Practical applications of NFTs to increase the value of NFTs

What are NFTs:

(NFTs) are a blockchain-based, programmable deed of ownership to an asset. This digital deed gives its holder the exclusive ability to use, sell and transfer the asset’s ownership rights, as dictated by their private key signature. These rights could pertain to resale, physical redemption, digital functions, financial benefits or other intangible rights. The NFT does not necessarily “contain” the asset but rather is a programmable record of ownership with an inbuilt pointer to the asset location. The programmable language beneath NFTs are Smart Contracts, which is nothing but a few lines of code that define conditionalities and predetermine how the particular asset will behave. The Smart contracts beneath NFTs are the real tech innovation.

Blocktickets is also doing breakthrough research in developing its own multichain smart contracts, especially addressing the issues of the Event Industry, Financers and Sponsors.

Evolution of NFTs:

NFTs were born with Crypto Kitties in 2017 and went mainstream in 2020. The year 2020 is considered as the renaissance year for NFTs with evolving technology and a passionate user-base.

Recent Drop in Prices of NFTs in Mid 2022:

Recently, the News broke that First Ever Tweet by founder Jack Dorsey was purchased for USD 2.9 Mn in March 2021 and listed for 48 Mn received the highest bid of only USD 280/-. This anecdotal evidence is cited by the critics that NFTS are doomed.  However, the downturn as reported by Data Site Non-Fungible shows a decrease of 47% in Q1 of 2022 compared to the last quarter. However, as per data cited by Tom Schmidt, a Crypto, NFT Investor and a Huge Leader in Web3 Space vide his Twitter Post on 03rd May 2022 points out that NFT transactions have barely dropped since the New Year heights in January.

The anecdotal evidence that NFTs are over also does not find merit. The recent launch of Yuga Labs' new Otherdeeds NFT, a virtual land sale for its metaverse, was such a hit that it crashed the Ethereum blockchain.  Another factor contributing to the decline in NFT Sales is that the Crypto Winter of 2022 has set in. The Blue Chip Cryptos like Ethereum (Eth) are now hovering from USD 6,000/- to USD 2,000/- level support.

We at Blocktickets believe that as  NFTs and broadly speaking ‘On Chain Smart Contracts’ evolve from community-driven JPEGs to other practical applications the projection of USD 800 Bn of NFT Sale by 2025 by Coin Gecko is not farfetched.

Practical Use case of NFTs Evolving:

(i) Events and Ticketing:  Once tickets are powered by On Chain Smart Contracts (i.e. NFTs) it’s a win-win for all. The Event Organizer gets a royalty whenever the ticket changes hands while special Moments of the event can also be dropped to Ticket Buyers for Extra revenue. The ardent fans will no longer miss out or have to purchase tickets in the black market, rather on the secondary market.

Blocktickets is doing Ticketing for major events and Movies in India, GCC and Australia. We will soon introduce Reveal NFTs, particularly for the event industry.

(ii) Sponsorships And Advertisement: Blocktickets did Ticketing for Worlds first Holi on Metaverse on 17th March 2022. Along with NFT tickets the Brands NFT were Airdropped to Ticket Buyers.

(iii) Time NFTs: Time NFTs are issued by a Celebrity wherein that Celeb promises to spend 15 minutes on Instagram live with the buyer of NFT on a particular date and time. These NFTs are traded and create a massive hype.

Blocktickets is issuing the Time NFTs along with NFT Tickets of the star cast for a movie that is being launched in July. (iv) Porting of Exclusive Numbers, Car Plates etc: There is always a craze for getting that exclusive Mobile Number and that Car Plate. If these are issued as NFTs then the Issuer, Primary Buyer and Secondary buyer will all have a win-win situation.

Blocktickets is in discussion with a major telecom operator in GCC to port their exclusive numbers as NFTs.

(v) Membership: Till now, the traditional membership of a club is assigned to identity and many a time membership goes waste if the member relocates. Now the Membership is assigned to an NFT which can be traded, or even borrowed.

Blocktickets soon will launch its own memberships where the buyer will get access to the most sought after parties, concerts and matches in every continent and major metaverse platform.

(vi) Gaming and Metaverse NFTs: Blocktickets will not only build stadiums, concert halls and expo space in popular metaverses like Sandbox and Decentraland but also buy a stake in Mobile First VR/ AR Metaverse for Indian Audience where mobile penetration is high.

(vii) Supply chain and logistics: The main function of NFTs in the supply chain lies in authenticating products, ensuring their quality and verifying their origin. In the food and other perishable industries, knowing where the goods have been and for how much time is crucial.

(viii) Domain name ownership: Blockchain domain NFTs enable easy trading as well as customizable domain names. The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Unstoppable Domains, provide crypto-addresses that are similar to an Instagram or Twitter handle, but each name must be unique. ENS and Unstoppable Domains let users buy and sell crypto-addresses. The more popular names have higher prices.

(ix) Identification, certification and documentation: The identity or certification can be issued directly over the blockchain as an NFT, which can be traced back to the owner. So, employing NFTs to digitally store and protect medical history, personal profiles, education and address details gives users better control of their data and can help prevent identity theft. A related application is the use of NFTs for vaccine passports.

(x) Intellectual Property and Patents: Ownership of an IP and patents can be distinguished. The NFT chain would be immutable, which means that the NFT owner could prove they were the original creator of a piece of work at any point in time.

(xi) Signature and Notory in Legal Documents: Physical Signing of Documents is either attested or notarized which confirms that either party has signed. In Web 2.0 we have Docusign which confirms the digital signature.

(xii) Voting: NFTs can help solve this problem since they would provide a digital identity for people without physical documentation that proves who they are and where they reside in the country. This will also help eliminate cheating and voter fraud as NFTs will serve as an official record of those who voted and their votes.

(xiii) Real estate: NFTs have applications for selling digital real estate in both the virtual and real worlds. Similarly, in the coming years we will see a Unicorn emerge that will come that solves issues and complexities of Real Estate via Blockchains.

(xiv) Learn to Earn Games: The next evolution in Learn to Earn Game, where people are incentivized in Crypto to learn different blockchain courses. As they pass the course NFT Certificates are issued.  Finally, when the candidate gets a Job in a web 3 company, people who betted on him make a buck. This model can disrupt the present edtech giants.

Author: Nishant Chandra, co- founder of Blocktickets