They would be useful to represent things like software licenses. E.g. Steam is currently being sued in the EU because people can’t resell their licenses and for those kinds of applications it would be very useful to have a token whose authenticity as a license can be checked beforehand (by checking whether it’s minted by the game devs) as well as have provable ownership – so that the servers will send you game files after buying it, and not be tied to one particular marketplace.
It’s kind of like lasers, which for the longest time had the title of “invention waiting for an application”. Then people used them to point at airplanes. (Ok also CDs which came earlier than wide-spread use of pointers but that’d spoil the allegory).
I’d see them more as a way to avoid licenses. When you buy a book from Amazon you’re buying a license to view the book, not the book. You don’t own the book ever. Amazon can and does revoke licenses from time to time. In addition, some countries have zero or reduced VAT on books but you’re not buying a book, you’re buying a license to view a book so it doesn’t apply. So if the case could be made that yes, I’m BUYING the book and here is my token of ownership then a digital book would be cheaper, assuming the publisher sold it as such.
As for software licenses, I think it’s a much thornier issue. Even software which comes in a box usually has a software key & license so it’s not like other media where digital content could be imbued with ownership and therefore be sold and loaned like physical media.
Software licenses would be a good example of a possible blockchain application, but they could be easily represented by classic tokens, no need for non-fungibility, as all licenses should be exchangeable.
You might want to know who sold theirs so you can clean up associated user data and stuff. You also don’t want licenses to be divisible, at least not past the “seat license” level – It’s in fact legal to unbundle volume licenses in e.g. Germany, hence why there’s so many legit Windows Pro keys floating around: A cottage industry of companies buying volume licenses at bankruptcy proceedings etc. It would be in Microsoft’s interest for the keys to then actually split so they can still track stuff but “shares in a seat license” makes about as much sense as splitting a six pack of beers into twelve pieces.
But yes when actually implementing it you might end up with something in between completely fungible or non-fungible.
They would be useful to represent things like software licenses. E.g. Steam is currently being sued in the EU because people can’t resell their licenses and for those kinds of applications it would be very useful to have a token whose authenticity as a license can be checked beforehand (by checking whether it’s minted by the game devs) as well as have provable ownership – so that the servers will send you game files after buying it, and not be tied to one particular marketplace.
It’s kind of like lasers, which for the longest time had the title of “invention waiting for an application”. Then people used them to point at airplanes. (Ok also CDs which came earlier than wide-spread use of pointers but that’d spoil the allegory).
In the case of Steam that could easily be implemented by Steam with no blockchain involved since everything is tied to your account.
I’d see them more as a way to avoid licenses. When you buy a book from Amazon you’re buying a license to view the book, not the book. You don’t own the book ever. Amazon can and does revoke licenses from time to time. In addition, some countries have zero or reduced VAT on books but you’re not buying a book, you’re buying a license to view a book so it doesn’t apply. So if the case could be made that yes, I’m BUYING the book and here is my token of ownership then a digital book would be cheaper, assuming the publisher sold it as such.
As for software licenses, I think it’s a much thornier issue. Even software which comes in a box usually has a software key & license so it’s not like other media where digital content could be imbued with ownership and therefore be sold and loaned like physical media.
Software licenses would be a good example of a possible blockchain application, but they could be easily represented by classic tokens, no need for non-fungibility, as all licenses should be exchangeable.
You might want to know who sold theirs so you can clean up associated user data and stuff. You also don’t want licenses to be divisible, at least not past the “seat license” level – It’s in fact legal to unbundle volume licenses in e.g. Germany, hence why there’s so many legit Windows Pro keys floating around: A cottage industry of companies buying volume licenses at bankruptcy proceedings etc. It would be in Microsoft’s interest for the keys to then actually split so they can still track stuff but “shares in a seat license” makes about as much sense as splitting a six pack of beers into twelve pieces.
But yes when actually implementing it you might end up with something in between completely fungible or non-fungible.