Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a blog post on Wednesday stating how he wants non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be soulbound, a term familiar to World of Warcraft (WoW) players, as it’s an item class in the popular MMORPG. Buterin explains that if an NFT owner shows they own a certain NFT that can only be obtained by doing a particular thing such as joining an auction, it’s impossible to distinguish if that person truly went to the auction or if they purchased it through the secondary market.
For those who aren’t familiar with World of Warcraft terminologies, the soulbound feature in the game ensures that players can’t trade, mail, or sell items at the in-game Auction House. WoW developers incorporated this feature to prevent the act of “twinking,” which is when players transfer high-level gear to low-level players to drastically speed up the grinding process and earn more experience points.
That isn’t the only purpose of the soulbound feature, though. It also allows players to flex their in-game achievements, meaning to say that the player rightfully earned the item by defeating high-level and challenging bosses instead of an heirloom. Buterin took an interest in the latter’s concept, saying that proposals to store university degrees, driver’s licenses, etc., on-chain would become problematic if someone else can easily access or purchase them even though they don’t meet the conditions or criteria.
The Ethereum co-founder also spoke highly of the “proof of attendance protocol” project, otherwise known as project POAP. This project allows users to store digital versions of their precious mementos on-chain, and it will come with a unique badge with a cryptographic record.
The team working on project POAP urges developers to check “on-chain if the current owner is the same address as the original owner,” especially for those developers who care about transferability. However, making NFTs essentially soulbound and eliminating their transferability would most likely get rid of their commercial viability as well.
