Physically backed NFTs: another hype wave or a real-world revolution?

Music, videos, avatars, in-game items, and photos in the form of NFT (Non-fungible tokens are non-interchangeable tokens or digital tags attached to all kinds of objects and act as digital certificates of the asset and its ownership.) have been sold for a long time, and that doesn’t surprise anyone. But have you heard of physically backed NFTs? This seems to be a new trend that will connect the real and virtual worlds inseparably together. So far it’s only a breeze, but it looks like there’s a storm of interesting uses for STFs ahead that will make the technology closer and more understandable to people not familiar with blockchain.

From hype to real-world application

Most people who have heard about NFTs only associate them with funny pictures that sell for a huge amount of money. 

Metaverse is becoming less attractive amid a bear market and global economic problems, losing money and customers. Meta’s (ex-Facebook) special division has suffered the most. Nevertheless, the virtual world, like Web3, is only evolving and still ready to offer a few surprises.

For example, in the US, the NFT and blockchain were used as a method of transferring ownership of a real house to avoid the hassle of a mortgage.

The creators of the Azuki anime universe sold eight golden-covered skateboards with PBT (Physical Backed Token, an open-source token standard that links a physical item to a digital token in the Ethereum blockchain) at 200 to 309 Ethereum (that’s approximately $301,612.18 to $465,990.81 as of October, 28). Ownership was transferred through the NFTs, which were sold at auction.

The results of the Azuki Golden Skateboard auction are in.

After 24H+ of fierce bidding (especially in the final moments), we have our top 8 Golden Skateboard auction winners. Let’s extend our warm & heartfelt congratulations to the winners!

Thread below 🧵 pic.twitter.com/SxAOjhVTVn

— Azuki (@AzukiOfficial) October 23, 2022

There will be more and more such cases. For illustration, the artist under the pseudonym Beeple, behind the largest NFT sale ever, is setting up a creative studio in South Carolina (USA) to create and share digital works of art in the form of NFTs. The main goal is to start exhibitions and find unique ways to showcase NFT works to real visitors. 

All of this is made possible by the distinctive features of this type of token. When an NFT is created, its existence is actually imprinted on the corresponding blockchain chain in which it is placed. And that NFT will remain in an unchanged state, potentially indefinitely. For the same period of time, records of its sales or any transactions are preserved without the ability to make changes. In this way, NFTs provide a greater degree of security and transparency to the online and offline transactions related to it.

now is the time to BUILD. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/4OuX4F25L8

— beeple (@beeple) October 13, 2022

This is something fresh and, from the looks of it, just the beginning. 

The main advantages of blockchain technology and NFT

1. NFT records cannot be erased or lost.
2. The information recorded in the blockchain cannot be altered or tampered with.
3. Anyone (or certain parties to a transaction) can easily track the history of the NFT and all transactions with it.

NFTs are now game changers

OnChain Studios CEO Will Weinraub

“We need to keep it as underlying technology, and really talk more about the benefits and the use cases and the avenues that these things open up versus just shouting into the echo chamber about how great NFTs are,” he said on TheWrap’s “Tech vs Media” podcast.

Metamall Group co-founder and CRO Keo Sar 

“Art is just one use case for NFTs. It is important, even critical, to understand that NFT use cases exist beyond art. We are still very early in the technology life cycle of NFTs and related blockchain technologies, but the reality is they will have a significant impact on many industries. The following is a non-exhaustive list of current use cases that are being implemented by companies across multiple industries – supply chain management, real estate, digital and self-sovereign identification, event ticketing, fractional ownership rights, membership cards, collectibles trading, food production and digital twinning of fashion items. The actual application of NFTs across the various industries will be different. But some of the common core challenges that are trying to be solved include traceability, transparency, clear chain of custody and ownership rights,” he wrote on the blog.