Self-described ”Crypto Landlords” profit from the rental of NFTs

<p>If rent-seeking and artificially inflated digital assets designed to privatise the internet for profit weren't already two of late capitalism's worst symptoms, they've now married!</p> <p>On January 24, 2022, Fortune magazine published an article (or perhaps a foreboding omen?) with the headline "The next major trend in NFTs is to rent them out, and crypto landlords are making a killing," which explores how Hell has been unleashed on Earth so that the meek may suffer even more:</p> <p>Play-to-earn gaming is the newest craze in the crypto world, but you probably won't be able to participate unless you have thousands of dollars.</p> <p>Enter the concept of scholarships, which allow players to rent non-fungible tokens such as tools, creatures, or skins in games. These NFTs, as they are abbreviated, are frequently required for play or provide an advantage to players. Players pay the lenders a percentage of any cryptocurrency they earn while battling, farming, or racing online in exchange for renting the NFTs. In essence, NFTs are already mature enough to have de facto landlords.</p> <p>Unfortunately, this is neither surprising nor novel. HypeBeast reported in August 2021 that people were renting out their CryptoPunk Avatars — pixelated cartoon profile pics that trade for 6 or 7 digits — via a "new NFT rentals protocol called ReNFT."</p> <p>ReNFT has developed a licencing service that allows CryptoPunk owners to sign a transaction granting borrowers the right to display the CryptoPunk avatar as their own for up to 99 days.</p> <p>"This transaction adheres to the tenant rights protocol, which grants sole permission to display the CryptoPunk as your Avatar for a fixed period of time up to 99 days," CryptoPunk.rent stated in its FAQ section. "Tenants may use their rented punk as an avatar on Twitter, Discord, NFT marketplaces, and any other social platform where punks congregate."</p> <p>In October 2021, CoinDesk reported that Lattice Capital, Play Ventures, MetaCartel Ventures, Scalar Capital, LongHash Venture