The world of blockchain is booming with new ideas and innovations. The technology involves the use of digital tokens to represent unique objects or users on a network. NFTs ( non-fungible tokens) are the hottest thing in blockchain right now. Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. These non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a special kind of digital token that represents something unique about that token. Even when most of the coin market was down , the NFT market was still up.Currently the majority of the NFTs are about art .This is definitely helping artists with copyright and distribution control , but I feel art is just one application and there are use cases beyond art which can cause a major disruption.
This article explores the top types of use cases of NFTs so that you can get acquainted with this exciting technology and its applications in real-world scenarios.
Let’s start with basics of NFTs
NFTs are tokens that represent a unique item or concept. They are often similar to collectibles, like rare artworks, rare books, vintage items, or even virtual items in video games. For example, a rare, first edition copy of a book, a rare photograph, unique digital art. When you tokenize an asset, you make it digital. This means you can track things like authenticity, ownership, condition, origin, and many other factors that you couldn’t do before. This gives you the ability to create new markets and economies around unique, one-off items that may not have been possible in the past.Principally NFTs can be used in any field which requires a unique identification in the digital world.
Trust and Identification
Trusting the source of your items, authenticity, and ownership is a big issue in the art, vintage, and collectible markets. When you’re spending thousands of dollars on a special item, you want to know that it isn’t a fake and that the seller is trustworthy. This can be a hard sell in these markets. NFTs, however, can solve this problem. By using blockchain technology, you can track the origin and authenticity of your item with certainty. You can also confirm ownership and who it was sold to. This trustworthy information can be shared with other users who can then make an informed decision about whether or not to purchase your item. Authenticity tracking is also helpful for insurance claims and legal cases.
Digital Gaming and Metaverse
Digital gaming is a huge industry, with billions of dollars being spent each year on in-game items, subscriptions, and upgrades. Gaming companies such as Unity and Battle.net have started to use blockchain technology to create digital item markets. They track the ownership of unique virtual items and allow them to be traded between players. Players can also earn these items through play and use them as they see fit. Some of the most notable NFTs currently being traded are for the game CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties is an Ethereum-based game that lets users collect and breed digital cats. While it doesn’t sound like much, the game has become massively popular and there are now more than $1 billion worth of CryptoKitties being traded each month.
Blockchain Identification and Certification
As blockchain technology becomes more and more common, we’re starting to see it being used for more than just transaction and payment systems. It’s been used to help refugees get official documents, and it’s also being used in academic institutions. But why would you use authentication and certification systems on blockchain networks? NFTs can be used to represent digital documents. This means that you can store a digital copy of your passport, driver’s license, certification, or other documents on a blockchain network and then share that document on the blockchain. This allows you to keep your documents secure and accessible from anywhere in the world. For e.g NFTs can be used by colleges and students in their educational lives. They can link their degrees with their digital wallets so that schools and colleges can transfer them as unique NFTs . This means that when they apply for jobs or graduate school, those links will show up in their digital wallets!
I had written in detail about this in my previous article here.
Asset-Based Equity with NFTs
When you tokenize an asset, you can represent its value as a rate against a coin or token. This means that if you tokenize a $200,000 house, you can represent the value of the house as a rate against the value of a certain coin. This allows you to create a stable, secure asset-based coin that can be used for many different purposes. With this functionality, you can create tokens that represent shares in a company. This allows you to raise money for your start-up or company by selling equity in the company to investors. You can even sell shares in a company where the company doesn’t exist yet. This is called an initial coin offering, or ICO. The most notable ICO of recent years is EOS. This company raised $4 billion in a year and is now one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Digital Marketing tokens
The digital marketing landscape is very interesting as well as very complex from Google SEO , Paid Ads , Social Media Marketing , Social Media Ads , Influencer marketing , Content marketing . Sometimes even with all this the ROI for the advertiser is very less and it becomes a barrier for small businesses to get discovered in the digital space. I believe a NFT token based digital marketing platform could be the answer for this problem . This ad network can be used for any type of digital marketing. They generate a good amount of tokens as income for the publisher and there are high chances of advertisers getting more ROI from the network. Me and my friend Valerio are working to solve this and watch this space for some interesting updates.
Rentals and letting
Keeping up to date with new developments in the blockchain space is important. For example, using the ERC-4907 standard, a new standard for non-fungible tokens that can be rented out for a specific period of time, users can rent just about anything! From a Hotel card to a Car rental, to a house rental,an Airbnb room , to a sword in a Play to earn game — all can be rented out. And there will be some very interesting projects in this space soon.
Memberships
One of the most exciting ways to use NFTs is as a form of payment for memberships, tickets or loyalty coupons. Imagine someone buying a ticket to see your favorite band at a concert venue, only to be able to turn that ticket into an NFT which allows them access not only to the event itself but also any merchandise associated with it!
Patents
The patent process is complex and time-consuming, with different rules in different countries. It’s a mess, and it’s no wonder that we don’t see many patents getting approved.
I have myself filed three patents , and sometimes I don’t even connect with the language of the patent attorney who filed them. It’s so complicated that I would have to hire a team of lawyers just to understand them.NFTs — they could streamline the process, making it easier to get your idea off the ground.With NFTs, anyone can have complete control over their IP — whether it’s a simple idea or an intricate invention — without having to deal with lawyers or spending hours on paperwork. This means less time spent waiting for approval from government agencies and more time spent building products!
Moreover NFTs are designed to simplify this process by allowing people who are interested in building on top of your idea to buy a piece of it with complete rights so long as they pay for the privilege. This means that if someone else wants to build on top of your idea but doesn’t have the resources or expertise necessary for doing so (or perhaps doesn’t even want it), all they have to do is purchase it from you at some agreed-upon amount and they’ll own all of your intellectual property rights without having to go through the trouble of filing their own paperwork
Copyrighting
World is full of talented writers with wonderful thoughts , but they hardly get a chance to monetize them. Mostly as Ghost writers .As Ghost writers , a writer who is unknown in the name of that book/ article/blog that becomes famous for the content he wrote for someone else. A NFT article can solve that problem where writers can write and sell their thoughts as NFTs which Organizations or other consumers can use. This also solves another problem of ownership of the content
For e.g If you are reading this article on Linkedin — Linkedin owns my content
If you re reading this article on Medium then medium owns my content
But if you are reading it on Mirror and can be collected as a NFT :)
