling for, I am sure there are many people sorry that they missed it (including myself).

Everyone who claimed an egg automatically qualified for the Fairdrop in which a quantity of RMRK tokens was airdropped to the egg holders. The number of RMRK tokens you received depended on the classification of egg you purchased with KSM. Please see below egg classification with the number of associated RMRK tokens.

Super Founder: 32362 – RMRK tokens
Founder: 21574 – RMRK tokens
Rare: 4314 – RMRK tokens
Limited Edition: 431 – RMRK tokens

Kanaria
Browse through the catalog of birds for sale and filter through classifications from Super Founder being the rarest down to Limited Edition (as listed above). Users can also view the recent sales, birds for sale and see all the assets they hold in their nest on the Kanaria platform. Currently, KSM is used for general transaction fees for both Kanaria and Singular. However, the RMRK token is planned as a fee payment also.

Features

This is where we will see the true functionality and value that RMRK provides both projects and users. Each of the features (NFT LEGOS) below can be used independently or altogether.

Multi-Resource NFTs

NFTs have the potential to be many different things in parallel. RMRK’s multi-resource NFTs, enable a single NFT to have multiple different outputs. Users can essentially customize their NFT to have many utilities such as; speaking, singing, or a high-resolution image, depending on which platform they are uploaded on. The beauty about this is that you can add additional resources to NFTs long after they have been minted. This gives future-proofing to the NFTs.

Fall back resources for NFTs –are to prevent rug-pulls from destroying your NFT art. You can store your NFTs on multiple different centralized and decentralized storage services, so if your NFT someday disappears on one storage device, you will still have access to it on another.

Nested NFTs

Just like Bart Simpson’s example earlier on, NFT can own other NFTs. In addition, the NFTs can equip other NFTs to change their output media. So let’s check out the Kanaria Birds, where RMRK has showcased this exceptionally well.

Shown below is a Kanaria bird, one of the Super Founder birds who owns several items; jetpack, ears/nose, and a background. When the main NFT is opened, you can see all the other NFTs (items and gems) associated with that NFT. The user has the option to equip or unequip these items to the bird. This is super cool as you can dynamically change the appearance of the bird in real-time. The items can be sent/sold to other users, and they can equip it to their bird if they choose to do so. When loading your birds on Kanaria, you can see each element (feature) of each NFT load independently – this is the first time in history this has been done.

In the image above, you can also see several GEMS. The gems cannot be sold or transferred but can be burned, equipped, or unequipped by the owner. There are different Gems associated with each Bird and each Gen as its own functionality. Shown below are some of the gem traits related to the bird above.

Daikoku – “This trait removes the commission otherwise charged on the Singular market in perpetuity.”
Legendary Trait Voucher – “This trait allows the owner to burn it as a fee to buy a legendary trait or a trait of a lower order from RMRK.”
Epic Trait Voucher – “This trait allows the owner to burn it as a fee to buy an epic trait or a trait of a lower order from RMRK.”

Forward Compatibility

Forward Compatibility (which works in conjunction with resources) simply means that NFTs can have various outputs depending on their utilization conditions. Resouces can add different outputs to NFTs that enable them to be multi-compatible under different environments. For example, let’s say a user had an NFT of game character – one resource could be a 2D model and the other a 3D model, both of which could be utilized. Another example could be an ebook, where one resource, “compatibility,” could be a pdf while another could be an audio file. This is super cool as it provides additional utility to your NFTs that could be used on an array of different games, platforms, projects, marketplaces, etc. How it works is the issuer of the NFT collection can propose new resources to its holders. The NFT holders then have the option to accept the new proposed resource. Once accepted, their NFT can be upgraded.

On-Chain Emotions

In simple terms, on-chain emotions work by sending emojis (selected from the emoji keyboard) to NFTs on the RMRK system. Any person viewing that NFT can then see the different emoticon reactions on that NFT.

On-chain emotions can have multiple powerful uses.

➤ Gamification and social mechanic – general social fun and interaction
➤ Early price discovery – Let’s say if one NFT starts attracting a lot of attention in the form of emotes, you can quickly gauge if it may be worth more than the other NFTs
➤ Emoji Bots – An emoji bot can be implemented to analyze a particular person to see what NFTs they are reacting to. This is super cool because you can analyze what NFTs, high-profile individuals are liking.
➤ Consume function – Early influence of evolving NFTs (e.g., an unhatched bird egg). Users can send emojis to particular NFTs that can influence the traits of the NFT!

On the Kanaria platform, users can view which accounts reacted to specific NFTs and which emojis they reacted with. Please see the image below.

Conditional Rendering

Apply simple logic (parameters) to your NFT so that you or other users can change its appearance! An NFT can be rendered, depending on a specific condition (on or off-chain) that can be specified by the owner. For example, let’s say you (the NFT owner) have an NFT of a lady walking her dog home. While the NFT is visible to other people, you can change an item of clothing or the color of the sky by pressing a button in your wallet. You could also have these rendering changes triggered by other conditions, such as when it hits a specific date or time or KSM hits a certain block number.

Another way to render the NFT would be to incorporate on-chain emotions and multi-resource NFTs. For example, if you have Chucky doll NFTs, one as a static high-resolution image of Chucky and the other with Chucky speaking. Then, you can apply simple logic to your NFT: if Chucky got 50 scary emojis, the static Chucky NFT would automatically switch to the other resource NFT of Chucky speaking!

NFTs as DAO’s

NFTs will have the potential to be broken up (into fungible tokens), which in turn, will form a DAO (community ownership) for that particular NFT. These tokens can then be used to govern the NFT in-game functions. For example, an in-game user buys a movie theatre and breaks it into ten segments (fungible tokens). These tokens are then sold to other in-game users forming a DAO. The DAO decides what movies are shown at the movie theater and gets royalties from the showings. Note: NFTs as DAO will become available with RMRK 3 and the transition to pallets and smart contracts.

Metaverse

RMRK is developing a Metaverse that sounds completely mind-blowing. It intends to incorporate the famous Kanaria Birds and a multiple range of features, some of which are listed below.

➤ Use your Birds as avatars.
➤ Grow the birds and teach them experiences.
➤ Stats Cards – RMRK will add “stats cards” that contain a written “back story” for your Bird. This stats card will have specific stats. If you accept the stats card, then it will be sent directly to your bird. You then can upgrade your stats by participating in events.
➤ Staking your Bird to mine base resources. Base resources are components in which you can craft other items.
➤ Collect recipes, so you can craft them for money, for other people, or just craft them for yourself.
➤ Equip the crafted items to your bird and deck them out further for better in-game experiences and environments. This may allow you to participate in other quests or organizations.
➤ Buy in-game NFTs, fractionalize NFTs, create DAO’s, governance voting, earn rewards (check out the video below).

Token Utility / Rewards

The RMRK token has several utilities. Please see below.

➤ Liquidity – Used for providing liquidity on CEX’s.
➤ Defi – RMRK token will be usable as stablecoin collateral on platforms like Karura / Acala.
➤ Cross-Chain Interoperability – Connection with NFT Marketplaces on other chains to perform basic features such as buy, sell, mint, trade.
➤ Governance – of multiple platform features (mentioned above). With over 88% of all tokens allocated to protocol users, the RMRK Association’s token supply is fully decentralized and ready for community governance.

Stake RMRK token in the following ways to earn rewards
➤ DAO Collateral – staking RMRK will allow the user to essentially convert an NFT (e.g., in-game item) into fungible tokens that can be sold off, creating a DAO. The DAO can then govern that specific NFT and get rewarded in doing so.
➤ Whitelabel Campaigns – Commission fees for any whitelabel copying of the Kanaria initial collection will be taken in RMRK
➤ Deflationary Mechanism – TBD – “To report someone, you have to stake RMRK tokens. The winning party obtains a fraction of the opponent’s stake, and the rest is burned, reducing the supply.”
➤ Curation In Galleries – Stake RMRK to mint an NFT on Singular
➤ Verified Artist – A minimum of 10 RMRK tokens need to be in your wallet if you want to start the process of becoming a verified artist. If you are successful, you need to maintain a balance of 10 RMRK, or you will lose your verified status checkmark.

Metaverse Staking – in the planned Metaverse, you can stake your $RMRK to:
➤ Mine raw materials (fungible tokens) from your land
➤ Craft new items for the Kanaria birds using your raw materials
➤ Stake the birds & RMRK to generate performance boost’s for the Kanaria birds

Tokenomics

Maximum supply: 10 million
Supply is Deflationary by design
Current Circulating Supply: 8.8 million
Team Allocation: 5% (500,000 tokens)
Remaining Token: Liquidity for CEX’s

Vesting
Team tokens: 5% is locked for the team to access after two years (1-year cliff, one-year linear vesting per block)

Team

Total Team Members – 10
Developers – 3
Team Experience – Web 3 Foundation, Blockada.io, Bitfalls, Vivax Communications

Bruno Skvorc – (Founder)
Yuri Petusko – (CTO, Co-founder)
Yuri G. – (Co-founder)
Ilia – (Co-founder)

Roadmap

Please see the list of features and innovations that RMRK has planned. Some of these are a part of RMRK 3.0.

➤ Full rewrite of RMRK logic using smart contracts (Solidity) for inclusion in EVM chains like Moonriver and FRAME Pallets (Substrate, Rust) for inclusion in chains’ native runtimes.
➤ Metaverse
➤ Singular – RMRK 2.0 features incorporated – (Nested NFTs, Multi-Resource NFTs, Conditional Rendering, NFT as DAO’s)
➤ Avatars, Banners – Rich profiles on Singular and Kanaria
➤ Platform Bonuses – through RMRK partnerships – (depending on if you hold an item of that specific company in your wallet)
➤ Grants – There will be a grants program panned where RMRK will be giving grants to teams to build stuff for RMRK
➤ Community Events – RMRK will be organizing community events where participants will be able to contribute art and community-contributed items – more details on this to be announced
➤ Auction house (auction candle type)
➤ RMRK Torrent Tracker
➤ RMRK Curated Lists

Partnerships

RMRK has a lot of partnerships in the pipeline. Shown below are the one’s currently public.

Current Partnerships
➤ Khala Network
➤ Unique Network
➤ Promoteam
➤ Zeitgeist
➤ Unifty
➤ Bifrost

Pending Partnerships
➤ Karura
➤ Bit.Country
➤ Shiden
➤ Altair

Investors

Several investors participated during the fundraising round, purchasing Kanaria eggs at the same price as the community. However, some investors chose not to collect eggs which was great because they went into the RMRK NFT Treasury. Please see the below image of investors that took part in the community fundraiser.

Verdict

I would consider RMRK the most advanced NFT protocol in the world with extremely high potential. RMRK provides unique futuristic features to NFTs, taking them to the next level. RMRK’s technology allows users to take their NFTs and essentially give them meaning and useability. Features such as nested NFTs, forward compatibility, emotions, multi-resource, and create DAO’s are the future of NFTs. NFT Artwork is lovely, but is it not more fun and rewarding to bring that artwork to life! As RMRK NFTs evolve with the protocol they are built on, they can easily be utilized in any NFT game, Metaverse, or marketplace. This makes them even more unique and valuable as time grows.

RMRK has a small team of 10 people, but the team is effective and efficient with very admirable experience. They are knocking out feature after feature without any resistance and will continue to do so.

I believe that once RMRK implements the protocol for use through EVM chains and FRAME pallets, it will see a burst of partnerships and explosive growth. In addition, RMRK intends to be made available on the Polkadot ecosystem and all its parachains. RMRK has very attractive tokenomics. A very low max supply at 10m and a high proportion of the supply is community-owned.

Please see my rating for this project below.

Resources

https://www.rmrk.app/
https://kanaria.rmrk.app/
https://singular.rmrk.app/
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/rmrkintro/register
https://github.com/rmrk-team/rmrk-spec
https://discord.com/invite/esuzUr3eAM
https://app.subsocial.network/@rmrkapp
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vToDf7FmFbNwnIvXJeCvWvXscG7HwL638eeuAlV3-692vExzpzoHJNAmqc-jEu2IeOEyYgJuN_Fn4th/pub