The year 2021 saw cryptocurrency demand skyrocket to unprecedented levels. The industry reached an incredible two trillion market cap in a few months. The rise of cryptocurrency resulted in the creation of a smaller asset class called NFT or non-fungible tokens. The NFT industry reached three and a half billion USD in August.
NFTs are an incredible technology that enables content creators to create unique digital products without relying on a central intermediary. NFTs also rely on blockchain technology to function. People can use NFTs as a certificate of authenticity and this feature has immense potential in the art industry. However, NFT potential exists beyond digital artwork, and every day we’re seeing their potential in industries like gaming, real estate, and marketplace development.
We’ve gathered together a list of alternative uses for NFT and the impact they could have on the industry. Here are the ways NFTs could work in other industries.
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Ensuring product authenticity
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Real Estate
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Identity verification and medical records
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Protecting intellectual property
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Academics
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Gaming
Ensuring Product Authenticity
As stated before, NFTs provide proof of authenticity of a digital asset. Blockchain permanently stores information about the product, checks its rarity, and ensures its authenticity. NFTs here can store information on the manufacturing process and ensure that everything is fair trade.
A significant problem in the world is the prevalence of fake food products like medicine and supplements. However, NFTs can overcome the issue by tracing and tracking food products. Here, a user can scan a QR code and track the product’s journey from start to finish.
Real Estate
There is immense potential for NFTs in the real estate industry. Here, NFTs could be used for land transfer, provide ownership proof and track property changes through time-stamped NFTs. NFTs here can speed up or simplify transactions, enable smart contracts or create decentralized home services. These benefits come while protecting the user’s sensitive information like debit card details.
With real estate NFTs, a property owner can know everything about a property they are buying in a few steps. They don’t require third-party involvement like brokers, notaries, and other intermediaries.
Identity Verification and Medical Records
An NFT can store a person’s medical records and not compromise on things like confidentiality or risk tampering. Additionally, transactions here are stored on the blockchain and make them secure from any attempts at manipulation.
Another potential for NFTs in the healthcare industry is NFT birth certificates. Healthcare providers assign these NFTs to newborn children. This process is an ideal way for creating a permanent identity on the blockchain linked to the birth certificate. Parents and the child can use an app and check the verification at any time.
NFT ledgers are a safe way to store sensitive medical data while remaining accessible when required.
Protecting Intellectual Property
NFTs have immense potential for protecting intellectual property and patents. NFT tokens here enable users to prove their ownership over any content. This way of proving ownership does not exist in traditional IP rights tools like copyrights and trademarks.
Users can view the IP’s history and establish ownership. The NFT chain is immutable by nature and that ensures the NFT owner can prove they created a piece of work at any time.
This process also applies to patents. Here, NFTs can work to protect or certify ownership of an invention or innovation. NFTs also provide the required data for verification and create a public ledger. This ledger documents every transaction relating to the patent.
Academics
NFTs also have potential in the academic industry. Here, NFTs provide attendance proof, degree earned, and other essential information that gets stored on the blockchain. NFTs create immutable records for courses by issuing tokens for each course.
In the future, there will be minimal reliance on a paper certificate. NFTs will provide a record of academic achievement and users can transfer NFT education tokens to other users. This approach provides proof that the owner earned the NFT.
Gaming
NFT and the gaming industry goes very well together. Developers can integrate NFTs into the gaming world and allow NFT cross-platform playability. NFTs provide a new way for developers to expand their brand and create an additional revenue stream. Players have more incentive to keep playing a game. Now they complete objectives, earn rewards and can keep them or sell them on an NFT marketplace and profit.
NFTs also make it easy to trade items in games. This approach can even increase an item’s value as more players compete to own it. The lack of third-party involvement ensures that NFT users do not encounter any scams and transactions appear on the blockchain for everyone to see. This approach opens up various possibilities like purchasing weapons, equipment, and items that were already tested by users.
The most notable example of an NFT game is Axie Infinity. However, there are many other NFT games in development with the potential to change the industry.
Conclusion
NFT technology maybe something new but the potential is immense. Every day, developers are unlocking more of their potential and businesses are considering integrating NFTs to streamline processes. NFT may have started as a way to help digital artists but at present, it holds limitless potential.
