Minecraft says ‘no’ to NFTs and blockchain technology

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs for short, have died down quite a bit since its initial hype earlier this year, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of people from continuing to make, sell and trade NFTs. The popular videogame Minecraft also finds itself caught up with NFTs, as players and creators actively buy and sell Minecraft-related NFTs.

In response, Mojang Studios, the people behind Minecraft, have clarified their stance on NFTs and said that integration of them with Minecraft is something that they neither support nor allow. A new post on their website by Mojang staff further explains this, outlining how Minecraft is meant to have communities where everyone has access to the same content. NFTs in contrast goes against this philosophy by creating models of scarcity and exclusion that conflicts both their guidelines and the spirit of the game.

Specifically, Mojang says that blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated into the Minecraft client and server applications at all. The same restrictions apply for blockchain technologies when it comes to in-game content such as worlds, skins, items and mods. They call out companies that have launched NFT implementations of Minecraft world files and skin packs, and says these create digital ownerships based on scarcity and exclusion and, again, doesn’t align with their values of creative inclusion.

“To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our Minecraft client and server applications nor may they be utilized to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods,” – Mojang Studios

Mojang also added that they’re concerned about how third-party NFTs may not always be reliable, and end up costing the players who purchase them. Furthermore, some NFTs require some third-party blockchain technology and asset managers that may disappear one day with little notice, on top of the general risks surrounding NFTs being sold at artificially high prices.

As for the time being though, Mojang reiterated that they have no plans of implementing blockchain technology into Minecraft right now, but will still be paying close attention to how they evolve over time.