In last week’s article NFTs Are Much More Than What You Think They Are, we gave an introduction to what NFTs really are, as well as the characteristics that make their utilities extend beyond what is usually seen in the mainstream. Nonetheless, we do recognize that an abstract description is not enough to convey the power of this technology, which is why we will try to delve a bit deeper into its utility through tangible instances, where it has been deployed for ends that aren’t merely commercial. Despite hardly being past its embryonic stages, the implementation of NFTs as real life solutions is becoming increasingly visible in a number of sectors, and results are already showing.
Transparency Makes Everything Better
There are definitely more than one or two sectors where NFTs can make a stratospheric difference thanks to their transparency. Many industries have been waging unceasing wars against fraud and deceitful maneuvers, and never have they emerged fully victorious.
Let’s take the event industry for example, and more precisely event ticketing. Organizers, artists, creators, and fans are to this day struggling to find the right antidote to the chaos of ticket sales and resales. This chaos is sourced from two primary –and strictly linked– phenomena: scalping and secondary market resales.
Everyday, thousands of bots scalp tickets non-stop, these same tickets get resold on secondary markets for unreasonable prices. This phenomenon can be detrimental to artists, in the sense that they have no administration over ticket prices in secondary markets, thus leaving hundreds of fans frustrated and deterred from trying to attend future events. This means that organizers and performers have little to no idea if ticket holders are actually the people who wanted to attend the most and were willing to pay the initial price.
Fans, on the other hand, receive an even deeper blow, they are left waiting for hours in online queues only to get their chances snatched away by scalping professionals, and find the same tickets being resold elsewhere for –at best- twice or thrice the first price. This puts the event industry in constant risk of having resentful fans, and artists performing in front of all but their most loyal followers.
Smart contracts are the perfect solution to these “control” problems. As the motor force governing NFTs, they give the possibility to pre-establish a set of rules that govern various actions which can be done with the NFT, including resell prices. This extends to the fact that the issuer can put a ceiling on resell prices, authenticate ownership, and basically have control over anything that poses a threat to the experience that they wish to offer, the smart contract is specifically designed to disregard any attempt at changing what the issuer had set as rules.
Through NFTs, artists can also engage their fans and reward the most loyal among them. They are customizable in a manner that allows them to give their holders access to special offers and rewards. Knowing how transparent they are, NFTs will also abolish the fear of fraud that is usually deterrent to actions such as rewarding and special access. After all, nobody wants to grant someone a reward that they do not deserve.
The example of the event industry is one among many. There are endless sectors, industries, businesses, and communities that will benefit greatly from the use of NFTs in their activities.
The Party Has Already Started
Earlier this month, Starbucks announced that they will be capitalizing on NFTs to create more value in the near future. While some companies jumped on the NFT bandwagon without much thought as to how their investments would fit in with their larger business goals, Starbucks is for a different approach, one that will surely be more beneficial in the long run. It sees the collectibles as an extension of customer loyalty. The words of the company’s CEO were as follows : "We have been working on a very exciting new digital initiative that builds on our existing industry-leading digital platform in innovative new ways all centered around coffee and most importantly, loyalty".
In the same wave of brands connecting NFTs with more perks attached to them beyond collectible works of art, including promoting physical products. With the Meta Optimist collection, cosmetic brand Estee Lauder allows holders to access sold out products such as their legendary Black Honey lipstick.
StockX, which is the first sneaker resale platform to reach unicorn status, launched a very interesting NFT concept called The Vault. The NFT represents a physical product, and serves as proof of authenticity, verification of ownership, and the right to have the corresponding product redeemed at any time by the holder of the NFT. This initiative actually has a lot of perks for the holder, the sneaker is stored in a high security vault which means that you can own it without having to store it, which is not easy when it comes to extremely rare pairs. It also makes trading much smoother for those who buy for investing or resale.
There are also a number of celebrities and artists who have been leveraging the utility of NFTs to engage their fans and create value in innovative ways. Autograph, for example, is a brand that brings together some of the most famous entertainers, athletes and celebrities. It allows users to get access to special offers, limited editions, exclusive content and many more opportunities with their idols using NFTs.
At METACARD, we add a special ingredient that makes these utilities shine even brighter : GIFTS. In upcoming articles, we will share with you the pillars of our approach to make NFTs even more advantageous for all categories of people, in other words, how we’re going to globalize the upgrade that NFTs bring to all aspects of life.
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