From NFT marketplaces to metaverse players, The Nest supports some of the most innovative startups and scale-ups building the NFT ecosystem. Whether helping them to protect their platform and clients, supporting users through their whole journeys, or managing their platforms, The Nest vows to power next-gen businesses to reach the next level in customer experience.
From the early days of the craze in 2020 with $100 million spent by collectors and traders on digital collectibles, to the $25 billion spent in 2021, the NFT craze has reached a whole new level. Yet to most of the general public, NFTs remain somewhat of a mystery.
To get you up top speed on these new assets, check-out our report to understand how these new assets could impact your industry and transform customer experience
Non-Fungible Tokens: the key to digital ownership
So far, NFTs are digital representations of various works of art and other collectibles (usually an image, video, or audio file). The difference between an NFT and a simple image or video downloaded on the internet is that an NFT is an indivisible object. It gives access to a unique piece. Non-Fungible means it is one-of-a-kind, every NFT has a unique identity card encrypted in blockchain. It is “certified” by blockchain.
NFTs have 4 key properties: Ownership, Provenance record, Programmability (thanks to smart contracts), and Standardization (NFT protocols are built on open-source software such as Ethereum, introducing industry-wide standardization).
Those assets are exchanged using cryptocurrencies. In other words, an NFT gives you ownership of an indivisible digital piece which origin is certified by blockchain. Anyone can have a copy of La Joconde printed in their bathroom, but having the original painting is highly different. Well, in the same way, anyone can see Jack Dorsey’s first tweet on his screen, but only one person owns it. Mr. Estavi, CTO of Oracle, now owns the digital certificate that states he owns the thing.
So far, they are mostly used as collection pieces and have already proven very profitable for a lucky few: designer Beeple sold a collage of 5000 pieces of his work called “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” for $69.3m to a single collector. Several collections of relatively primary designs have encountered the same success, from Apes to CryptoPunks, and NFT videos of Lebron James dunking are selling for more than $200 000. Jack Dorsey’s first tweet ever sold for $2,9 million.
Nevertheless, NFTs are bound to be much more than the simple collection pieces they are right now. For example, famous entrepreneur Gary Vee created his own collection of NFTs, VeeFriends, and each card is linked to real-life benefits. For example, possessing a Witty Weasel card gives you access to VeeCon, an annual super-conference hosted by Gary Vee, plus the opportunity to speak with Gary in a private chatroom.
These types of NFTs are called Utility NFTs. As we are in the early stages of the market, many possibilities are still to explore. So far, these NFTs can unlock exclusive experiences, early access to products, entry to special clubs and events, and even dividends.
Overview of key use cases by sector
Although we are still witnessing the early days of NFT uses (as of March 2022), companies have proven eager to take advantage of the breakthrough in many ways. Here is an overview of what others in your industry may have used NFTs for.
TRAVEL AND LEISURE
Potential use cases
- NFTs help reach higher levels of security for a variety of documents
- NFTs can be used to provide new exclusive experiences in travel & leisure, restauration
Illustrations
- Controlling passports and vaccine certificates, or conducting any kind of background check can be made easy thanks to blockchain
- Quality Eats, restaurant in NYC, created a cocktail associated with an NFT. The buyer of the NFT got access to the secret recipe and a free round every time he/she visits the restaurant
ART
Potential use cases
- NFTs can ensure artists’ work created or shared is certified, to ensure you have the original piece
- NFTs solve the Secondary Sales dilemma: smart contracts can ensure original creators are paid a share of every transaction by resellers
Illustrations
- Beeple’s Everydays: the First 5000 Days sold for $69.3 million. Vignesh Sundaresan is now the only owner of the NFT
- Universal announced it would develop Virtual identities and NFTs for its artists
SOCIAL MEDIA
Potential use cases
- NFTs can ensure the content created or shared is certified, and is not a copycat; from exclusive influencers’ content to brands items
- NFTs solve the Secondary Sales dilemma: smart contracts can ensure original creators are paid a share of every transaction by resellers
Illustrations
- Adidas released a collection of NFTs that can be used to dress your virtual persona
- Total NFT Secondary sales have now surpassed $15 billion, a great opportunity for content creators
SUPPLY CHAIN
Potential use cases
- NFTs can help authenticate the origin of goods and trace them along the whole supply chain
Illustrations
- MarketsN from KoineArth is a platform that was developed to enable corporations to digitize and attach immbutable data to documents and goods in the form of NFTs
- LVMH, Richemont and Prada, through the Aura Consortium work on using NFTs to communicate on authenticity, sourcing and sustainability of products in a secure digital format
REAL ESTATE
Potential use cases
- NFTs can be used to check titles and verify ownership history of a property, in the real-world as in the digital world, where users have proven willing to buy property or area in the digital space
Illustrations
- Virtual platforms like Decentraland, Mars House or Superworld have already showcased players interest in buying their own virtual estate
- TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington sold his Kiev apartment as a real-estate backed NFT
FASHION
Potential use cases
- Users are willing to spend a lot of money to style their virtual persona
- Fashion brands also started using NFTs to provide real-life utility, like access to private events, experiences and clubs
EVENT MANAGEMENT
Potential use cases
- NFT tickets are certified by blockchain
- NFTs offer the possibility of smart contracts, meaning NFT tickets sellers can benefit from secondary sales
GAMING
Potential use cases
- NFTs create the possibility of real possession of in-game items
- NFTs also create a new sense of involvement for players by bidding real-life value
- NFTs have allowed for the creation of « Play 2 Earn » games, where players can earn real-life value in the form of NFTs
Illustrations
- French gaming company Sorare created a fantasy football game played with virtual cards in the form of NFTs that players can bid on to create their teams.
- In blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, players can buy NFTs of creatures to fight other players. As the value is driven by demand, some early adopters of the game have seen the value of their cards increase and made interesting profits.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Potential use cases
- NFTs are a key element shaping the future of decentralized finance (DeFi), in particular used as collaterals in NFT-backed loans.
- NFTs could also be used from insurance and bonds to fraud prevention or debt management that could be verified using NFTs.
Want to get into more details? Check out our full article for a comprehensive overview of the NFT revolution: what does it mean, how it is changing your industry, the opportunities and challenges it brings.
The Nest by Webhelp – Improving customer experience and securing your next-gen business
Combining irreplaceable human touch and a high-tech approach, we support NFT companies at every step of their journey. The Nest, a dedicated outsourcing company, gives you all you need to ensure the most immersive and seamless experience for your customers.
Treat your users with care
- 5-star customer support – Providing your customers with simplicity in a very complex universe and leverage a strong human touch to build emotional connection
- 24/7 multichannel and multilingual assistance
- Customer and merchants onboarding
- Self-service options and chatbots implementation to process most frequent customer requests
- Tech-savvy, engaged, and empathetic brand ambassadors – continuously trained on the most technical topics
- Customer journey mapping with actionable customer insights
- Payment management, disputes & chargeback processing – Ensuring every experience stays a positive one through expert management.
- Payment data completeness checks
- Assistance for payment dispute concerns
- Retrieval requests from merchants
Protect your business & crack down on fraud
- Users’ identity validation – Combining proprietary KYC/KYB platform to human checks and manual fallbacks for complex operations
- Identity verification (ID verification, Face Match, Verification call, PEP, …)
- KYC/KYB checks (sanctions list, AML, Crosslinking, Sanctions list…)
- Alert management
- Fraud monitoring and money laundering detection – Leveraging advanced fraud prevention tools, machine learning, and agile teams to secure your clients’ digital wallets
- Machine learning to detect uncommon behaviors that require attention
- Outbound calls to verify transactions
- Monitoring of accounts and transactions irregularities
- Pre-set alerts to detect money laundering concerns and seek out verification
- Preserve your creators – Addressing content verification & compliance comprehensively so your creators can focus on producing
- Compliance with intellectual property regulations
- Blocking of stolen accounts and stolen NFT transactions
- Blocking of multi-accounts (repeat offenders or campaign abusers)
Safeguard your users & moderate content on every platform
- Keep your content healthy and adapted to your users
- AI tools to detect inappropriate content and threatening behaviors
- Human moderators for ambiguous content
- Banning of ill-intentioned users on all platforms
- Carefully implemented processes
Manage your platform
- Create and maintain a best-in-class platform – Ensuring your platform remains easy-touse and adapted to your customers
- Content tagging
- Data entry and labelling
- Localization and culturalization services
