We have walked you through the definition, standards, and history of the NFT in our previous TRON 101 lessons. Today, let’s turn our focus to classical NFT use cases of the year 2022. The list below may not be exhaustive, but it surely covers the most popular ones these days.
NFTs & Games
The union of NFTs and games began with CryptoKitties, which we introduced previously. Later, phenomenal works such as Decentraland and Axie Infinity, the blockchain versions of Minecraft and Pokémon, respectively, emerged on Ethereum. Meanwhile, other blockchains have seen many blockbusters such as MOBOX on BNB Chain and STEPN on SOLANA.
The marriage of NFTs and DeFi gave birth to GameFi. Apart from earning by enhancing and trading NFTs, players can also stake their NFTs to gain additional yield from the game’s DeFi mining pool. NFTs and P2E have thus become the standard features for most blockchain games.
NFTs & Metaverse Real Estates
As the concept of the metaverse expands its influence, speculation on properties has spread from the physical world into the virtual one. The land plots, or land parcels, provided by virtual real estate developers such as Decentraland and The Sandbox are being scrambled for by institutions and individuals; the prices of some core plots have even exceeded those in the physical world. For instance, a plot in Decentraland was sold for €2.1 million in November 2021.
A user may rent out the plot he or she has bought or develop properties on it. Many celebrities and internet tycoons have built their own virtual properties as platforms to showcase their images: TRON, for example, has built TRON ecosystem-themed building complexes in multiple metaverses including Cryptovoxels, Dreamverse, and Decentraland. It seems that properties, physical or virtual, are always the most sought-after items.
NFTs & Fashion Products
NFTs and the metaverse are undoubtedly a huge multi-billion-dollar opportunity for the fashion industry, since they may allow them to sell virtual items and seize new markets with virtually no cost. The desire for fashion never changes in either the physical or virtual world. Since people are willing to pay millions of dollars for skins or equipment in games, it makes perfect sense for them to also spend money improving their own avatars.
So that is why we saw the collaboration between Li Ning and Bored Ape Yacht Club, and we saw global brands such as Nike and Adidas entering the NFT market: for example, Nike acquired RTFKT, a metaverse streetwear startup company, in December 2021.
NFTs & Access Passes
The most practical use case for NFTs is obviously access passes such as tickets and ID cards. The uniqueness of the NFT means it is a natural fit for the role of access passes.
In fact, we have already witnessed NFTs being used as tickets for conferences, performances, sports events, and even restaurants worldwide. Such passes are both practical and collectable.
NFTs & Digital Certificates
People need various certificates in everyday life. However, how can these certificates be authenticated? How can the real owner of a certificate be identified? And how can privacy be protected? NFTs are the perfect solution to such problems.
NFTs are largely used for digital certification of items and products today, which helps consumers to obtain comprehensive data on the item they want without being misled by disinformation. For instance, Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo has recently equipped their new cars with the world’s first NFT-based digital certificate.