What if you could own items on blockchain just like in World of Warcraft? Would you like them to be your property and enhance your opportunities IRL like WoW gear? Well, it will become a reality soon.
Vitalik Buterin is already thinking about how to make it happen. In a paper published on May 11, Ethereum’s co-founder and his co-authors suggest that soulbound tokens can “encode the trust networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation.”
What are soulbound NFTs, how will they work, and what pros and cons have? OneArt explains the ballyhoo about SBTs and spells it out for you.
How it all started, or What NFTs and killing dragons have in common
Let’s go from afar. In gaming, soulbound are items joined to a particular character, i.e., they can be used only by that character. You can’t sell or transfer them. These are weapons, shields, gear, and armor — usually the mightiest ones that can help you kill the dragon. The key word here is you: there’s no way to delegate the task.
So, what if some NFTs, such as regarding certificates, licenses, academic degrees, etc., could be the same — non-transferable? It’s exactly what Vitalik Buterin was thinking about, citing a Proof of Attendance Protocol and Proof of Humanity verification system as examples.
POAP creates ERC-721 tokens to prove it was you and not someone else who killed that dragon, i.e., visited the event. Technically, they can be traded but are highly likely to be of dubious value. Unless it’s some celeb’s POAP or the one providing exclusive access to a major event. PoH “combines social verification and video submission” to create a list of people who are proved no to be fake or bot accounts, i.e., Sybil-proof. These protocols are de facto non-transferable but can be revoked.
“Making more items in the crypto space “soulbound” can be one path toward an alternative, where NFTs can represent much more of who you are and not just what you can afford.” ©️ Vitalik Buterin
☝️ Earlier this year, HonestNFT promised SBTs to its community members for completing bounties.
What is soulbound NFT?
Soulbound token stands for “non-transferable token” meant to prove affiliations…
Continue reading on our new blog: https://oneart.digital/en/blog/soulbound-nfts-explained#what-is-soulbound-nft
