Pokémon NFTs Could be Really Cool, Actually. A Theoretical Overview.

This has been in my head for a while but another redditor beat me to it. I’ve been playing since Gen 4, so not the oldest fan but I have some experience. Here’s my take on how I’d want it to look.

(As always I am not an expert in the field)

Imagine every Pokémon you caught in a mainline game, Pokémon Go, etc. became a tradable NFT. You could also have items, TMs, anything grindable as tradable with other players, mayhaps with a DAI or other stable coin pairing to cash out.

You could be a great breeder with perfect IVs, natures movesets ready to be ordered from Wolfe Glick to be used in the next VGC, and make some bank…

On the other side of that coin you could be an up and coming player that spends a slight sum on a great team that may do you well, and Gamefreak has an excuse to REALLY crack down on cheating in maxed mons (which I think the cheating is understandable when the game isn’t in NFT form). If you win the tournament, people would buy, say, the game winning Solgaleo for a good price.

Similarly, a Youtuber could sell their playthrough’s star players in an auction and supplement their income some.

Even for an average player, sending Pokémon over to the next game easily and standardly over the crypto space would be a massive improvement from the convoluted (yet, to Gamefreak’s benefit, expensive) system you have now.

Imagine you’re a shiny hunter. Best in your craft, collectors would drove on you.

You want to finish the Pokédex? Some may say it’s a little cheaty, but buy and sell the ones you don’t have. This could be useful for getting good breeding Pokémon I’d imagine.

Nintendo could make bank from this. People would pay good money for, say, a limited distribution of “Ash’s Charizard”, “Cynthia’s Garchomp”, etc, if they knew they truly owned the rare collectible.

Potential Downsides:

Inflation. There is no burning of good Pokémon found ingame. Outside of collectibles that are distributed, this would mean bad news for speculation (honestly could be a good thing for honest gamers).

Lack of experience. Gamefreak is known for being rushed to develop their games by the Pokémon Co. And never touched a blockchain. It could be a really buggy experience.

Always online. Would really bug longtime players of the franchise, especially if the games are on portable, non-cellular systems. I’d have to make some adjustments to my play too.

PETA would be mad that you can make an “animal breeding farm” profitable, but PETA’s always mad for stupid reasons.

Overall, blockchain gaming for Pokémon is an exciting idea, albeit an unrealistic one for Gamefreak specifically. Maybe an indie dev could kind of fill the void, Temtem blockchain maybe?