The technological advancement that is taking place with the popularity of blockchain technology is getting to every nook and corner of the globe. The world is now familiar with the blockchain, and it all started with Bitcoin and Non-Fungible Tokens. The popularity of NFTs is so enormous that famous celebrities appreciate their values, and it led to the NFT boom in 2021. Though there were critical reviews on these tokens, today, they got their place as an unshakeable tech that would lead the future very soon. The usage of NFTs is vast, ranging from NFTs for documentation in governments to NFT gaming platforms. The Non-Fungible tokes came a long way from ‘Just JPEG trend’ to Soul Boud Tokens. Soul Boud Tokens? Literally, binding your souls to tokens on the blockchain? It is something similar to that, and we will get deep into this new tech that will create a wave soon.
The loopholes of NFTs
We know Non-Fungible Tokens give tradeable ownership of a digital file. There were instances where a single red pixel NFT was sold for thousands of dollars. There were critics who questioned the existence of this tech. The concept of digital collectibles received a mixed review from the public. Though anything digital, from images, and music to tweets, can be made as an NFT, NFTs were mostly used by digital artists. NFTs were denounced as Just JPEG trends that will go down any time soon.
Yet, with considerable demand, NFTs survived the cold winds of the crypto winter.
The NFT thefts that occasionally happened even with top NFT marketplaces like Opensea and popular NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club made people skeptical about buying NFTs even as a digital collectible.
Though the concept of getting tradable ownership of a digital file is the base of NFTs, founders of Ethereum and others came up with the concept of Soul Bound Tokens
Soul Bound Tokens
Unlike NFTs, SBTs have single ownership. It is not tradeable, and it is verifiable on the blockchain. Where do we use it when we don’t have traceability? SBTs will be useful for documentation, community-only badges, Ids, certificates, and much more. So everything that shouldn’t be forged can be SBTs in the future. This will also remove the possibility of random theft from the wallet that is happening with NFTs. This is possible with the community recovery system that will overcome the flaws of NFTs.
Stuck with SBTs forever?
The answer would be yes. Yet you can hide SBTs that you don’t want the public to know. SBTs bring better privacy and offer better transparency as well. There are certain flaws with this proposed model as well. And people are still working on it to bring a perfect tech that would be useful for the masses.
When to expect?
The concept of SBTs, proposed in a whitepaper which in the title” Decentralized society: Finding web3’s soul”. Ethereum’s co-founder Buterin is one of the authors, and the tech is expected to come soon, around the end of 2022. SBTs will be a new NFT trend soon and it is a sign that blockchain will reach the masses soon.
