The programmability gives it a lot of functionality. It can be used to create everything from smart contracts and NFTs to entire Metaverse worlds and games. It’s like how Decentraland was created on Ethereum’s blockchain, but cheaper – at least for now!
Another interesting quirk of Fantom is that it has incentives for developers. Around 370m FTM (£469.9m) are currently being kept aside to give to developers who are making interesting applications on the Fantom network. Individual sets of developers could be given as much as a million USD a month to create cool projects (particularly ones that get users to stay on the network).
This means users are more likely to stay on the platform long-term, as opposed to other crypto incentives used by cryptos like fellow “Ethereum killer” Polygon (MATIC), which incentivises the user not the developer. As a user, if you’ve made the most of an incentive in one place and then somewhere else offers you a better one, you’re gonna jump over, aren’t you? As an alternative, by prioritising developers, Fantom is essentially hoping to monopolise the best apps and resources. If the resources are always being made on Fantom, users are naturally going to choose it over other platforms.
For example, SpookySwap, Tarot and SCREAM (all supernaturally named, you’ll notice) are a decentralised exchange, a lending protocol and a DeFi application, respectively, made on and for Fantom. That should give you an idea as to how many avenues the network already has.
