Let me first start by what does nft mean?
What is nft?
Non-fungible tokens (nfts) are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items like art, videos, GIFS, in-game items, and music.
What is non-fungible??
Non-fungible means it can’t be replaced with something else and is unique. For example, you can't trade The Last Supper painting for another Last Supper painting, because there is only one original Last Supper painting.
Fungible means items that can be exchanged for one another because their value defines them rather than their unique properties. For example, Eth or dollars are fungible- a dollar can be traded for another dollar and you will have the same thing: a dollar
What are tokens?
Tokens are digital assets on top of the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens can represent anything from an art piece, video, GIFs to a physical object like gold.
Use cases of nfts!
1. Fashion and Wearables
Luxury brands are now coming to the NFT space. They provide physical assets like retail clothing and other accessories along with their digital companions as NFTs. Let’s say you bought Air Jordan and got its nft companion with it, which you can trade or use in the metaverse as your avatar’s shoes or just use it to flex.
2. Metaverse
NFT will be the primary asset class in the metaverse. Every digital property in the metaverse will be represented by nfts, be it a house, clothes, or a car.
3. Gaming
Let’s say you bought a gun skin in valorant or in pubg, with the integration of blockchain technology in games, users can sell their nfts (gun skin in this case) or even avatar(characters) to gain economic returns.
4. Defi
Let’s say you have an nft, you can use that nft as collateral for a loan. When you hand over the nft as collateral, you automatically get it back when you pay off your debt. And if you default?? Thanks to the smart contracts, the NFT gets transferred to the lender, eliminating the need for debt collection and bounty hunters.
5. Identification
NFTs can be useful for personal identification. NFTs have unique information stored in the tokens. These tokens can be used to store college degrees, birth certificates and the list goes on. These NFTs containing identification documents are on the blockchain which can be traced back to the owner
6. Health care
There are several use cases of nfts in healthcare, one of them is digitalizing medical records so that they can be brought to doctors easily and without hassle. This saves them the trip from going back and forth to the clinic or physical locations, as well as other platforms like email, drives, and more.
7. Real Estate
You can sell digital real estate in virtual worlds(metaverse) or in games
8. Digitalization of everything physical
We are spending most of our waking hours online, and this trend will continue to grow in the next 10-20 years. And we will have a lot of digital goods. There will come a point where every physical object from a car to a pen will come with its nft companions which we can use in a metaverse.