Despite a recent lull in NFT prices and volume of sales, the technology’s potential use cases are steadily increasing. This week saw NFTs being considered by eBay as well as promising signs for advanced real-world applications from IoTeX and a Cardano-based partnership.
eBay sees potential for NFTs on its platform
CEO Jamie Iannone has said the eCommerce giant is “exploring opportunities on how we can enable NFTs on eBay in an easy way.”
The announcement comes after a week second quarter profit forecast for the company.
“Everything that’s collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades,” Iannone added, hinting that NFTs will have a role in the future of the platform.
eBay is also possibly looking to follow in the footsteps of Tesla and PayPal by accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
“We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but cryptocurrency is something we are keeping an eye on,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
IoTeX appointment to IoT standards body spells potential for NFT use cases
Dr. Xinxin Fan, head of cryptography at IoTeX, a company working to secure the Internet of Things (IoT), has been appointed Vice Chair of the Standard for the Framework of Blockchain Use in Internet of Things.
IoTeX’s pioneering of real-world use cases for NFTs leads some to believe this could spell major developments for the industry.
NFTs have potential within the IoT as a they are a mechanism that proves something cryptographically in a non-fungible way, meaning they can prove to a smart contact that you’re at a specific place at a specific time. A smart contract could then trigger something to happen in the digital world based off that information.
IoTeX is already exploring ‘proof of presence’ mechanisms for insurance purposes and ‘data lockers’ to make data sharing an opt-in rather than opt-out model.
Fan’s appointment may mean these use cases play an important role in standards talks.
“By co-creating standards with industry experts, IoTeX is committed not only to innovation in the blockchain space via our real-world products, such as Ucam and Pebble Tracker, but also the research/standards space via our leadership positions in the IEEE and IIC to help shape the future of blockchain and IoT” said Fan in a statement.
Occam.fi and Bondly partner on next-gen DeFi and NFT capabilities for Cardano
Cardano’s first decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem Occam.fi has partnered with NFT solutions firm Bondly to bring high quality NFT projects to the Cardano ecosystem.
“Bondly has emerged as an NFT leader and together, we believed our partnership, and by extension the Cardano ecosystem, is a natural fit. Together, we will pursue opportunities to incubate NFT startups and bring high-quality projects across our respective launchpad infrastructure,” said Mark Berger, president of the Occam Association.
Bondly has already demonstrated its experience in the NFT market through a series of collaborations and partnerships. With Occam.fi, it anticipates bringing the best and most disruptive NFT enterprises to Cardano through both team’s combined next-gen capabilities.
Interested in hearing more in person? Find out more at the Blockchain Expo World Series, Global, Europe and North America.
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