Media

Breaking New Ground and Records; NFTs Show Their Potential

March 2021
Though the concept has been around for a while, the potential of NFTs has recently been making waves in mainstream media and general public awareness. For the uninitiated, an NFT is a Non-Fungible Token; a full explanation can be found in the links below, but in short a NFT is a unique blockchain-based token that is typically used to represent a unique item or piece of work. Being a blockchain solution brings all the traditionally associated benefits of tradability, security, immutability, global exposure and all the other perks we enjoy from decentralization.

Originally, back in 2017, NFTs first rose to fame thanks to the application known as ‘CryptoKitties’, as its sudden explosion in popularity wreaked havoc on the ethereum network for a short time. Since then, the use and awareness of NFTs has steadily risen until the last couple of months when a few high-profile and high-price transactions have taken place, catapulting NFTs into the spotlight again. Some examples of this can be seen in the work of Mike Winkelmann - AKA ‘Beeple’ - a digital artist whose pieces have sold for millions, including one that was sold for $69 million through Christie’s, the London-based auction house. Like a lot of art, this has caused some controversy, with people questioning the value of owning a NFT of a piece of digital art which can simply be viewed online, whereas others point to the difference between owning an original piece of physical art and owning a print. 

 

Regardless of your views on art, NFTs are being seen in a range of different applications, from music to sports to gaming - anywhere where something can be defined as collectible or unique has the potential for NFTs to mark and transfer ownership. Now even tweets have been sold as NFTs. This idea of utilising NFTs to allow unique content to be owned, shared and traded online is one of the key reasons why Blockpass was so excited to partner with UREEQA recently. Like most great ideas, UREEQA’s principle is simple yet powerful - allowing anyone to show ownership of their creative works, which in turn enables UREEQA to provide monetization and sharing opportunities for creators. With the goal of expanding and simplifying all forms of identity verification at heart, working with UREEQA to facilitate NFT creation, management and monetization represents a specific interest for Blockpass as the digital and blockchain worlds only become more and more relevant and integrated with the mainstream. 

 

Blockpass’ current work is focussed around providing identities for people, particularly for regulatory purposes such as KYC and AML, but Blockpass’ origins and eventual goals are around the provision of an identity for everything - humans, businesses, objects and ‘things’. When anyone or anything can be represented and proved to be who or what they claim to be, new markets and business models can be created. Without verifiable identities, these markets would be open to fraud and scams, so regulatory standards for identity are needed to bring security and legitimacy to such endeavours. 

 

Whilst NFTs can be used to show ownership of assets, it is only when each and every entity - living or not, digital or physical - has a verifiable identity, that the true potential of blockchain and NFTs will be unlocked, allowing frictionless ownership, management and trade of anything, anywhere, at any time. Blockpass has begun this process with human identities and by working with others such as UREEQA and developing further solutions, we advance towards a future where simple and effective NFT solutions can be implemented to bring the benefits of  blockchain-based ownership certification and marketplaces to everyone.

 

Blockpass provides regulatory compliance services with KYC and AML solutions for users, merchants and businesses. Blockpass already provides KYC and AML to a number of blockchain companies, and can be integrated with blockchains themselves as an ‘identity layer’ to provide a secure and compliant ecosystem for everyone involved. Adhering to regulations is a necessity for any solution that wants to go mainstream or have a wide audience, and, just as in the real world, is essential for keeping legitimate users safe and protected. Blockpass is applicable to any kind of DeFi project and yield farming/liquidity mining is no different. Users will be able to gain certification proving they aren’t in conflict with any regulations and thus are suitable to conduct financial transactions with, ensuring there are no issues with funds or local restrictions. Recently, Blockpass has begun to pioneer the idea of ‘On-Chain KYC®’, bringing simple and effective KYC services to anyone who needs them, embedded into the blockchain. 

 

The Blockpass platform is fully automated and hosted in the cloud, with no integration or setup fee. Businesses can sign up to the KYC Connect® console in a matter of minutes, test out the service, and start conducting identity documents verification, KYC and AML checks. Sign up for FREE at console.blockpass.org.