2021 has been the year of NFTs.
CryptoPunks and BAYC, Axie Infinity and CryptoKitties, which began gaining traction in 2017, have exploded in popularity, turning many of these brands into household names. And what started as an experimental market quickly got people paying Tens of millions for digital artwork.
![Beeple's Collage, sold for $69 million](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*J8u3FiUvwzImizLZxPwocA.png)
However, the collections that have seen NFTs gain popularity aren't exactly all that's possible with non-fungible tokens. NFTs as digital art, or more precisely, tokens representing the property of a piece of digital art, could even be considered a small subsection of the use of NFTs in the grand scheme of things.
NFTs are extremely good at a particular area — prove ownership. In today's meta, this proves ownership of your favorite monkey JPEG, or great algorithmically generated art. But there are many other use cases that revolve around the same non-fungible property mechanisms.
Concert tickets. Membership pass. Let's cut. Programs. Even the property.
These are some of the common examples discussed and that we are working on for the future as we speak.
People tend to only know about NFTs from a digital art perspective, even as other, more unique uses for NFTs begin to emerge. Let’s dive in and explore some of the different ways NFTs are being used today.
Bright Moments – Transforming digital art into physical
Not too far from the original experience, Bright moments has revolutionized the NFT experience, expertly blending the physical and the digital to create something completely new.
Some of you reading this may be familiar with that feeling of excitement you get when you create an NFT for the first time. The nervous wait for the sale to go live, for your transaction to finally be confirmed, and for you to see your brand new token appear in your wallet.
Bright Moments takes this experience away from the digital world and focuses on creating an IRL typing experience. Yes, being part of an NFT drop is exciting, but nothing beats the feeling of attending an event in real life (yes, it's nice to touch grass sometimes).
Bright Moments hosts NFT art exhibitions around the world, bridging the gap between collectors and creators – but more importantly, bridging the gap between those who are And are not familiar with web3.
Anyone can come in and ask questions about the blockchain, and at the end of the day, walk away with a wallet created and an NFT created. in this same wallet. Perhaps more importantly, those who walk away with an NFT not only have access to the digital art, but also had the opportunity to experience that digital art in person, displayed on the walls of a physical art gallery, and in the presence of the artists and creators themselves.
![Bright Moments digital reality exhibition, Berlin.](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*oPR0eV-Rj0BcaA5qYnVOJQ.jpeg)
Turning a digital work of art into a physical experience adds a whole new dimension to NFTs that is rarely explored in the world of anonymous Twitter avatars and Discord heavy projects.
Bright Moments also offers mint passes to attend these events, in addition to exclusive gifts for owners of their CryptoCitizens collection. Which brings us to a completely different use case for NFTs: token-controlled content.
Create “members only” experiences
One of the most important current use cases outside of digital art (or sometimes in combination with it) is NFT check. This means requiring an NFT to be a member of a DAO (learn more about them here), or using NFTs to access exclusive content in one form or another. This also includes making entire communities themselves accessible only to those who are members of the NFT.
Developer DAO is an example where holding their genesis NFT opens access to their community. Their tokens are literally naive, consisting of a plain white background with text describing the developer's characteristics.
![Developer #6994](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*h8_oAlScBN5GpENprfInnw.png)
Despite this, they remain extremely popular and sought after due to the other utility they provide.
Developer DAO is a DAO focused on learning and building web3. Access to a group of like-minded people can lead to incredible opportunities: special events, job offers, mentoring programs, or simply finding another person to learn with. These are just some of the benefits of joining an NFT-controlled DAO like Developer DAO. Besides specific organizations, there are more modular options that allow for NFT-controlled content, such as Informed protocol.
Still in alpha, Lit Protocol controls its own network of nodes, which uses threshold cryptography to allow users to encrypt or decrypt data. Simply put, Lit Protocol can be used to control access to… well, almost all.
![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*6r5CVzfgQyMTQArXFKbgIA.jpeg)
The DAOs and NFT-controlled communities we often see now are pretty trivial. Own a certain NFT and gain access to a Discord community or private Telegram channel. These methods rely on specific tools or conditions, depending on what you want to access. Lit, on the other hand, could be used to control static content – for example owning a specific NFT to access videos or files (think content creators), in addition to dynamic content. In theory, you could use Lit Protocol to limit access to zoom calls, sensitive company data, or another live service based on NFT ownership. This moves NFTs from “mere” digital art to that of access credentials.
Achievements and qualifications
One of the newer variants of widely anticipated NFTs are SBTs, or Soulbound Tokens. Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, talks about it herecomparing them to soulbound items from World of Warcraft.
![](https://miro.medium.com/max/854/1*I6pfCMr8lzC9kVsU4vBxbw.jpeg)
In short, soul-linked tokens are NFTs, possibly issued by an organization or party, that can't be transferred or exchanged. This may seem counterproductive at first, but there are many situations where you may not want an NFT to be transferable.
Consider a platform that offers online courses or degrees, with NFTs as a completion reward. SBTs would prove that those who own the NFT reward actually attended and completed the course, which creates a verifiable identity for the SBT owner. Compare this to a standard NFT, where you can take a course and “trade” your acquired credentials. In this case, transferability devalues the token. Those who purchase the NFT on a marketplace have not actually completed the course, they Really did not obtain any sort of qualification.
SBTs therefore work perfectly to create a digital identity for a user and to allow us to start building what Vitalik calls “DeSoc” – a decentralized society.
Rewards and loyalty points
Similar to SBTs, there are opportunities to create rewards and utility through classic NFTs. You could theoretically reward NFTs for completing a set of tasks or fulfilling a certain requirement within a community. As a result, NFTs can also be used to reward a user base and commemorate special events.
So who does this sort of thing? You guessed it: us!
Here has Layer 3, you can earn NFTs by exploring and discovering all sorts of different protocols in web3. These can be awarded for completing a set of Bonuses (a quest) on Layer3 or to reach a certain level on our platform!
![Turbocharged NFT from Layer3.](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*pvN9twhVZcBC8auyrc7LAA.gif)
Each NFT has either a time limit or completion condition to claim it, making them exclusive to our most loyal users. We are also working on closed bounties, reserved for those who own Layer3 NFTs or who have reached a required level on the platform. Watch out for the spicy rewards 😉
The future of NFTs
NFTs, love them or hate them, have emerged as an entirely new asset class and solidified themselves as a new means of storing and transferring value – not just through digital art .
Join us on Layer 3 to win your very first NFT by exploring web3, and go to our Discord Or Twitter to find out more about us! ✨