Top 10 Use Cases of NFTs
1. Legal Documents & Authentication
Law is probably not everyone’s first thought when they think about what NFT can be used for. But the nature of non-fungible tokens actually makes them a perfect fit if implemented correctly. The legal documentation will become faster, more efficient, and hopefully more transparent. This is also not some future speculations, just recently we had a case where the UK court allowed legal documents to be served via NFTs. If we also store ID documents such as passports and national identification documents on the blockchain, then we can then link our identities to legal documents, for example, a marriage certificate in the form of NFT, which can be publicly seen by accessing your official digital ID.
2. Access Passes
Access passes, or in a more familiar term, tickets are what NFTs can be used for very effectively. You buy these access passes a lot in your everyday life, whether it’s tickets for airlines, business events, movies, etc. The current problem is that there are fake and scam tickets everywhere. There are also ticket resellers who buy tickets early and sell them back for many times the cost. With NFTs, we can finally implement a secure, transparent system that provides better control over tickets, access passes, and memberships.
3. Non-Transferable Tokens
NFTs can be made non-transferable, which means that they can be used to authenticate academic documents. Academic degrees can be granted in the form of NFT that cannot be transferred to another person. Its authenticity is officially verified in the blockchain and recognized by other institutions.
4. Proof of Attendance
Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) NFT is a specific type of token that proves that you attended an event or experience in the physical or digital world. POAPs have emerged as a new way of keeping an immutable record of your life experiences, including virtual and in-person events. You could compare POAPs with a collection of concert tickets, except that they are digital and secured by blockchain technology. In the future, POAP may expand its use cases beyond proving one’s attendance. For example, it can be used to acknowledge contributions or to offer privileges to community members. POAP collection could also function as a reliable blockchain resume for people to prove their expertise and educational background.
5. CounterFeit
Whether an asset is physical or digital, there’s probably a counterfeit of it somewhere. It’s such a common problem that it has caused an estimated $323 billion worth of damage…in 2018. It’s so bad that you have 40% of buying a fake whenever you purchase something. NFTs are a solution to this issue, by tokenizing assets we’ll be able to verify their authenticity. Products can be sold linked with a digital certificate of ownership in the form of NFTs, physical assets will be able to be purchased in-store with crypto wallets, and the receipts will also be recorded as NFTs.
6. Identity Confirmation
Just in America alone, there were over 40 million people suffering from identity fraud which caused $52 billion in total losses. Attaching digital identities to the blockchain through NFTs can be an effective way to address online identity so that no one can alter personal identity information. Since NFTs are digital assets featuring programmed scarcity, governments can achieve this goal by establishing people’s digital identities and NFTs on public blockchains as a unique tool representing ownership of digital assets and several aspects of personal online identity, especially as we head towards Web3 and the metaverse.
7. Logistics & Supply Chain
Logistics is all about keeping track of things. An example would be what happens within one company, including the purchase and delivery of raw materials, packaging, shipment, and transportation of goods to distributors. Blockchain is the solution to create a transparent and efficient supply chain. With NFTs, companies can issue smart contracts linked to cargo and delivery services, resulting in a fully transparent and traceable record of every item in the supply chain, from raw material to end user. All this data will be essential to increasing productivity and efficiency related to logistics and transportation on a global scale.
8. Real Estate
Another big industry that will benefit from NFTs is real estate. It can solve one of the biggest problems we face in the real estate market, which is paperwork, permits, notaries, and many intermediaries such as banks and agents. There are many added costs to something that could be simplified in a single transaction between two parties. NFTs will help speed up buying or selling physical properties by making a straightforward transfer of ownership in a single transaction. All ownership and property history could be recorded in the Blockchain, which anyone can publicly verify. The possibilities for NFTs in the Real Estate market are limitless and might significantly impact the banking system in the future.
9. Gaming & In-Game Assets
Among all these use cases, gaming is probably the easiest one to name. The gaming industry is huge even without crypto or NFTs. Now that the Metaverse is something to look forward to, NFT will most likely find its main use case to track digital gaming assets. The ‘Play to Earn’ model is being widely adopted in developing countries. Gamers can now get paid to play games and opening massive opportunities for people to make a living.
10. NFT Run DAO
Thanks to the blockchain, the creation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOS) has become very popular as a governing system. In a DAO, there is no central authority; instead, power is distributed among token holders who collectively cast votes related to a specific decision. DAO can also be run using NFTs, DAO can mint their own NFTs for members to use a a proof of membership or proof of investment.
