An emoji might as well become your username on Web3. Yat, a Nashville-based tech firm, believes this, and with 160,000 units Yats sold for a total of $20 million, it appears that many regular people agree. One buyer bought a single-character key emoji that cost $425,000, while another bought a two-emoji rocket ship/moon combination that cost $200,000.
So what exactly is a Yat?
A Yat is a custom string of emojis. According to the creators, your Yat will not only be a global digital identifier in Web3, but it will also be a URL, wallet address, and can be an NFT minted on the Ethereum blockchain.
This could theoretically be a decentralized alternative to the present Domain Name System (DNS), which is managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). DNS organizes and assists people in finding information on the internet through a centralized, hierarchical system.
Although not all Yat’s are tokenized, it’s a cross between a non-fungible token (NFT) and a domain address. Since July 2021, owners have had the option to tokenize their string of emojis as an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain for a fee, but buying a Yat isn’t the same as minting an NFT.
Owners must first use the “visualizer tool” to produce a short animation of the emoji string before turning the Yat into an NFT. The visualization is then linked to the Yat, and it may be minted as an NFT to be held or traded on OpenSea.
Several celebrities have already gotten on board with this new platform. Paris Hilton purchased a queen crown-sparkle, Lil Wayne got himself an alien-music note, rapper Common owns a peace sign and heart emoji Yat, and Kesha is an owner of a rainbow-rocket ship-alien.
Current users are using their Yats on their social media pages to guide audiences to their preferred websites.
Challenges and Criticisms
Yat has not had a smooth journey. There have been many challenges and criticisms that have come along the way. Because it’s not always simple to write an emoji sequence on a conventional QWERTY keyboard, Yat URLs can be tough to locate.
On the other hand, co-founder and former CEO Riccardo Spagni “Fluffypony” was detained in the United States in August 2021, where he awaited extradition to South Africa on charges of fraud. Although Yat has nothing to do with the fraud charges, it sure leaves a blemish on its image.