5 ms·

Out of the examples you gave, degrees, driving licenses, and permission to an API service are not suitable for NFTs, since they cannot/should not be traded. Pre

Out of the examples you gave, degrees, driving licenses, and permission to an API service are not suitable for NFTs, since they cannot/should not be traded. Presumably we do not want for people to sell their driving licenses or their degrees.

k__ 5y ago
The (non-) fugibility of a token is just one aspect of it. You can code a non-tradable NFT no problem. Tradable NFTs are just the hype right now.
- stale2002 5y ago
  > You can code a non-tradable NFT no problem. WTF does that even mean? Do people remember what a blockchain even is, at this point? A blockchain is a chain of transactions. You take away the transactions, and its not a blockchain anymore. Unless we really stretch the definition of a "transaction" or blockchain...... Cryptocurrency has lost the plot. People are talking about blockchains, that don't have mining, or transactions now apparently.
  - detaro 5y ago
    Creating an NFT is a transaction.
  - dkersten 5y ago
    So you limit the types of transactions in your blockchain to "this thing has been issued to this person/id/hash/whatever" and do not have any transactions of the type "this thing has changed ownership to a new person/id/hash/whatever". A bank account that allows deposits but no withdrawals/transfers, its still a ledger, it just limits the operations you are allowed to do (not the operations you could theoretically do).
    - andechs 5y ago
      When a central authority is in charge of adding transactions to the blockchain, ie: DMV issuing licences, what's the advantage of blockchain over a standard database?
      - dkersten 5y ago
        Oh, I agree. See my other comment on this page, I said the exact thing you did! Most cases where blockchain is usable, alternatives are still simpler, unless you actually need it to be distributed and zero trust, blockchain probably doesn't make sense. I was just pointing out how it can be done or how it might make sense, if you needed it for something where blockchain did actually make sense, but in the case of drivers licenses, I don't think it does.
      - yellowapple 5y ago
        As long as it's done on a public blockchain, validation becomes possible without needing to contact the DMV itself to provide that validation. For example, if you have a California driver's license and I (as a Nevadan) want to verify its validity (say, because I'm running a bar and you don't look 21+), I could check whatever public blockchain to which California posts its ID NFTs, compare that to some reference on the physical ID you're showing me, and make sure the data (namely: name, DOB, etc. - or perhaps a hash of it) matches up; currently that would require either talking to the DMV directly or using some third-party service that does so on my behalf. This becomes even more useful when dealing with international identification, since that tends to involve even more red tape with current systems. Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be a single central authority adding transactions; a whole bunch of DMVs could very well post to the same blockchain and only trust the validity of ID tokens issued by one another (i.e. with some out-of-band method to associate keys with actual DMVs, much like PGP's "web of trust" concept). This could even pave the way to things like drivers' licenses being partially or fully decentralized, with independent issuing authorities trusting one another based on some external certification process (e.g. "the California DMV has audited Foo Bar Licensing, Inc. and verified that it issues licenses in compliance with the California Vehicle Code, and therefore recognizes FBL-issued licenses as valid").
  - k__ 5y ago
    To me it's the other way around. The blockchain space is just starting out and people try new things. But many can only see the crypto currency use-case.
  - cslarson 5y ago
    blockchains are databases. transactions change the state of the database. they aren't limited to trading-related transactions.

k__ 5y ago

The (non-) fugibility of a token is just one aspect of it. You can code a non-tradable NFT no problem. Tradable NFTs are just the hype right now.

stale2002 5y ago
> You can code a non-tradable NFT no problem. WTF does that even mean? Do people remember what a blockchain even is, at this point? A blockchain is a chain of transactions. You take away the transactions, and its not a blockchain anymore. Unless we really stretch the definition of a "transaction" or blockchain...... Cryptocurrency has lost the plot. People are talking about blockchains, that don't have mining, or transactions now apparently.
- detaro 5y ago
  Creating an NFT is a transaction.
- dkersten 5y ago
  So you limit the types of transactions in your blockchain to "this thing has been issued to this person/id/hash/whatever" and do not have any transactions of the type "this thing has changed ownership to a new person/id/hash/whatever". A bank account that allows deposits but no withdrawals/transfers, its still a ledger, it just limits the operations you are allowed to do (not the operations you could theoretically do).
  - andechs 5y ago
    When a central authority is in charge of adding transactions to the blockchain, ie: DMV issuing licences, what's the advantage of blockchain over a standard database?
    - dkersten 5y ago
      Oh, I agree. See my other comment on this page, I said the exact thing you did! Most cases where blockchain is usable, alternatives are still simpler, unless you actually need it to be distributed and zero trust, blockchain probably doesn't make sense. I was just pointing out how it can be done or how it might make sense, if you needed it for something where blockchain did actually make sense, but in the case of drivers licenses, I don't think it does.
    - yellowapple 5y ago
      As long as it's done on a public blockchain, validation becomes possible without needing to contact the DMV itself to provide that validation. For example, if you have a California driver's license and I (as a Nevadan) want to verify its validity (say, because I'm running a bar and you don't look 21+), I could check whatever public blockchain to which California posts its ID NFTs, compare that to some reference on the physical ID you're showing me, and make sure the data (namely: name, DOB, etc. - or perhaps a hash of it) matches up; currently that would require either talking to the DMV directly or using some third-party service that does so on my behalf. This becomes even more useful when dealing with international identification, since that tends to involve even more red tape with current systems. Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be a single central authority adding transactions; a whole bunch of DMVs could very well post to the same blockchain and only trust the validity of ID tokens issued by one another (i.e. with some out-of-band method to associate keys with actual DMVs, much like PGP's "web of trust" concept). This could even pave the way to things like drivers' licenses being partially or fully decentralized, with independent issuing authorities trusting one another based on some external certification process (e.g. "the California DMV has audited Foo Bar Licensing, Inc. and verified that it issues licenses in compliance with the California Vehicle Code, and therefore recognizes FBL-issued licenses as valid").
- k__ 5y ago
  To me it's the other way around. The blockchain space is just starting out and people try new things. But many can only see the crypto currency use-case.
- cslarson 5y ago
  blockchains are databases. transactions change the state of the database. they aren't limited to trading-related transactions.