The second edition of NFT Paris exceeded all expectations with over 10,000
enthusiastic participants, from curious onlookers to artists, gamers,
developers, investors, and students. We take this opportunity to showcase NFTs
potential.
What are NFTs?
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs for short, are digital assets stored on
decentralized digital ledgers (blockchains). Each NFT unit is unique and cannot
be replicated or divided into smaller parts, unlike cryptocurrencies like XTZ,
BTC, and ETH or fungible tokens like CTez, USDTez, Tether, and USDC.
NFTs date back to 2017 with the launch of CryptoKitties, a blockchain-based
game that allowed users to collect and trade virtual cats. Since then, they
have become increasingly popular and found other applications.
Why are NFTs not just gifs or digital images?
Web3 is relatively young, and NFTs are a recent and evolving technology. There
is still much to learn and discover about them. While there may be
misconceptions and controversies surrounding NFTs, they have enabled the
democratization and the first use of blockchain for the wider public. They have
opened up new opportunities in art, gaming, music, and video domains. Moreover,
other potential application domains are popping up. In principle, any notion or
object that a unique piece of digital content can represent could be "NFT-ized".
Let's review some of the (potential) usages.
The most known is the Art domain. NFTs have gained significant attention.
They provide a way for artists to prove ownership of their creations and
monetize their digital artwork on the primary and secondary markets. This can be
seen with the push of impressive platforms like Objkt,
fx(hash), Rarible,
Minteed, and many more on Tezos, but also the very
well-known OpenSea and newcomers like
Blur on Ethereum. Gaming, virtual reality, and metaverse
have also been known and continue to be an enormous success. NFTs can be used in
games to represent unique items, characters, or experiences. They allow players
to control their assets and sell or exchange them. For example, we participated
in the Rarible project on Tezos, where Ubisoft launched the Ubisoft Qwartz
project. Sports areas are using more and more
NFTS to create collectible items that fans can purchase and trade, such as
digital trading cards. The best example is the excellent
Sorare project with its soccer, NBA, and baseball trading
cards.
NFT Marketplaces
Other areas are very suitable for the use of NFTs. In Real estate, they can
represent physical real estate assets. Unlike traditional markets, a blockchain
allows exchanging them more transparently and with lower fees. We are
participating in the Fraktion project, which should
launch Q1/Q2 2023 with many innovations in this field. NFTs in Ticketing
could represent event tickets, providing a secure and decentralized way to
manage and verify ticket ownership, transfer, and resale. Most of all, some
projects, like Billy, want to give a second life
to our old tickets, like concert tickets, by giving them customization and even
more advantages.
Awesome projects in Web3 on Tezos
Finally, there are a lot of use cases for NFTs that we could spend hours
discussing: Intellectual Property that could represent ownership, or rights
for patents, trademarks or copyrights. Advertising, where they could
represent unique advertising campaigns allowing the brand to engage with
customers. Fashion and Luxury, where they could be used to sell virtual
fashion items and represent ownership of valuable luxury goods. Governance,
where they could represent voting rights or stakeholder ownership. And, of
course, the Music area, Digital identity, Supply chain, and many
more use cases.
Conclusion
In summary, there are plenty of good use cases for NFTs. It is up to the
individuals to decide how they are employed. So, don't blame the knife if
someone used it to commit a murder.
At Functori, we help startups and corporations in all stages of NFT or non-NFT
projects. Whether you need a comprehensive solution from analysis to
development, targeted support specifically for blockchain backend, or just smart
contracts implementation or audit, we have the expertise to help you succeed. We
could help you navigate the world of NFTs and unlock the full potential of this
exciting new technology.