NFTs are one of the foundations of web3. This series will introduce NFTs through 30 short articles, allowing everyone to gain a deep understanding and mastery of NFT-related knowledge from scratch.
In the previous articles (23/24/25), we learned about the most widely used types of NFTs: art, PFP, gaming, and metaverse items. In this article, we will explore NFT types beyond those.
If you remember, we mentioned in the beginning of this series that NFTs are digital assets, which means they are completely digital representations of assets. Each NFT is unique and non-fungible, meaning it cannot be replaced. Additionally, we can mint anything as an NFT.
Apart from art, PFP, gaming, and metaverse items, there are other types of NFTs that exist, which we briefly mentioned in previous articles. These include, but are not limited to: membership NFTs, domain name NFTs, POAP, XNFT, etc.
Let's explore each of them separately.
Membership NFTs#
As the name suggests, membership NFTs function similarly to a shopping membership card or a club/organization membership card. As a shopping membership card, the holder can accumulate points, receive discounts, and receive gifts by making purchases while holding the NFT. As a community membership card, the holder can gain access to certain events and receive service discounts, among other benefits.
In traditional membership cards, data is stored in the respective service provider's systems. For example, my Amazon membership card does not affect my Lego membership card. Each membership card's data is isolated, and individual membership card data is difficult for users to control. For example, Amazon can completely delete my long-term accumulated membership card records and points. However, NFTs are completely recorded on the blockchain. Different merchants can provide more accurate services and products based on user data. More importantly, all user records and data are in the hands of the users themselves, and no merchant or organization can delete user data or accumulated records. This ensures the user's data rights, which is a very important aspect in the digital age, where data is power. (An example will be provided later.)
NFT Domain Names#
Each user's on-chain address is a hash value, which is not convenient to remember and share. To address this, they can be bound to more human-readable addresses through redirection, which is the domain name. For example, my personal website domain name is www.hoodrh.top.
In Ethereum, a user's address is a long combination of numbers and letters, such as my address: 0xA6097a4adf23553623A7917bbBb28c7bb2a7775c. To make it easier to remember, I can use hoodrh.eth to represent it. And this ".eth" domain name is a type of NFT that can be obtained through purchase on ENS.
POAP#
POAP is a proof-of-attendance protocol used to prove that a person participated in a certain event. Through POAP, event organizers can mark participants, even after a long time has passed, and can find out who participated in the event by querying the event. This has a very convenient role in the follow-up of events. As an event participant, POAP can incentivize more people to participate in activities. Like collecting stamps, collecting POAP can prove one's activity records and gradually form an on-chain profile.
Some POAPs have high value and significance in terms of identity, such as a POAP obtained by attending an exclusive invitation-only crypto conference. This POAP can bring social and economic benefits.
XNFT#
XNFT uses NFTs as a program, which means that if I own a crypto monkey, I can write a smart contract for it and run the NFT to achieve certain functions.
Of course, there are many other types of NFTs, such as using each NFT as a wallet, where different NFTs can be saved hierarchically, or using NFTs as collateral for lending and other financial operations. If you are interested in these types of NFTs, you can try related products or services to gain firsthand experience and understanding.
Example of data as rights:
Meituan delivery drivers do not have social security benefits because the delivery platform outsources this significant expense. The result of multiple layers of outsourcing is that delivery drivers are registered as individual businesses. When delivery drivers experience injuries or labor disputes, they have nowhere to seek protection for their rights. In such cases, the data of delivery records being deleted by the platform occurs frequently. By packaging and minting delivery records as NFTs stored on the blockchain, data can be effectively protected from deletion, safeguarding the rights of delivery drivers.
If you want to learn more, you can find me in these places:
Digital Territory: HoodrhXLog: Hoodrh
Twitter: Hoodrh
Discord Chat Group: Hoodrh
Mirror: Hoodrh
SubStack: Hoodrh
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