7 Types of NFTs

We’ve all heard of NFTs. We’ve seen the headlines about how many thousands of dollars are being paid for digital pieces of art that are, on the surface, no different to any JPEG you can find through a quick google search. People call them a fad, a bubble, a passing craze. But most fail to see the incredibly far reaching uses NFTs have. Art is just one of the many aspects this amazing technology has unfolded. So, with this humble post, we will try and cast a light on some of the many uses NFTs have that go beyond digital art. So here are 7 types of NFTs (and what are they useful for).

1 – Art. We all know this one, so we’ll get it out of the way quickly. NFTs can be sold as pieces of art. An image can become a digital asset if it is recorded on the blockchain. So anyone can take a screenshot, of course, but not everyone can say that they own it. Why would you want to own a piece of digital art? Well, for the same reasons as in the physical world: for social status, as an investment, or just to be the owner of something beautiful.

2 – Music. Probably one of the most disrupted industries during the rise of the early internet was the music industry. With the internet, music basically became free. Long gone are the days  when the artists actually sold records. This might sound amazing for the average music fan, but musicians still have bills to pay. Now, it looks as if the internet might redeem them. NFTs gives musicians the possibility of selling music again. But not only that. Something as complicated as royalties (that require huge bureaucreacy) can be managed by a simple line of cold.

3 – Access. they are a type of token that gives access to an event, a community or any experience, either online or in the physical world. They can be an ongoing thing, so the owner of the NFT can actually access every event the community has. Then, if the person gets tired, bored, or the NFT appreciates, the owner can sell the token to someone else.

4 – Gaming Objects. NFTs have the power to revolutionize the gaming industry, and the way games are designed. If a game is tokenized, it suddenly has a real economy going on intertwined with the gameplay. Imagine armors, skins, swords, houses, all being unique and scarce NFTs that can be bought, sold and traded. It might be that every teenager’s dream actually becomes a reality: get paid real money to play your favorite game.

5 – Redeemables. Tokens from a certain NFT collection can be backed by a physical object. So if you own the NFT, you also have the right to claim something from the “real world”. Such was the case with the Rebirth NFT collection. Owners of the NFT could attend an event in Hong Kong and redeem a bottle of the Rebirth Whiskey. Once the object was redeemed, the NFT “evolved” (the image changed) which gave a new sense of ownership and enabled re-trading of the token.

6 – Identity. With the help of biometrics, the blockchain can actually bring a solution to the problem of identity theft and data leaks. We currently rely on third parties to certify our identity. But if our ID was tokenized (or our driving license, for that matter) we wouldn’t need to carry around a government issued plastic to show anyone. Since the blockchain keeps data distributed all along the network, it would be difficult to hack, and also difficult to falsify, so the chances that someone who isn’t yourself uses your data are infinitely low.

7 – Databases. Using encryption methods and decentralized data storage, you can extend NFTs to anything stored in a centralized Web 2 database today. Nowadays, much of our data is in the hands of centralized institutions and private companies that profit from it. In short, we do not own our data, and we cannot access some of these databases holding it, even if we wanted it. This can change with Web3, a tokenized, decentralized internet that brings data back to the hands of the user.