Unit 3 · Level 4 · NFTs beyond jpegs
Beyond art
Strip away the monkey pictures and an NFT is a transferable, publicly verifiable receipt. That's useful in a few places: event tickets that can't be counterfeited, domain-style names like ENS that you own outright, game items tradable outside the game, and non-transferable credentials. The honest caveat: most of these remain experiments, and some jobs are still done better by a plain database.
Free to play. No ads, no token, no account needed to start.
What you get asked
Match the real-world use to what the NFT adds
In each case the NFT is the receipt, not the product. The question is always whether the receipt needs a blockchain.
Why might concert tickets as NFTs help against fraud?
Provenance kills counterfeits: the chain shows exactly which ticket is real and who holds it. Scalping is harder to kill. Resale rules help, but people are creative.
___ tokens are designed to be non-transferable, like a diploma stuck to your wallet.
If a credential could be sold, it would prove nothing. Removing transferability turns a collectible into an actual certificate.
A startup pitches 'supply chains, but with NFTs'. What's the fair skeptical question?
Blockchains earn their cost when parties don't trust each other and no one should control the record. When one company controls everything anyway, a database is faster and cheaper.
What's the balanced verdict on NFTs after the hype cycle?
Verifiable digital ownership is a real invention. But inventions have to beat the boring alternative, and mostly that fight is still on. Skepticism and curiosity can share a wallet. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Provenance, mania, market tricks, and the uses that might survive.