Mojang, the company that made Minecraft, said that it has no plans to officially support Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in its sole game.

The Microsoft-owned studio has made its stance known in an official blog post to address recent community feedback.

“In our Minecraft Usage Guidelines, we outline how a server owner can charge for access, and that all players should have access to the same functionality.’

We have these rules to ensure that Minecraft remains a community where everyone has access to the same content. NFTs, however, can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our Guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft.

To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilized by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset.”

Mojang said that NFTs would counter Minecraft’s values of creative inclusion in various ways.

“Creating collectible NFTs that players could buy or earn would run counter to Minecraft’s “values of creative inclusion and playing together” and “create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots. The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players.”

To recap, NFTs are unique non-interchangeable units of data stored on a decentralised ledger called a blockchain; this allows users to buy and sell digital things that are perceived as valuable like artworks or in-game items exclusive to them. At least in theory and through spin; while an interesting idea that could work in an artist’s favour, there are way too many middle-men messing it up and thus having the system getting its “scam” and “grift” monikers you see in the online space. Sales of NFTs have recently dropped toa 12-month low in June 2022 due to the broad slowdown of the cryptocurrency market. It went down in worth from US$3 trillion in late 2021 to under US$1 trillion.