This Ethereum Upgrade Might Change NFTs Segment for Good, Here's How

An eccentric Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) introduced one month ago can totally change the technical design and economics of the segment of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Besides paving the way for new generations of NFTs, it can advance the tooling of existing Apes and Mutants.

ERC-6551 blurs lines between NFTs, smart contracts and wallets

Presented only five weeks ago, ERC-6551 opens up a plethora of previously unseen opportunities for the NFT and digital identity space. Such conclusion was made by The Spartan Group's VC arm Spartan Labs.

ERC-4337 was one of the biggest developments for the wallet space earlier this year.

But ERC-6551 is building on that to revolutionise the NFT space. ERC-6551 will change the way we view NFTs and digital identities.

Here's how, and why you should care 🧵 pic.twitter.com/dHwmXKDmic

— Spartan Labs (@TheSpartanLabs) June 16, 2023

This EIP, co-authored by the founders of CryptoKitties, the first-ever commercially successful NFT collection, allows non-fungible tokens to control ERC-4337-enabled cryptocurrency wallets. For instance, NFTs can make transactions, store assets and, therefore, interact with DeFi protocols just like regular non-custodial wallets.

The scope of possibilities of ERC-6551-powered NFTs looks really endless. The owner of such NFTs can collect POAPs and display them in a transparent and tamper-proof form.

In decentralized games, such NFTs can be associated with in-game wallets. This, in turn, will make the gaming experience more immersive for various generations of players.

As of today, the ERC-6551: Non-fungible Token Bound Accounts proposal is labeled with a "Draft" status on Ethereum Foundation's portal for EIPs.

Web3 media, decentralized messaging, reputation management: Plenty of new NFT use cases

Spartan Labs' researchers indicated a number of other interesting use cases for NFT-powered wallets. They might finally make Web3 publishing platforms mainstream thanks to more democratic content monetization models.

Then, decentralized messengers' interfaces might be upgraded with such NFTs. Traders can even share the addresses of their NFTs to demonstrate their PnL and trade history — and this data cannot be altered, being visible to everyone via explorers.

This ERC is backward compatible, which means all existing NFTs can be equipped with the full range of ERC-6551 functionalities. This can radically change the narrative in the global NFT ecosystem.