As the world eagerly explores new ways to shape an exciting future for humanity, blockchain innovation is setting precedence in all sectors of human activity by laying the groundwork for the future of the internet known as Web 3.0. This is pioneering a more inclusive, less biased, decentralized web for all players and users.
With the arrival of the newest iteration of the internet – Web3, the vanguard of this innovation is decentralization and token-based economy like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Web3 is an internet evolution that reimagines how people may control, own and monetize their creations, online content, digital assets, and online identities.
The worlds of Web 2.0 and Web3 are positioned to converge over the next several years, showing blockchain's mass-market potential. People are beginning to find it impossible to resist the market for Web3 digital products, which is quickly rising. As a result of this, the number of companies, entrepreneurs, artists, and influencers experimenting with Web3 digital products has skyrocketed.
As Web3 becomes a fast-rising reality, the innovations brewing around Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) will play a crucial role in this new internet.
NFTs are one-of-a-kind, rare digital assets with verifiable ownership. It may be a work of art, a gaming item, a PDF, or simply a tweet. The minting procedure generates a cryptographic token that includes the digital signature of the wallet that produced the token when a creator "mints" (creates) a digital asset as an NFT. This offers future collectors direct ownership verification, which is stored on the blockchain. It also gives creators a new avenue to develop and sell their work directly to users or buyers, bypassing conventional middlemen.
As Web3 gains global acceptance and further enterprise adoption, NFTs are revolutionizing the future of the decentralized internet in core areas including real estate, content creation, gaming, online communities, concerts, and other intriguing use cases.
Tokenization of virtual real estate properties has become a strong use case for NFTs as Web3 evolves. According to market research, the global real estate market is projected to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 percent, from $3386.11 billion in 2021 to $3741.06 billion in 2022. Tokenizing a portion of this market gives a glimpse of the potential of blockchain in this industry.
Today, blockchain technology now enables the sales, mortgages, and rentals of tokenized properties such as lands and buildings and decentralizes all that is obtainable in the existing real estate industry. Tokenization of real-world landed properties makes them a viable and more attractive choice for investors.
A core aspect of NFT applications in digitizing the real estate industry is property rentals. Tokenized Property Rentals enables individuals who may not be able to afford to buy virtual properties or don't have a permanent need for them but would like to own or utilize them for a limited time to rent them through a relevant Web3-powered NFT platform like Double Protocol.
Rental protocols like Double are pioneering a highly liquid virtual real estate market to enable players to own, rent, and mortgage their virtual real estate, including short-lease rentals dubbed the 'Airbnb of the Metaverse'. This aspect of Web3 provides a viable revenue source for real estate investors to rent, lend or mortgage virtual properties for an agreed fee for a specified time without the services of a broker or agents.
NFT is rapidly changing the gaming industry by ushering in a web3 gaming economy to the forefront. Traditional in-game purchases are one-time, non-transferable investments that are bound to a specific gaming universe. Using NFTs in gaming environments, on the other hand, gives users control of their in-game assets rather than the game developers. Gamers may keep in-game purchases, sell them to other players, and transfer them to other compatible games using blockchain technology.
This innovation has birthed several gaming models, such as play-to-earn, move-to-earn, dance-to-earn, etc., which provide a new economic model for gamers to earn valuable assets while engaging with their favorite blockchain games.
Web3 and NFTs are making a strong case for content creators by establishing a direct link between creators and their fans, effectively eliminating conglomerates and centralization from the equation, which is a thrilling thought for a group of people who have been notoriously cheated on the compensation for all of their hard work.
NFTs may be leveraged by content creators to commercialize their digital artworks by assigning a monetary value to them and selling them on a dedicated marketplace. This offers content creators complete control over their work and revenues, as well as a financial incentive to create more content. NFTs can also be used for non-profit purposes, such as providing access to artwork exhibitions in museums.
The application of non-fungible tokens as "membership passes" to a digital community was one of the first evolutions in NFT use-cases. Ownership of NFT profile image collections such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) naturally became integral parts of holders-built communities.
Elsewhere, NFT-powered tickets are now being used to grant membership passes to access exclusive, invite-only physical events and concerts around the world. Members are at liberty to manage, transfer and update membership subscriptions without the need for third-party interference.
NFTs are quickly gaining popularity as a way to access exclusive in-person events and parties. Because NFTs offer immutable proof of ownership on the blockchain, the technology is well suited to address major concerns in the event ticketing industry, such as forgery and digital theft.
The internet is transient and has witnessed several innovations in the past, starting from the text-only Web 1.0 to multimedia-hosted web pages touted Web 2.0. With the adoption/transition to Web 3.0, we could be witnessing a bigger shift in the history of the internet, one which is positioned to entirely disrupt the way users interact with the internet. As Web3 becomes a standard for the internet, its enterprise adoption is already positioning NFTs at the forefront of its economy.