Exploring Proof of Relationship: A Deep Dive into AutographNFT
By the time when I finished this article, I received a surprise 👇. The original NFT is a Gitcoin Kudos. I got it three years ago from the Ethereum community, the best community.
Back to TL;DR
- AutographNFT allows users to add digital signatures to non-fungible tokens. People can also use it to ask for digital autographs from others.
- It allows users to create new, multi-dimensional relationships between content and people in the online world.
- AutographNFT bridges the gap between the current internet and Web3 by enabling users to use their Web2 identities in smart contracts.
- Creators can use AutographNFT.io to securely sign and authenticate their work. This new layer of authentication has the potential to greatly reduce the prevalence of counterfeit items.
- AutographNFT.io uses 2 key components of AlchemyNFT: The EVM-based smart contracts and TokenScript Attestation
Tokenization is a powerful tool that promises to make markets more secure and efficient. It can allow ownership and derivative rights to cars, homes, fine art, and much more to be traded on a blockchain via smart contracts.
But that is only the start.
The advent of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, has shown that people can tokenize almost anything. Creators have made NFTs of musical performances, “original copies” of memes, historical events, and much more. Sir Tim Berners-Lee famously tokenized the original source code for the internet itself; Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey minted an NFT representing the first-ever tweet.
But until now, there has been a missing piece to this puzzle: proof of relationship. While Tim Berners-Lee and Jack Dorsey minted their NFTs themselves, their relationships to these assets are not actually programmed into the tokens. Future buyers must rely on token ownership records to determine the items’ original source — a 19th-century paper trail for a 21st-century asset.
The reason for this inefficiency is that until now, NFTs did not have a native identity layer. As a result, anyone could claim to be anyone, and mint an NFT associated with anything — a fact that has led to numerous instances of copycats and counterfeit items.
AutographNFT is changing this by connecting NFTs to real people in an easy-to-grasp, provable way — through their existing Web2 identities. A person can use the dapp with any wallet to get a Twitter ID Attestation, then use the attestation to sign an NFT — therefore adding an immutable layer of authentic identity to the token. Using this technology, users can essentially tokenize relationships, programming their identities directly into NFTs, using wallets that are effectively “disposable.” This layer of identity has use cases far beyond simple authentication: it can create entirely new kinds of value in the NFT universe.
How AutographNFT leverages Web2 IDs to “Level Up” into Web3
In today’s online environment, account-based social media identities are the most ubiquitous and accessible kinds of identification. This is why AutographNFT connects with Twitter: by using a familiar and accessible platform, we can include as many people as possible. AutographNFT’s connection with social media in Web2 is a “shortcut” to digital identity. By leveraging the social footprints we create in Web2, we are building on the identity that we have already established in the online world.
Crucially, this connection with a Web2 ID makes AutographNFT — which uses AlchemyNFT smart contracts — the first smart contract system with an identifier that is not a wallet address. This reflects an important reality: not every aspect of a project must or should be addressed with an on-chain solution, at least at the outset. With most decentralized applications, all wallets are treated as distinct identities regardless of whether they belong to the same individual. In other words, the application does not recognize accumulated identities that may control multiple wallets; each new address may as well be a different individual.
But by attesting to Twitter profiles, AutographNFT gives users a secondary layer of identity that allows them to move across applications and platforms while maintaining their real-world identities. For example, tokens can be sent to any Twitter profile.
This also means that AutographNFT users do not need to have a wallet in advance. Nor do they need to use the same wallet over and over again; if they wish, they can use each wallet only once. This gives users a far greater degree of flexibility and makes AutographNFT easy to use, particularly for those who are new to crypto.
How AutographNFT works
Anyone can accept autograph offers sent to them, regardless of their level of crypto experience, by connecting their Twitter accounts with the AutographNFT.io interface. There, they can accept autograph offers and add their signatures to tokens with the click of a button. Making an autograph offer is also easy: just select an NFT, input the requested party’s Twitter handle (“@XYZ”) and offering amount, then submit the transaction.
These requests can include financial incentives, to be paid out via smart contracts when conditions of the transaction are met. This feature can create new dynamics in the NFT space, enabling the formation of multi-dimensional tokenized relationships between token issuers, token signers, and tokenized assets themselves.
AutographNFT in Action
This isn’t just hypothetical — tokens are already being created and signed using AutographNFT’s innovative features.
In July of 2021, Mariano Conti (aka Mariano.Eth), the Head of Smart Contracts at MakerDAO, sent a tweet that included a photo of himself next to the Google office sign in Mountain View, CA. To caption the photograph, he wrote, “You’re old news Web2.0. #Ethereum and #Web3 are the future.”
AutographNFT made it possible to do more than just “like” Mariano’s tweet: I created an image combining the photo with the caption and used it to mint a new NFT. I then asked Mariano to sign it via Twitter — a request that was accepted. And just like that, a new unique asset was created, provably linked to both my and Mariano’s real-life identities.
This is just a simple example of a virtually endless set of use cases for tokenized relationships AutographNFT enables. Photographers can ask their subjects to sign tokenized portraits; people can ask YouTube stars to autograph screenshots of their videos. And there is no limit to how many people can autograph an NFT. Multiple band members could digitally sign a tokenized performance; every person in Italy could autograph a video addressed to their national team congratulating them on becoming European champions. All of this creates new layers of new value and connection.
By acting as an accessible layer of identity for NFTs, AutographNFT is creating the infrastructure to support a new tokenized economy.
AutographNFT is available on Ethereum and soon to be live on Polygon as well, try it at AutographNFT.io 🥰!
To follow the AlchemyNFT project
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlchemyNFT
- Telegram: https://t.me/AlchemyNFT
- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/ns5KQHJctp
- Website: https://AlchemyNFT.org
