A friend was asking about NFTs and I used a metaphor that helps me understand them better. While obviously Bitcoin gets a lot of the buzz, I believe NFTs are a really cool use-case for blockchain technology.
I have a blueprint signed by Steve "Woz" Wozniak.
While I can sell it to you without any involvement from Woz, and the certificate shows that it is real, there is an amount of trust involved. It could be a photocopy, for example.
NFTs remove that need for trust. You can look up and see who owns the piece, and verify that ownership has transferred to you. While there might be many signed pieces, you know that yours is real and it is the only instance.
As well as a paper-trail of ownership, and scarcity increasing the value, it allows "digital goods" to have confident, secure contracts. It could be used for high-value physical deals such as real estate, down to fun things like Magic the Gathering digital card trading. Even commercial art usage licensing.
One of my favourite examples is https://www.beeple-collect.com/ I have been tempted to buy some of it! (NSFW - some of it is well done but grosssssss). In his case he also gives you a physical item to go with your digital art.
I am going to look at Hive Engine APIs to see if I can build something around NFTs on Hive. Watch this space!
