Lecture 4.0.0. Some Use Cases for NFTs
(1) Entertainment
By now you may be wondering, “so NFTs are only for entertainment?” Partly right. Entertainment has grown to be a huge business; in fact, the entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing, if not the biggest, financial industries in the world.
For instance, the global movies and entertainment market was valued at 80.98 billion USD in 2016 and grew to 91.83 billion USD in 2020. This market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% to reach 114.93 billion USD by 2025.
With the rise of NFTs, this growth rate may be far exceeded.
(2). Tokenization
Besides entertainment, another force that drives NFTs is the monetary aspect. Since NFTs are cryptocurrencies, the currency for their transactions are cryptos. For instance, NFTs that are minted on the Ethereum blockchain are bought and sold with Ether. Likewise, NFTs that are minted on the Binance blockchain are bought and sold with Binance coin (BNB).
In addition, some NFTs have their own cryptos. In other words, you can buy or sell such an NFT using a token minted for that NFT. Examples are MILF NFTs, which are bought and sold with MILF Tokens and Solana NFTs that are bought and sold with Solana coins.
Because the coins and tokens are tied to the NFTs, as more of the NFTs are traded, the value of these cryptos rises. This means if you are not interested in acquiring NFTs, you may choose to trade their cryptos.
(3). Future use cases
As the Crypto Market evolves, NFTs will gradually find other use cases for their existence such as:
(a). Licensing and Certification
NFTs can be used to verify licenses and certifications.
Imagine if a university crafts an NFT into each certificate it issues! What that means is that the originality of each certificate issued by the institution can easily be ascertained by checking its embedded NFT unique signatory features.
In that way, certificate forgery will be a thing of the past, and the university administration could save a lot of time and resources required for certificate verification by simply accessing such licenses with the functionalities of their NFTs.
(b). Control of Counterfeit tickets and Corruption in Sports
One common headache in public (and even some private) events such as world cup soccer is ascertaining the authenticity of entry tickets. Counterfeit tickets and corrupt merchandise are some of the critical issues that plague the sports industry.
However, NFTs can bring a solution to these plagues.
Imagine if Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which is the world governing body of football, will issue an NFT for each world cup with its tokens! The fans acquire the tickets by simply buying the world cup NFT tokens. Imagine if each of the tickets sold carry the unique signature of identification!
This will not only be a source of revenue for the event, but it will also be a means for checking duplicated or forged tickets. It means the issue of counterfeit tickets and manipulations of tickets to favour some privileged people to the detriment of the soccer game will be a thing of the past.
Remember, the blockchain cannot be manipulated, hence such world cup NFT-inscribed tickets will be free from undue manipulations by any corrupt official.
As a soccer fan, like many other fans around the world, I’ll be delighted to see the day when Confederation of African Football (CAF), FIFA, and other sport confederations wipe off corruption completely from sports. NFTs can help achieve that!
(c). Family Legacy
Online collectibles such as Cryptokitties were among the initial ways in which people learned about the use of NFTs. Each digital kitty carries specific crypto traits such as fur patterns or eye colour.
A user can purchase two different crypto cats and breed them by simply clicking on a button. The resulting new breed of kitten carry features of its own identity and Genetic Algorithm (GA).
In the same manner, parents and grandparents can breed new collectibles specifically for their family and such collectibles with specific genetic algorithm can be passed onwards through generations as family legacies.
Indeed, NFTs and cryptocurrencies in general, are in their early stage of growth and development. As innovations pour in, more use cases for them will emerge.