W3GS: NFTs Owning NFTs and the Possibilities for ERC-6551
Gearing up for more discussions on token-bound accounts at ETHDenver 2024, we take a look back at Chase Freo and Christy Choi’s W3GS session on how ERC-6551 works and how it revolutionizes NFTs.
ERC-6551 has taken the web3 world by storm, advancing the concept of digital ownership to a whole new level by enabling NFTs to own NFTs through token-bound accounts (TBAs). With ETHDenver 2024 just around the corner, the protocol is set to garner even greater attention.
The web3 gaming industry has been exploring the possibilities for ERC-6551 since it was launched in mid-2023, with projects like OP Games’ Arcadia and AO Labs’ Spacebar already integrating TBAs for seamless interactions. At the YGG Web3 Games Summit (W3GS) in November 2023, Chase Freo, CEO of OP Games, and Christy Choi, co-founder of AO Labs and YGG partner DAO SKYGG, discussed ERC-6551’s applications in gaming and other industries.
In their session “When NFTs Own NFTs: 6551 and a Future Gaming Paradigm,” the duo talked about how ERC-6551 TBAs differentiate from traditional NFTs, where TBAs could essentially have mini-wallets to store assets and other items. They also brought up how NPCs in web3 games could potentially carry NFTs and interact with players. Another point of discussion was the idea of people being able to appear online as their NFT avatars but with wallet capability.
The following is an excerpt taken from the live discussion, where Christy talks about ERC-6551’s potential for the entertainment industry and how artists like K-pop groups can use the technology. Chase also points out how the protocol can be used for DAO identity and how collaborative projects in the fashion industry can now be composed of separate NFTs. Watch the full recording on Facebook.
W3GS - When NFTs Own NFTs: 6551 and a Future Gaming Paradigm
Christy (11:05): I do believe that this will be something that will be highly adopted across gaming. I think that will still be the primary use case. In the EOA (externally owned accounts) wallet, I'm sure a lot of people have different assets, whether that's ERC-20, ERC-721, or ERC-115 — they're all dispersed within your wallet. It's sort of creating a folder within your wallet, right? Now you can organize your assets so that there is some hierarchy.
I do believe, coming back to your question, other than gaming, it's definitely going to be around membership and around ownership across different entertainments. As a Korean, I just can't wait for a K-pop group, for example, dropping an album NFT where you have different songs and tracks. Even one of the NFTs, you can also create another NFT below, maybe create another follow-up, and then maybe drop B-cuts of the photos of the idols.
That's something I'm very much looking forward to seeing in the future. And maybe you can make that token-gated so that only your membership NFT owners can have access to certain folders.
Chase (12:23): That's really good, especially with the Philippines being K-pop-obsessed as well, right? I love K-pop, so hopefully that happens. Another thing where we could probably see it happening is around DAOs. DAOs could benefit from wallet-bound NFTs that can represent the identity of the owners in general. Instead of the history of the DAO member being stored in the wallet, it just gets represented by an NFT, which is a 6551 NFT.
You may also think about it in digital fashion, for example, where it's highly collaborative. Digital creations, where multiple hands are creating things — somebody's creating a hat, somebody's creating a shoe, but it becomes a unified look that is sold as an NFT. You can still separate this thing that has been created by individuals because it's an ERC-6551. The possibilities are really endless.
You can watch the full recording on the YGG Web3 Games Summit Facebook.
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