If you are reading this, you’re early :)
NFTs have been the craze these past few months, surpassing $5B in volume on OpenSea in January. As amazing as this sounds, I like to call the majority of this volume “Degen induced Fomo”. This Degen volume primarily stems from projects that have garnered a massive twitter following and release 10K NFT projects that generate millions in revenue. The anonymous teams behind these projects take the money and never execute on the roadmap promised. Thus making NFTs one massive game of “Who’s going to be left holding the Bag?” It is estimated that over 98% of all current NFT project will be rendered worthless within the next 6–8 months.
With that being said, as with all new technologies, NFTs will take time to find genuine utility and value outside of anon projects and Influencers looking to quickly monetize their following.
Real NFT Use Cases Include:
Let’s take a look at these four use cases in more detail to determine the viability and feasibility of their real-world application. This will help us understand why NFTs are so much more than just a JPEG you can just screenshot.
NFT Academic Credentials
Fraud on resumes is a major threat to any company who is hiring. The beautiful thing about the blockchain is that it’s immutable and transparent. It only makes sense to utilize this tech through NFT’s to ensure resume fraud is a problem of the past.
To ensure this fraud won’t happen in the future; colleges, universities and employers can use the blockchain to record and verify academic credentials. In effect, your academic credentials would become an NFT. Anyone can pull up that information, since data on the blockchain is public. There is no lying about your education or qualifications, because one day, in the not-so-distant future, the blockchain will serve as your resume. Taking this a step further, employers could write a record to the blockchain about when they hired you. Employers could also publish data to the blockchain, recording the date and reason for your termination. Remember, not all terminations are bad. People often quit their jobs for a variety of reasons. Or workers get laid off due to corporations resizing their entire workforce.
After leaving a job, when you apply for a new job in the future, other companies could quickly access this data — your NFT resume — and see your complete employment history. Of course, this can be done on a permissioned platform so not everyone can see your resume without your consent but that’s another topic.
NFT resumes are a current, powerful real-world use case for the NFTs
NFT Tickets
The Secondary Ticket Market is a huge moneymaker, valued near $6B.
Companies such as Seatgeek or Ticketmaster have built empires from buying sporting event and concert tickets for cost and reselling at a higher price.
The immediate downside of secondary markets is that the event promoters, performers and facility get cut out of sales. But with NFT tickets, they could profit further from the built-in royalty when a ticket is resold before the event.
In addition, there is no way for a secondary buyer to verify if the ticket they just bought from a guy off the street corner is a real or fake ticket. That is, until the buyer gets to the gate and the ticket taker scans the ticket. Given NFTs are unique and verifiable, this problem could never possibly occur.
Other industries will soon begin issuing NFT tickets to customers as well. Industries such as amusement parks, airlines, gyms etc…
Lastly, NFTs will serve as unique passes that will grant entry into various Metaverse events or communities.
NFT Digital Assets
Digital Assets will be a major use case for NFTs as we start approaching a more refined version of a Metaverse. Your avatar in the Metaverse will have the option to be styled in clothes, shoes and other accessories. These items will all be sold and retained in the form of NFTs and can be readily traded and sold. NFT’s in fashion may even have some kind of utility in the near future, whether it’s inclusion into a community, right to a physical item, exclusive access to a store etc…
Companies such as Nike and Adidas have made early headway in the space by making strategic acquisitions, putting them ahead of the curve. Renowned brands such as Dior, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Gucci etc… are all actively developing strategies for how they can leverage NFTs to enter into this new age of e commerce.
NFT Consumer Goods
Fake products have become a major issue, especially on secondary marketplaces like eBay or Amazon. Often times, a price looks too good to be true, and it may just be; You can never truly be sure if what you ordered is the real thing.
But one of the surest ways to avoid buying a fake product — at least today — is to buy directly from the manufacturer. If you want to buy a headset and not a cheap knock-off version, then you buy from Bose or one of the well-known Headphone carriers.
For example, years ago I bought a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. This was a couple of years before Dr. Dre sold his company to Apple for a huge cash payday and partnership. So I went on eBay to go shopping. But I had heard news that there were knock-off versions on the market and buyers had to be careful. There was a known way to check the real thing from the fake, but I wouldn’t be sure until I had the headphones in my hands.
But how do manufacturers rid the market of fake products?
NFTs for (certain) products will solve this problem.
They’ll do this because every step in the manufacturing, shipment and distribution processes will have record entries on the blockchain. The consumer can then scan a QR code directly on the product with their phone, pull up the blockchain records and verify the product is 100% authentic. And consumers could do this before handing over their hard-earned money.
There are many other NFT use cases including IP and Patents, Supply Chain Management, Real Estate etc… I merely wanted to focus this article on my favorite near term NFT applications.
TLDR:
We are just at the forefront of how NFT technology will evolve and improve everyday life.
When people think of NFTs, a Bored Ape or CryptoPunk comes to mind, but what they fail to realize is that NFTs are actually an ERC-721 contract that is permanently stored on the blockchain and that allows for numerous real world use cases.
The next 5–10 years will be super exciting for NFTs and I can’t wait to see some of these use cases launch full scale and gain a steady foothold in the greater public.
NFTs will only make our world a more transparent place to live, work, consume and play.
Thanks for reading and Feel Free to connect w/ me on LinkedIn: