Critics cannot stop NFTs from becoming a mainstay of daily life

Some critics consider non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be totally worthless. They don’t see the point. Why would they? The industry has not covered itself in glory with countless carpet covers and celebrity endorsements with quick pump-and-dumps.

But this misses the point. Already most of the digital and physical objects we use in real life are unique, they are not fungible: This means they cannot be copied, replaced or subdivided.

Detractors may still say, well, what’s the point? NFTs are immutable and verifiable assets on the blockchain – these sound like buzzwords with little meaning. However, they go a long way in revealing the countless use cases.

Contradictions exist in all phases of technological innovation; You can go back to the literal Luddites of 19th century England who destroyed machinery that threatened their jobs, or more presciently, you can point to those who thought the internet was going to be a short-lived fad.

We are ever closer to digitizing parts of our lives, and not in a metaverse-owns-you-now way, but instead through the tokenization of assets with transfer made easier than ever.

Related: Get ready for the feds to start prosecuting NFT traders

It’s true in a world of crypto mass adoption, as with the internet, users are likely to have little knowledge of the technology underlying the system. NFTs may well be used abundantly in this scenario: users will simply not care about previous negative connotations when they can access a brilliant new way to own, rent and sell.

Almost negligible transaction fees are the goal, as is an easily navigable user interface. Right now, it is not the breakthrough solution needed to break down barriers and remove existing stigma.

NFTs can irrevocably change the way we exchange value. Herein lies an opportunity to digitize assets in an open economy and in the process speed up a step towards legitimacy for blockchain solutions in the mainstream market.

Harnessing the power of NFTs

First mover advantage in the burgeoning technology world is not to be underestimated.

But leading players in the NFT space have been getting the wrong kind of mainstream attention, and that’s a perception problem. Cynical corners of the media tend to cast a skeptical eye on blockchain-related projects and paint the space as full of carpetbaggers and abandoned roadmaps. This is a view that sorely lacks nuance and understanding; Do they realize how many people lost money in the dot-com bubble?

Related: Throw your Bored Apes in the trash

What is often overlooked – and this will come with the maturing of the technology – is how NFTs can change marketplaces: in gaming, as well as in every imaginable intangible as we know it. Mainstream success for NFT solutions will be a result of utility for commercial and retail users, and is therefore likely not as inherently linked to volatile crypto markets.

NFTs just have too many use cases to not become incredibly useful. Bored Apes started with profile pictures, but the vendor, Yuga Labs, is already building off the springboard for the massive community it has gained from its notoriety with plans for a metaverse and gaming platform.

This dramatic pivot from Yuga Labs indicates that NFTs have a much larger purpose than mere art and collectibles and suggests a viable path to mass adoption.

NFTs simply fulfill functions much better than existing systems, which will manifest across industrial and consumer markets when efficient and effective solutions are created.

What does an adoptable NFT do?

The pillars of a successful NFT project are currently based on three main aspects: a strong community, exclusivity and utility.

You need people to talk about the NFTs in a positive light and share information with each other. A palpable sense of exclusivity is present in the most popular projects, and this should extend to the implementation of NFTs in all media forms. If a million other people have the same skin as you in a game, you won’t really see it as worth keeping.

The tool provides real value to buy and hold an NFT. If a consumer buys a brand new car, they know exactly what to expect, more or less. Of course, in the case of an NFT, you want it to look good in most cases, but to spark mainstream interest, there has to be an element of it that serves a greater purpose.

In fact, an often overlooked point of view is how the utility of NFTs can unlock mainstream success. Digital assets represented by NFTs have an untapped potential to revolutionize both products and services. Your money is safe when the asset is not subject to drastic changes in value because it serves a purpose, again, in the real world.

A remarkable shift and development in NFTs beyond how we perceive them today is a prerequisite for this next step. The industry is slowly moving towards “normalization” of non-fungible tokens where value is established and use cases are realized.

A good example of this is in secondary ticket markets, which can allow people to exchange verifiable NFT passes for a show, sports game or concert through a smart contract. The blockchain, in this case, knows that the ticket is legitimate because that is the nature of the technology: Information cannot be changed once it is recorded in a transaction.

On-chain tickets are an obvious use case. From a consumer perspective, there is potential to safely purchase tickets on the resale market for any event. Blockchain provides proof of purchase from the original ticket provider as well as a price history and makes the transfer onward very easy with the smart contract that only releases the ticket upon confirmation that funds reach the seller’s wallet.

Processes could be made much fairer for those using the secondary market while nullifying the efforts of scalpers: if price increases were limited to 50% in addition to face value, with the artist receiving royalties for the resale, in one fell swoop, we would deal with the issue of struggling performers capitalizing on their success and the problem of people getting ripped off.

Retail managers can imagine a world where all products are uniquely registered in the digital world; do they know that these can be represented by NFTs?

Rights to a rented home are another interesting possibility. When buying NFT, which gives you the right to use the property for a period of time, what if you could upload pictures to the blockchain showing the condition of the house you are leasing? A legal challenge that the landlord keeps a security deposit can be quickly dismissed or actually proven when such conditions are immutably proven using blockchain.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of business tools for NFTs. Fraud is rife in supply chains with countless instances of double funding, where malicious actors use copies of the same paperwork to illegally obtain funds from multiple sources. With blockchain, this will disappear overnight as each and every shipment can be represented by just one single NFT documenting everything delivered – and actually tracking every step of the way.

More than just assets

The winning combination of blockchain verification and self-storage can empower consumers and make their online lives far more secure than is currently possible.

A passport can be stored on a mobile device and locked behind multi-factor authentication: the whole process of renewing this crucial travel document can be done much faster when it is a completely digital solution. Represented as an NFT, it further becomes more difficult to create a counterfeit that reduces security for governing authorities.

Related: A cure for copyright problems? NFTs promise to strengthen creative economies

Medical records are another use case that could revolutionize the often antiquated systems that exist across hospitals around the world. Collecting information securely is not a simple process, nor is sharing this data with other entities, which in some cases may be an urgent matter. NFTs solve this problem as the individual can access and share their own records, even with the failing computer sharing processes in place.

We are rapidly moving towards a world where individuals take control of their information and choose who they share it with. Furthermore, digital assets will belong solely to them without the need to rely on centralized bodies to store and authorize transfers.

Challenges remain

Blockchains still have the technical limitations of throughput, scalability and congestion. There is not a single chain that can bring half a billion users, but we are getting closer to the day when this becomes a reality.

Instead of listening to the noise of those who dare not try to understand the technology, we should be focused on collectively delivering better results with the aim of bringing a whole new way of doing things in all industries.

Nevertheless, there is much development to be done. Mainstream media and critics will not destigmatize NFTs on their own. The use of blockchain in this way does not fit into their worldview.

When mass adoption eventually arrives, and I believe this is only a matter of time, we will quickly enter a new digital age built on the blockchain. People hardly want to know what makes their seamless transfer of digital assets and information possible. But they will use it, and NFTs will improve the way they live their lives in both digital spaces and through real-world applications. This is certainly a future worth fighting for through all the pejorative noise.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.