Ecosystem

Anima's Three Pillars: Standards, Launchpad & Marketplace

Anima Labs is the creator of the Anima Genesis Collection, the first dynamic NFT (dNFT) collection on Sui. Our decision to build on Sui was driven entirely by its unique architecture and its capability to support composable NFTs. On Sui, NFTs can be dynamic - Pokémon can evolve and NFT houses can be assembled from on-chain bricks. It opens the doors to complex virtual worlds that cannot be built in any other ecosystem. Today, Anima is developing a one-stop-shop, a hub for Sui-based NFTs based on a brand-new set of Sui asset standards; creators, without coding skills, will be able to create and launch their Sui NFTs via our launchpad. Alongside the launchpad, Anima is also developing a marketplace, facilitating secondary sales on static and dynamic NFTs. However, this is the tip of the iceberg. We have a broad range of features and comprehensive tooling on the way designed to help Sui-users manage their NFTs, from creators, to casual buyers and NFT traders.

Standards

During the development of Anima’s Genesis Collection collection, in many respects a tech prototype, we discovered some critical issues: first and foremost, a lack of NFT standards. Sui does not have the equivalent of Ethereum’s ERC-721 or Solana’s SPL-721. A permissionless ecosystem needs standards.

Whilst we started out building in the gaming domain, standards are at the foundation of interoperability - composable worlds and composable objects require standards. A robust system of standards is necessary not only for Sui to have a thriving NFT ecosystem, but is a bottleneck to developing a future of large scale interoperable worlds, Ready Player One style.

With this in-mind, in collaboration with the Venture Studio and Prime Machin builder, Studio Mirai, we are currently developing:

Static NFT Standard

At launch, Anima’s platform will facilitate the creation of a brand-new static NFT standard. The standard will include new features, from on-chain asset categories - is the NFT a piece of art, a digital ID or a derivatives contract - to Walrus-based storage. Creators will be able to manage the availability of their collections’ media in-platform.

dNFT Standard

Several teams, Anima included, have now had the experience of creating a composable dNFT. It is a complex task and the NFTs can be developed in a broad variety of ways. Critically, there is no guarantee your NFTs will be tradable.

Depending on your project and requirements, it’s likely that your dNFT project will require different analytics, views and marketplace tooling compared to a static collection on Sui. For large collections of composable assets, such as tradable skins, traditional wallets are ill-suited and feature-lite.

Additional Standards

We see a future where different projects can formally submit standards, allowing third-parties to mint assets in a given category or even gaming universe; is there a TCG specific standard; a music standard; an ACT gaming universe standard.

Launchpad & Marketplace

I’m sure some of you are wondering: Will introducing more standards encourage adoption? The answer to the problem of 10 unadopted standards is rarely an 11th standard. This is a fair and valid concern. Standards gain traction when they are driven by market forces - something becomes a standard only when it reaches critical adoption.

This is why Anima’s strategy is focussed on developing an NFT vertical. Anima will support our NFT standards throughout their lifecycle, from reducing friction for creators launching NFTs - you don’t need to code, learn Move or know what a blockchain is - to facilitating airdrops and secondary sales. Additionally, we will offer an external API, enabling third parties - such as games and marketplaces - to support NFT creation and sales.

No-Code Launchpad

The launchpad is going live in Q1, 2025 and will allow designers to launch their collections, from 1-of-1s to large-scale generative collections. Our roadmap features include comprehensive analytics and airdrop tools, enabling creators to monitor collection activity and reward their top holders, as well as supporting bespoke minting experiences - either within the Anima platform or embedded directly into a third-party site.

Sui-Native Marketplace and NFT Hub

Marketplace is not the right word for what we’re building - we’re building an NFT hub. You’ll have a full set of tools to manage your NFTs in one place, from multi-address / wallet aggregation, to bulk NFT transfers.

We are building for creators and collectors, supporting features that are native to Sui. This requires a different kind of user experience. With a focus on gaming and dNFTs, we’re exploring features such as: granular bidding, allowing users to bid on a specific sub-set of items within a collection, like a particular weapon type in a broader weapons drop, or even a specific trait in a PFP collection; allowing users to explore nested, owned or equipped objects; and, more generally exploring and tackling the various UX challenges dNFTs bring.

We are building an ecosystem to support the needs and wants of the broader Sui community. Any questions or feature requests, please reach out!