Web3 sports gaming platform SCOR has unveiled one of its biggest releases to date and it’s poised to have ramifications that extend far beyond its own ecosystem. Cross-Chain Wallet Linking from SCOR is an attempt to join up the fragmented multichain landscape, making sports NFT’s scattered across disparate chains work as one.
But the release is about more than merely an attempt to improve interoperability or reduce friction for onchain users – SCOR has much grander aspirations with its new product that should be of particular interest to NFT owners. While Cross-Chain Wallet Linking can’t prop up the value of NFTs whose value has diminished significantly from their peak, it can at least give them newfound utility – and that’s something sports aficionados are sure to appreciate.
Making NFTs Great Again
The idea behind Cross-Chain Wallet Linking goes something like this: a lotta people, sports fans especially, spent a lot of time and money acquiring NFTs back in the day. Some they minted because they were licensed by their favorite football team or star quarterback; others they purchased for a quick flip or because they granted additional benefits, such as VIP tickets to a big game.
While these NFTs may have served their purpose back then, be it six months or four years ago, they’re doing nothing now aside from sitting dormant in the owner’s wallet – and often on a network they no longer use. But these dormant NFTs still mean something to the buyer, since they represent a memory of a particular time in their life and a memento of their love for the game, whether that be football, basketball, hockey, or snooker.
Which brings us back to Cross-Chain Wallet Linking. As Tom Mizzone, CEO of SCOR developer Sweet, explains: “We’re turning isolated collections into a unified gaming identity without forcing holders to migrate assets. By securely linking their wallet history to their SCOR-ID, we can instantly recognize their sports fandom and reward it with tangible gameplay upgrades within the SCOR ecosystem.”
Forged for Fans
The concept behind Cross-Chain Wallet Linking may not be the endgame for SCOR’s sports ecosystem, but at the very least it levels it up by bringing dormant NFTs in from the cold. And the best part is, they don’t need to be bridged in order to earn their holder exclusive SCOR perks such as points and rewards that denote their fandom. Instead, the user can verify ownership on the network where the NFT lies, be it Tezos or Ethereum, and then SCOR will add it to their profile.
With more than 2,000 athletes already on SCOR, the platform boasts a massive lineup ranging from cricket legends like Rashid Khan, Ben Stokes to hockey icons Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe- alongside thousands more across basketball, soccer, and football to be announced.
The user’s cross-chain inventory is neatly visualized within their SCOR dashboard, providing a record of where they’ve been onchain, what they’ve done, and the advantages this NFT now bestows upon them. This might include gem multipliers or access to specific drops related to the sport or team they love.
It’s All About Identity
Identity has been a dominant theme in web3 this year, with multiple protocols implementing digital IDs that enable users to verify their credentials without giving up their personal data. This means they can sign into various services and confirm their eligibility to trade or purchase age-gated products and services while retaining their right to privacy.
The development of Cross-Chain Wallet Linking very much aligns with this trend, allowing users to verify their assets without having to deal with the complexity and friction of bridging them over. And once these assets have been confirmed, using a wallet-based digital signature, their existence is permanently stored in SCOR.
If the technology catches on, there’s no reason why the same approach couldn’t be used to revitalize other dormant NFTs and assets on networks whose usage has since diminished from its peak. But for now, at least, Cross-Chain Wallet Linking is for hardcore sports fans, who will be delighted to discover that the NFTs they dropped serious dollars on back in the day aren’t dead – they were merely sleeping. And now, as SCOR’s sports fandom platform goes from strength to strength, they can live again.
