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Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)-Survey of Current Applications, Evolution and Future Directions

January 2023
IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society PP(99):1-1

DOI:10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Authors:

Qaiser Razi

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Aryan Devrani

University of California, San Diego

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become an exciting technology that provides a fresh perspective on asset ownership, provenance, and value exchange. NFTs, a blockchain-based technology, are distinct and indivisible cryptographic tokens used to confirm and record the ownership of digital and physical assets in an immutable and transparent way. The fundamental block of NFT is a smart contract built on a blockchain network. This contract contains specific information about the asset it represents, such as its unique identifier, metadata, and ownership details. The information is kept private and tamper-proof due to the decentralized and distributed structure of the blockchain, boosting faith in the token’s authenticity. The NFT is gaining popularity, but it is still in the developing stage. There is a need for a comprehensive survey to guide future research and development in NFTs. Thus, this paper presents the technical components of NFTs, their features, and the minting process. Further, this survey paper describes different token standards for NFTs. It presents various applications of NFTs in healthcare, supply chain, gaming, identity verification, agriculture, intellectual property, smart cities, charity and donation, and education. The article also emphasizes the significant difficulties faced currently in implementing NFT technology from the viewpoints of ownership, governance, and property rights, as well as security, privacy, and environmental effects. This work also elucidates the future directions to overcome the challenges in adopting NFTs in various applications.

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 1

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)- Survey of Current

Applications, Evolution and Future Directions

Qaiser Razi, Aryan Devrani, Harshal Abhyankar, GSS Chalapathi Senior Member, IEEE, Vikas Hassija and

Mohsen Guizani, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become an exciting

technology that provides a fresh perspective on asset ownership,

provenance, and value exchange. NFTs, a blockchain-based

technology, are distinct and indivisible cryptographic tokens used

to conﬁrm and record the ownership of digital and physical

assets in an immutable and transparent way. The fundamental

block of NFT is a smart contract built on a blockchain network.

This contract contains speciﬁc information about the asset it

represents, such as its unique identiﬁer, metadata, and ownership

details. The information is kept private and tamper-proof due to

the decentralized and distributed structure of the blockchain,

boosting faith in the token’s authenticity. The NFT is gaining

popularity, but it is still in the developing stage. There is a need

for a comprehensive survey to guide future research and develop-

ment in NFTs. Thus, this paper presents the technical components

of NFTs, their features, and the minting process. Further, this

survey paper describes different token standards for NFTs. It

presents various applications of NFTs in healthcare, supply chain,

gaming, identity veriﬁcation, agriculture, intellectual property,

smart cities, charity and donation, and education. The article

also emphasizes the signiﬁcant difﬁculties faced currently in

implementing NFT technology from the viewpoints of ownership,

governance, and property rights, as well as security, privacy,

and environmental effects. This work also elucidates the future

directions to overcome the challenges in adopting NFTs in various

applications.

Index Terms—Non-Fungible Tokens, NFT, Blockchain, smart

contract, cryptography, metadata, distributed ledger.

I. INTRODUCTION

NOn-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets with distinct

characteristics, setting them apart from other digital

assets like cryptocurrencies or traditional ﬁnancial instruments.

Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs are not interchangeable with

one another, and each NFT is unique, representing a spe-

ciﬁc item or asset. On the other hand, fungible items are

interchangeable because their value determines their identity

rather than any distinct characteristics they may possess [1].

For instance, currencies such as ETH (Ethereum) and dollars

are fungible since one unit of ETH can be exchanged for

another unit of a dollar, or vice versa, without any difference

Qaiser Razi, Aryan Devrani, Harshal Abhyankar, and GSS Chalapathi

are with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Birla

Institute of Technology and Science (BITS-Pilani), Pilani Campus, Rajasthan,

India-333031. email: (p20210070, f20190408, f20190282, gssc@pilani.bits-

pilani.ac.in).

Vikas Hassija is with the School of Computer Engineering, KIIT University,

Bhubaneshwar, Odisha email:(vikas.hassijafcs@kiit.ac.in)

Mohsen Guizani is a Professor of Machine Learning at Mohamed

Bin Zayed University of Artiﬁcial Intelligence, Abu Dhabi, UAE (e-mail:

mguizani@ieee.org)

in their value [2]. As a result, NFTs are an excellent means of

establishing ownership of digital content like music, artwork,

or artifacts. By utilizing blockchain technology, NFTs establish

a digital record of ownership and transfer, guaranteeing that

every transaction is documented and validated through a

decentralized network. This incorporation of blockchain tech-

nology ensures the authenticity and exclusivity of each NFT,

preventing any possibility of replication or duplication and

offering a dependable and transparent approach to demonstrate

ownership of digital assets [3]. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

have gained signiﬁcant traction recently as they use blockchain

technology. Such usage provides veriﬁable proof of ownership

for the item NFT is associated with.

In 2014, Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash created the ﬁrst NFT

and named it ”Quantum” [4]. But it wasn’t until the success of

the online game called CryptoKitties in 2017 that the public

became aware of NFTs [5]. The NFT market witnessed a

tremendous surge in value in 2020, with its worth increasing

threefold to approximately $250 million. Furthermore, during

the ﬁrst quarter of 2021, an additional $200 million was

spent on NFTs [6], indicating the continued growth of this

market. The idea of safeguarding digital content ownership

has been around for some time, but it is now becoming more

tangible with the use of NFTs [7]. NFTs have already gained

popularity in gaming and art, but their potential applications

extend to numerous other ﬁelds, including healthcare, real

estate, identity management, certiﬁcations, and agriculture.

By utilizing NFTs, these industries could address some of

their existing challenges and unlock new opportunities for

innovation and growth. Recently, NFTs have garnered a lot of

attention from both the scientiﬁc and industrial communities.

According to statistics, the NFT market has an average 24-

hour trading volume of $4.5 billion compared to the whole

cryptocurrency market’s $3.4 billion. In only ﬁve months, the

liquidity of NFT-related goods took up 1.3% of the entire

Bitcoin market [1].

NFTs offer many beneﬁts, with one of their most notable

advantages being their capacity to ensure a secure and trans-

parent method for verifying the legitimacy and ownership

of digital assets [14]. In ﬁelds like art, NFTs provide a

means of demonstrating ownership and reducing the risks

associated with counterfeit items. Moreover, NFTs introduce

fresh avenues for creators to monetize their digital content by

selling unique digital collectibles or licensing their creations.

NFT ownership is determined by a unique identiﬁcation code

and accompanying metadata that any other token cannot

This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and

content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 2

TABLE I: Related Surveys on NFTs and Its Applications

Reference Token Standards Transaction

Workﬂow

Applications/

Use-Cases

Challenges/

Open-Issues

Future Directions

Hammi et al. [8] ✘ ✘ Very limited D✘

Khati et al. [9] ✘ ✘ D D ✘

Zanjanb et al. [10] ✘ ✘ Very limited Very limited ✘

Rehman et al. [11] ✘ ✘ D D ✘

Park et al. [12] ✘ ✘ D✘Very limited

H.Taherdoost [13] ✘ ✘✘DLimited

This Survey paper D D D D D

replicate. Smart contracts are utilized to create and manage the

transferability of NFTs. Creating or minting an NFT involves

executing code stored within smart contracts that adhere to

speciﬁc standards, such as ERC-721 [15]. This data is then

stored on the blockchain, a ledger for managing the NFT. At

a high level, the minting process follows a series of steps,

including creating a new block, validating information, and

recording the data onto the blockchain.

A. Motivation

The increasing popularity of NFTs in recent years has attracted

widespread attention, making it a highly relevant and topical

subject for research. NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot

be replicated, making them highly valuable in digital art,

collectibles, and other industries [16], [17]. The emergence of

NFTs has disrupted traditional models of asset ownership, cre-

ating a new paradigm that can have far-reaching implications.

Understanding the mechanics of NFTs and their potential

impact can be highly valuable for businesses, investors, and

policymakers. A survey paper on NFTs can provide insights

into the possible impacts of NFTs on various industries, their

implications for intellectual property rights, and how they

could shape the future of asset ownership. NFTs are built

on blockchain technology, Thus understanding the mechanics

of NFTs can help researchers gain a deeper understanding of

blockchain technology and its possible uses beyond cryptocur-

rency.

Musicians are considering adopting NFTs to commercialize

their work since digital artworks are now selling for millions.

[18]. Understanding how NFTs work, their value proposition,

and their potential uses in various industries are crucial for

businesses, investors, and policymakers who need to assess

the potential impact of this new technology on the economy

and society. NFTs are still a relatively new concept, and

many unanswered questions about their long-term viability,

security, and scalability exist. For example, as NFTs become

more popular, there is a risk that they could become a target

for hackers, who may try to exploit vulnerabilities in the

underlying blockchain technology to steal or manipulate NFTs

[19]. In conclusion, researching NFTs in a research paper can

provide many opportunities to gain insights into this exciting

new technology, its potential beneﬁts, risks, challenges, and

broader societal implications. By exploring this topic in-depth,

researchers can contribute to a better understanding of NFTs

and their potential to transform how digital content is created,

owned, and valued.

B. Limitation of Existing Works

There are only a handful of publications on NFTs, their evo-

lution, applications, and challenges as research in NFTs is in

the nascent stages. A comparison of the existing literature with

this paper is summarized in Table I. The authors in [8] have

mentioned the working and applications of NFTs, including a

few challenges such as volatility, security, and interoperability

which inhibit wide-scale adoption of NFTs. The discussion on

the current challenges and open issues in [8] is brief and does

not have a comprehensive account of the challenges in NFTs in

various domains. It also does not present the future directions

to solve the current issues in NFTs. Khati et al. [9] present

a mapping review of academic research conducted on NFTs

applications, discussing a few popular domains such as digital

Art, education, supply Chain and assets Control, and ongoing

research topics in NFT literature. The author in [10] provides a

perspective on NFTs as a substitute for ownership of scholarly

publications and manuscripts. But this paper does not discuss

different token standards required for NFT creation and does

not discuss the future direction to overcome different issues

in NFTs. Rehman et al. [11] presents an overview of NFTs’

applications in different market areas and concerns associated

with NFT-based ownership rights. This paper does not present

the future scope of NFTs and different token standards. The

authors in [12] highlight the historical rise of blockchain

technology with the emergence of NFTs, including current and

future NFT use cases, but in a very limited way. They also do

not discuss different token standards and challenges faced in

the wide-scale usage of NFTs. The author in [13] discusses

the current state and development trends of NFTs, highlighting

unsolved challenges and potential future research directions

but not comprehensively. Also, he does not discuss the various

applications of NFTs and their related token standards.

C. Our Contribution

The contribution of this survey paper is as follows:

This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and

content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 3

Fig. 1: Survey Overview.

1) Compared to other survey papers, this survey gives a

detailed account of the evolution of token standards and

its transaction workﬂow.

2) It also discusses elaborately various applications and

use cases of NFTs in various domains like healthcare,

supply chain, identity veriﬁcation, supply chain, gaming,

agriculture, intellectual property, smart cities, charity

and donation, and education that were missing in other

related papers in this domain.

3) Further, it also gives a comprehensive account of current

challenges and open issues in NFTs and future directions

that can be adopted for wide-scale usage of NFTs.

D. Organization

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II pro-

vides background knowledge on Blockchain, Smart Contracts,

and NFTs. Section III discusses the different token standards.

Different applications of NFTs that can be adopted in the real

world are presented in Section IV. Section V and VI describes

existing challenges/open issues in using NFTs in different

applications and presents some future research directions,

respectively. Finally, Section VII summarizes lessons learned

and concludes the paper. The organizational overview of this

survey is also shown in Fig. 1.

II. BACKGROU ND

Blockchain, smart contracts, and NFTs are related technolo-

gies that have revolutionized various industries. By cutting out

the middleman, blockchain facilitates openness and reliability

as a distributed, unchangeable record. This technology may

automate transactions using smart contracts, and agreements

can be represented as self-executable code. NFTs, based on

This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and

content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 4

blockchain technology, are digital assets that are both unique

and whose ownership can be veriﬁed. Smart contracts and

NFTs work together in amazing ways. Conditions, such as

royalties on future sales, may be attached to NFTs by their

developers via smart contracts. In addition, they make it

easier to set up decentralized markets that link producers

with consumers. However, NFTs improve smart contracts by

introducing digital assets that are both unique and veriﬁably

genuine. This convergence has disrupted traditional systems

of ownership, provenance, and transactions. It has empowered

creators, reshaped industries such as art, gaming, and real

estate, and holds the potential to transform various sectors

like supply chain and ﬁnance. Integrating blockchain, smart

contracts, and NFTs paves the way for innovation and a

futuristic technology for the distributed ledger. The following

section gives a brief account of blockchain and smart contracts,

which are the underlying technology of NFTs. Section III

workﬂow, and minting process. This section brieﬂy details

Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and NFTs.

A. Blockchain

Blockchain is a decentralized distributed database of im-

mutable records in which a robust cryptographic algorithm

protects the transactions. In blockchain before storing them

in a new block, every new record is validated across the

distributed network. S. Nakamoto originally proposed it in his

whitepaper [20] on Bitcoin. Blockchain is gaining popularity

quickly in ﬁnance [21], UAVs [22]–[25], IoT [26]–[29], smart

cities [30], [31], supply chain management [32], VANETs

[33], [34], etc. Blockchain has gained immense popularity

considering features such as transparency, decentralization,

security, speed, and many more [35]–[37]. Blockchain is based

on the following principal notions:

1) Blocks: The blockchain is a database of records that are

stored in the form of blocks. These blocks are connected

to one another to form a chain known as the blockchain.

Every block in this ledger contains a hash pointer that

links to the block that came before it. Once data is

written in a block, it cannot be changed because a

powerful cryptographic algorithm secures it, and any

changes to any records will cause the hash of those

records to change. The block header contains several

pieces of information, including the Merkle tree root,

the timestamp, the block version, and the hash of the

block preceding it. Since every block in the blockchain is

connected to the preceding block’s hash, these recorded

hash values make the transaction immutable. The header

hash of all preceding blocks will be tampered with if any

block is removed from the network.

2) Hashing: Hashing uses a speciﬁc algorithm to convert

and generate input data of any length into a string of a

predetermined length. The Secure Hashing that is SHA-

256 is the hash algorithm Bitcoin uses.

3) Consensus Algorithm: A consensus algorithm is a pro-

cedure through which different nodes in the blockchain

network reach a common agreement. Through the use

of consensus algorithms, one can achieve reliability and

trust between unknown peers in a distributed computing

environment. The blockchain consensus protocol ensures

every node’s participation in the consensus process to

reach an agreement. It also ensures each node is pro-

vided equal rights. Thus a consensus algorithm works

to ﬁnd a common agreement among all the nodes.

There are mainly three types of blockchain- public, private,

and consortium:

1) Public: This is an open blockchain that anyone can join.

Anyone wanting to become part of the public network

must download the software and start running the node

independently. There is no need to take anyone’s permis-

sion which makes the network permissionless. Examples

of public blockchain are Ethereum and Bitcoin.

2) Private: All permission are kept centralized. Everyone

on the internet is often permitted to view transactions on

this blockchain, but only certain organization members

are authorized to verify and contribute transactions to the

block. Example of a private blockchain is Hyperledger.

3) Consortium: This is also a private blockchain managed

by a group of individuals or a consortium of members.

Only predeﬁned sets of nodes have access to write data

or a block. An example of this type of blockchain is

Web Foundation.

B. Smart Contracts

A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that

executes the terms of a contract. By automating the condi-

tions of an agreement between the participants, they promote

conﬁdence and transparency in a decentralized system. Smart

contracts are designed to automatically carry out when speciﬁc

criteria are satisﬁed, eliminating the need for middlemen and

lowering the danger of fraud. This makes them the perfect

option for various applications, including supply chain man-

agement and ﬁnancial services. Blockchain technology makes

smart contracts tamper-proof, secure, and immutable. They

can completely alter how business is done and connect with

one another by bringing a new standard of accountability and

efﬁciency. Recent blockchain designs such as Ethereum [38],

Hyperledger [39], and several other frameworks support the

deployment of smart contracts in their ecosystem.

1) History: The concept of smart contracts dates back to

1994 when computer scientist Nick Szabo ﬁrst introduced the

idea of using digital code to execute contract terms. In his

paper [40], Szabo proposed the execution of such contracts

for synthetic assets, such as derivatives and bonds. These

complex payment structures could then be built into standard-

ized contracts and traded at low transaction costs. However,

it was not until the emergence of blockchain technology in

2008 that smart contracts became a practical reality. The

ﬁrst blockchain-based smart contract platform was Ethereum,

launched in 2015. This platform enabled the creation and exe-

cution of smart contracts using a programming language called

Solidity. Since then, smart contracts have gained widespread

recognition as a powerful tool for automating transactions

This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and

content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 5

and reducing the need for intermediaries in various industries.

Today, smart contracts are a core component of the blockchain

ecosystem and drive the development of decentralized appli-

cations and services.

2) Working: The functioning of a blockchain-based smart

contract is brieﬂy discussed in [41]. The steps involved in

the working of smart contracts can be summarized as follows:

1) Agreement: The ﬁrst step required to create a smart

contract is for all parties involved to reach a consensus

on the terms of the contract.

2) Coding: Once the contract terms are agreed upon, the

next step is to encode them into the smart contract using

a programming language such as Solidity.

3) Deployment: The smart contract is then deployed to

the blockchain network. This step involves paying the

network a fee, known as gas, to execute the contract.

4) Execution: The smart contract is now live on the

blockchain and can execute automatically when certain

conditions are met. These conditions are programmed

into the contract and are triggered by speciﬁc actions or

events.

5) Veriﬁcation: As the smart contract executes, each step

is veriﬁed by the nodes on the blockchain network. This

ensures the contract is executed correctly and the terms

are upheld.

6) Completion: Once the smart contract conditions are

met, the contract automatically executes, and the out-

come is recorded on the blockchain. This outcome can

be anything from the transfer of funds to the delivery of

goods.

C. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Non-fungible is an economic term describing things like

songs, educational certiﬁcates, art, etc. These things cannot be

exchanged with other items because of their unique properties.

On the other hand, fungible items can be traded because their

values deﬁne them rather than their unique properties. NFTs

are built on blockchain technology, a distributed, immutable

ledger that stores data in peer-to-peer network of decentralized

nodes. The nodes that upkeep the ledger, examine fresh

transactions, and create new blocks are called miners. Each

NFT contains a unique identiﬁer stored on the blockchain,

verifying its authenticity and ownership. NFTs have been quite

popular recently, and they may serve as digital certiﬁcates to

demonstrate asset ownership [42]. Transferring ownership of

a physical or digital thing into a digital token is known as

asset tokenization. Additionally, NFT owners may easily trade

their tokens by transferring ownership from their accounts

to the buyer’s. A token is often an item that symbolizes

something and may represent a wide range of physical and

digital assets. Examples include certiﬁcates, artwork, digital

collectibles, and factual representations. ERC-20, ERC-721,

and ERC-1155 deﬁne the rules for creating and maintaining

Ethereum NFTs.

Digital collectibles are the most well-known and prominent

NFT applications. The authors in [43] discuss creating a

digital collectible for wildlife using NFTs. The objective is

to sell NFTs to tourists in return for money to support animal

conservation initiatives. However, there are other use cases

for NFTs than digital collectibles. For example, NFTs can

also be used in Real estate, which may aid in accelerating

the real estate transaction and promoting transparency in real

estate auctions since all bidders may see every bid against a

property. In December 2020, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter,

created an NFT from his ﬁrst-ever Twitter post that sold for

$2.9 million. The prominent auction house Christie’s sold a

digital collage named ”Every Day - the First 5,000 Days” for

$69 million [6], [44], [45]. The rise of NFTs has been driven

partly by their innovative potential for creators to earn money

from their digital works. Another factor contributing to its

increased acceptance is its ability to provide a safer and more

transparent method of storing and transferring ownership of

digital items.

1) Evolution of NFTs: NFTs were incorporated into

blockchain technology to address the challenge of creating

and managing unique digital assets.

Before the advent of NFTs, digital assets such as art, music,

and videos were difﬁcult to prove ownership and value of.

NFTs allow the creation of unique digital assets, whose

ownership and authenticity can be easily veriﬁable through

blockchain technology. This opens up a whole new world

of possibilities for creators and collectors, enabling them

to monetize digital assets in ways that were not previously

possible. NFTs have also introduced new blockchain

applications beyond just currency and have sparked a

new wave of interest in the technology. The evolution of

blockchain technology from RFID to NFTs is fascinating and

spans over a decade of innovation and experimentation. The

following is a brief overview of how this evolution took place:

RFID (Radio Frequency Identiﬁcation) technology was ﬁrst

developed in the 1980s to track inventory and assets using ra-

dio waves. The technology became popular in the early 2000s,

and businesses began using RFID tags to track their products

and assets [46]. In 2009, a new technology called Bitcoin

was developed, which used blockchain technology to create

a decentralized digital currency. Blockchain is a distributed

ledger technology that makes it possible to record and trace

transactions safely, transparently, and immutably. In 2014,

Ethereum, a blockchain-based platform, was developed, intro-

ducing the notion of smart contracts that execute themselves

and have the conditions of the agreement written in code.

This allowed developers to build decentralized applications

(Dapps) on top of the Ethereum blockchain, enabling a whole

new range of use cases for blockchain technology beyond just

currency. One of the early use cases for blockchain technology

was to create digital tokens that could represent assets such

as stocks, commodities, and even real estate. These tokens

could be traded on blockchain-based marketplaces, allowing

for greater liquidity and accessibility to these assets.

In January 2018, a new type of token called an ERC-721 token

was introduced on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike traditional

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 6

RFID was invented by

Charles Warlton

1983

Commercial expansion of

RFID in US and Europe

Early 2000s

Introduction of Bitcoin &

Blockchain technology

2009

Etherum is launched,

introducing Smart

Contracts

2015

ERC-721 and Non-Fungible

Tokens (NFT) are introduced

2017

2018

ERC-1155 Multi-

token standard is

launched

2023

Bitcoin launches Ordinal

Inscriptions, digital

assets similar to NFTs

Fig. 2: Timeline of some key events in the development of NFT technology.

interchangeable cryptocurrencies, these tokens, also known

as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), were unique and indivisible.

NFTs allowed for creating and trading unique digital assets,

such as artwork, music, and other forms of media. In the later

half of 2018, the ERC-1155 token standard was introduced

which addressed the limitations of previous token standards

like ERC-721 and ERC-20. Its ability to support multiple

token types and multiple assets within a single smart contract

reduced the complexity and costs associated with deploying

multiple contracts. Since then, NFTs have become a major

trend in blockchain, with high-proﬁle digital art sales and

other unique items fetching millions of dollars. NFTs have

opened up a whole new world of possibilities for creators and

collectors alike, enabling the ownership and monetization of

digital assets in ways that were not possible before. Timeline

of some key events in the development of NFT technology is

shown in Fig. 2. The distinctive features NFTs possess that set

them apart in the realm of digital assets are discussed below.

2) Features of NFTs: NFTs possess distinct characteristics

that set them apart from other types of digital assets and grant

them versatility for various purposes. NFTs possess various

features as shown in Fig. 3.

1) Unique: Each NFT is unique and cannot be replaced

or replicated. This allows for creation of one-of-a-kind

digital assets that can be veriﬁed and tracked.

2) Ownership: NFTs use blockchain technology to record

and track ownership, which allows for the token’s own-

ership transfer in a secure and veriﬁable way.

3) Interoperability: NFTs are created using blockchain

technology, making it possible for them to be easily

integrated with other blockchain-based platforms and

applications, making them more versatile and useful.

4) Decentralized: NFTs are built on decentralized

blockchain technology, which ensures that they are not

controlled by any central authority, making them more

secure, transparent, and resistant to censorship.

5) Immutable: All NFT transactions and ownership infor-

mation are stored on an immutable blockchain ledger,

which cannot be altered or deleted.

6) Programmable: NFTs can be programmed to include

rules and restrictions that govern how the asset can be

used or transferred, giving creators more control over

their digital assets.

7) Veriﬁability: Minting, transferring, or burning NFTs are

all transactions permanently stored on the blockchain;

therefore, the full history of an NFT can be veriﬁed.

8) Flexibility: A wide variety of digital assets, such as vir-

tual real estate, music, ﬁlms, and art, may be represented

by NFTs.

NFTs possess various characteristics that make them highly

beneﬁcial for facilitating digital ownership, authentication,

and ﬁnancial gain. As a result, they hold the potential to

signiﬁcantly transform various industries and enhance people’s

perceptions of ownership and value in the digital realm. NFTs

consist of various components that are brieﬂy discussed below.

3) Main component of NFTs: NFTs are digital assets

that utilize blockchain technology, particularly the Ethereum

blockchain, to ensure uniqueness, veriﬁcation, and immutabil-

ity. The typical framework of NFTs includes various compo-

nents.

1) Token ID: Each NFT has a unique token ID that serves

as a digital ﬁngerprint and allows for identifying the

speciﬁc token.

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Unique

Ownership

Flexibility

Verifiability

Programmable

Interoperability

Decentralized

Immutable

Fig. 3: Features of NFTs.

2) Metadata: NFTs typically include metadata that pro-

vides information about the token, such as a description,

image, or other relevant details.

3) Smart Contract: When speciﬁc criteria are satisﬁed,

a smart contract will automatically run and carry out

its intended function. Digital contracts regulate token

ownership and exchanges in NFTs. This smart contract

encodes the rules and guidelines that deﬁne the token

and its speciﬁc properties.

4) Ownership: NFTs use blockchain technology to record

and track token ownership. After creating an NFT, it

is assigned to an initial owner, and the ownership can

be transferred to other parties through a process called

minting.

5) Token Standard: NFTs use token standards like ERC-

721 and ERC-1155 to deﬁne their structure and be-

havior. These standards specify the required functions

and events for the smart contract. These standards also

provide a common interface for interacting with the

token.

6) Gas fee: Each transaction on the Ethereum blockchain

requires a small fee called gas. This fee incentivizes

miners to process the transaction and is required for

minting, transferring, and interacting with NFTs.

NFTs are unique digital assets representing anything from

digital art, collectibles, virtual real estate, and more. The

structure of NFTs allows for the creation of a digital asset

that can be easily veriﬁed, tracked, and transferable, making

it a valuable tool for digital ownership, veriﬁcation, and

monetization.

4) Workﬂow of NFTs: The workﬂow for creating and using

NFTs typically involves the following steps as shown in Fig.

1) Creation: An individual or organization creates a unique

digital asset, such as a piece of artwork or a collectible,

and adds metadata to it, such as a description and a

unique identiﬁer.

2) Minting: The creator mints the NFT on a blockchain

by adding the digital asset and its metadata to the

blockchain and issues a unique digital token representing

ownership of the asset.

3) Sale or trade: The NFT can be bought, sold, or traded

on a marketplace supporting NFTs. These marketplaces

are typically built on top of a blockchain, such as

Ethereum.

4) Transfer of ownership: When the NFT is sold, the

ownership of the digital token is transferred to the buyer

from the seller on the blockchain.

5) Veriﬁcation of ownership: The ownership of the NFT

can be easily veriﬁed by viewing the digital token on

the blockchain and checking its transaction history.

6) Use or display: The new owner can use or display the

NFT as they see ﬁt, subject to the creator’s restrictions.

5) Minting process of an NFT: Minting an NFT is the process

of writing a digital item to the blockchain. This proves its

unchangeable record of ownership and legitimacy. The digital

token is stored in a decentralized database or distributed

ledger that cannot be changed, altered, or removed. The steps

involved in the minting process are as follows:

1) The user initiates the NFT minting process from the

client application by requesting to create an NFT.

2) The miner validates the request.

3) If the request is valid, the minting service utilizes the

blockchain to generate the NFT token.

4) The blockchain conﬁrms the generation of the NFT

token and sends a response to the miner.

5) The miner then generates the NFT metadata by interact-

ing with the metadata services.

6) The metadata service conﬁrms the generation of the NFT

metadata and sends a response to the miner.

7) The miner stores the NFT metadata on the blockchain.

8) The blockchain conﬁrms the storage of the NFT meta-

data and sends a response to the miner.

9) The miner notiﬁes the client application about the suc-

cessful minting of the NFT, or if the request is invalid,

it notiﬁes the client application about the failure.

10) The creator requests to list the minted NFT on the NFT

marketplace.

11) The NFT marketplace conﬁrms the listing of that NFT.

12) Finally, the creator gets notiﬁed about the successful

listing of NFT. The NFT minting process is explained

in Fig. 5.

III. TOKEN STAN DAR DS F OR ETHEREUM BLOCKCHAIN

Token standards refer to a set of rules and speciﬁcations that

deﬁne how a particular type of token, such as a non-fungible

token (NFT), should be created, stored, and transferred on a

blockchain network.

In the context of NFTs, several token standards have been

developed to ensure interoperability and compatibility between

different NFT platforms and applications. The most popular

NFT token standards include ERC-721, ERC-1155, TRC-721

(TRON Blockchain), and BEP-721 (Binance Smart Chain).

The comparison of ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 is

shown in Table II. These token standards provide a common

framework for developers and users to create, manage, and

exchange NFTs across different blockchain networks. By

adhering to these standards, NFTs can be easily transferred

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 8

Fig. 4: Workﬂow of NFTs.

and traded without the need for complex customization or

modiﬁcations. The following subsection gives a brief account

of the different token standards that are used for NFT creation.

A. ERC-20

A technical standard called ERC-20 [47] is applied to smart

contracts on the Ethereum network. The majority of tokens on

the Ethereum network comply with ERC-20, making it one

of the most extensively utilized token speciﬁcations. ERC-20

deﬁnes a set of rules that must be followed by any token that

uses the standard to ensure compatibility with other Ethereum-

based applications and services. Some of the key features of

the ERC-20 token standard are:

1) Basic functionality: ERC-20 tokens must implement a

basic set of functions, including the ability to transfer

tokens from one address to another, get the current token

balance of an address, and approve another address to

spend tokens on behalf of the token owner.

2) Token supply: The total supply of an ERC-20 token

must be ﬁxed and predetermined. This means that no

more tokens can be minted or burned once the tokens

are created.

3) Token division: ERC-20 tokens can be divided into

smaller units, commonly called ”decimals.” This allows

for greater ﬂexibility in the value of the tokens and

makes them easier to use in everyday transactions.

4) Token ownership: ERC-20 tokens are owned by

Ethereum addresses, which are controlled by private

keys. These private keys must be kept secure to prevent

unauthorized token access.

5) Token transfers: ERC-20 tokens are transferred be-

tween addresses using the transfer function, which takes

the recipient’s address and the number of tokens being

transferred as inputs. The transfer function must check

that the sender has enough tokens to make the transfer

and then update the balances of both the sender and

recipient accordingly.

6) Token approvals: ERC-20 tokens can be approved for

spending by another address using the approve function.

This is commonly used in applications such as decen-

tralized exchanges, where users must give permission

for the exchange to spend their tokens on their behalf.

7) Events: ERC-20 tokens can emit events when speciﬁc

actions occur, such as a transfer or approval. These

events can be used by other smart contracts to trigger

additional actions.

By following the ERC-20 standard, tokens can be easily traded

and used in a wide range of Ethereum-based applications and

services. This has helped to create a vibrant ecosystem of de-

centralized ﬁnance (DeFi) applications, where users can trade

and lend tokens in a trustless and decentralized manner. The

drawback of ERC-20 standards is that they can only be used

to represent fungible tokens. It means no special ownership

functions can be allocated. This led to the development of

another token standard, i.e., ERC-721, which is non-fungible.

B. ERC-721

ERC-721 [48] is a non-fungible token standard on the

Ethereum blockchain that enables the creation of unique digital

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 9

Fig. 5: Minting process of an NFT.

assets that are easily veriﬁable, provably scarce, and indivis-

ible. This standard deﬁnes a set of rules and interfaces that

NFTs must follow to be compatible with other applications

and platforms. The ERC-721 provides a standard API for

NFT smart contracts and publicizes mandatory and optional

interfaces [49].

The ERC-721 standard is designed to enable the creation and

management of these assets in a secure and standardized way.

Some key features of the ERC-721 standard include:

1) Ownership: Each NFT is owned by a speciﬁc Ethereum

address and can only be transferred to another address

through a speciﬁc transfer function.

2) Non-Fungibility: NFTs are unique and cannot be ex-

changed one-to-one like fungible tokens.

3) Metadata: Each NFT can have associated metadata,

such as a name, description, image, or other data that

describes the asset.

4) Indivisibility: NFTs cannot be divided into smaller units

like fungible tokens.

5) Immutable: After an NFT is created, its properties

cannot be altered, ensuring its authenticity and scarcity.

6) Interoperability: NFTs can be used in various applica-

tions and platforms that support the ERC-721 standard,

enabling seamless integration and transferability of as-

sets.

The ERC-721 standard has been widely adopted by various

platforms and applications, including art marketplaces, gaming

platforms, and virtual real estate platforms. It has enabled

the creation and transfer of unique digital assets in a secure,

standardized, and interoperable manner, paving the way for

new use cases and innovations in the blockchain ecosystem.

C. ERC-1155

On the Ethereum blockchain, a multi-token standard called

ERC-1155 was released in 2018 [51]. This is an extension to

the ERC-721 non-fungible token (NFT) standard which allows

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TABLE II: Comparison of ERC-20, ERC-721 and ERC-1155 Token Standards, adapted from [50]

Criteria ERC-20 ERC-721 ERC-1155

Ease of Use Individual transactions and a

common smart contract are

required.

Individual transactions and

smart contracts are required

for each token type.

A single smart contract can

support multiple functions.

Batch Transfers Allows batch transfers No support for batch trans-

fers.

Allows use of a single smart

contract for batch transfers.

Support for Semi-

Fungible Tokens

Only supports creation of

fungible tokens.

Only supports creation of

non-fungible tokens.

Supports the conversion of

fungible tokens to NFTs and

vice-versa.

Security of Assets Does not have an inbuilt

transaction veriﬁcation sys-

tem.

Impossible to revert transac-

tions after transferring assets

to the wrong address.

Safe transfer function en-

ables veriﬁcation of transac-

tion validity and allows re-

versal of transactions.

Know Your Customer

(KYC) Veriﬁcation

No KYC required In-built KYC and Anti-

Money Laundering system

In-built KYC and Anti-

Money Laundering system

BME(burn-and-mint)

Model

Not Available Available Available

the creation of both fungible and non-fungible tokens on the

same contract.

In contrast to the ERC-721 standard, where each token is

unique and has its own smart contract, the ERC-1155 standard

allows for the creation of a single smart contract that can

hold an unlimited number of tokens, both fungible and non-

fungible. This makes it more efﬁcient and cost-effective to cre-

ate and manage multiple tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

The ERC-1155 standard deﬁnes a set of functions that must

be implemented by the smart contract to ensure compatibility

and interoperability with other contracts and applications on

the Ethereum network. These functions include:

1) balanceOf: This function returns the balance of a par-

ticular token owned by a speciﬁc account.

2) balanceOfBatch: This function returns the balance of

multiple tokens owned by a speciﬁc account.

3) setApprovalForAll: This function allows an account to

give permission to another account to transfer all of its

tokens on its behalf.

4) isApprovedForAll: This function returns whether an

account has been granted permission to transfer all

tokens on behalf of another account.

5) safeTransferFrom: This function allows for the safe

transfer of tokens from one account to another, prevent-

ing the loss or theft of tokens.

6) safeBatchTransferFrom: This function allows for the

safe transfer of multiple tokens from one account to

another.

The ERC-1155 standard also includes additional features such

as batch transfers, which allow for the transfer of multiple

tokens at once, reducing transaction costs and increasing

efﬁciency.

Overall, the ERC-1155 standard provides a more ﬂexible and

efﬁcient way to create and manage tokens on the Ethereum

blockchain, making it an attractive option for developers and

users who require a more complex token ecosystem.

D. BRC-721E

The BRC-721E token standard is a new token standard that

allows users to transfer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on

Ethereum to NFTs based on the Bitcoin network. It is meant to

connect the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks by letting clients

change ERC-721 NFTs to BRC-721E tokens on Bitcoin. This

token standard is based on the Bitcoin ordinals protocol,

which is comparable to the BRC-20 token, and was designed

speciﬁcally for NFTs in which BRC-20 standards could not

be adopted. Using Bitcoin ordinals, the BRC-721E token

standard acts as a bridge between the Ethereum and Bitcoin

blockchain networks. Although it is still in its early phases of

development, its use is projected to boost the popularity and

adoption rate of Bitcoin ordinals. It enables Ethereum-based

NFT holders to burn their tokens and inscribe them on the

Bitcoin network.

IV. APP LI CATIONS OF NFTS A ND MARKET

OPPORTUNITIES

NFTs have exploded in popularity in recent years. NFTs

market size was valued at $16 billion and is poised to grow

from $21.39 billion in 2022 to $212 billion by 2030, growing

at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.7% in

the forecast period (2023-2030). The market opportunities in

NFTs are vast and varied, with a growing number of industries

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 11

exploring the potential applications of this technology. The

various real-world sectors where NFT technology can be

adopted are discussed in the following section.

A. Identity Veriﬁcation

In [52], the authors propose using NFTs to verify identity.

Each individual would be assigned a unique NFT, which

could be used to verify their identity in various contexts,

such as accessing government services or opening a bank

account. This could signiﬁcantly improve privacy and security

for individuals and create a more efﬁcient means of identity

veriﬁcation.

B. Smart Cities and Governance

In [53], the authors explore the use of NFTs in smart cities and

governance systems. By creating unique NFTs for each citizen,

blockchain-based voting systems can provide greater security

and transparency in the voting process. NFTs can also rep-

resent ownership of governance tokens, allowing stakeholders

to participate in decision-making processes for decentralized

organizations. Blockchain, which is transparent, immutable,

and secure, is used to store unique NFTs of citizens and

assets in the proposed smart economy systems. Therefore,

participants can examine the history and authenticity of the

listed NFTs. NFTs can potentially resolve the security and trust

issues in existing peer-to-peer economic systems due to these

inherited features from blockchain technology. This section

discusses the different applications of smart cities that can

beneﬁt from NFTs’ adoption.

1) Real Estate : NFTs are also used to create unique virtual

real estate, such as virtual land or buildings, which can be

bought and sold like physical real estate. The author in [54]

explores using NFTs to represent ownership of real estate

assets. Asset ﬁnality is established by tokenizing real estate

assets and encrypting data, and a digital proof of ownership

is created. The NFT registers real estate static and dynamic

information for trading in the data marketplace among various

consumers and stakeholders, including investors, occupants,

insurers, and property managers. The information recorded in

the NFT includes real estate deeds, transactions, and mutable

parameters.

2) DSCOT: Decentralized Smart City of Things (DSCoT)

[55] is a private blockchain architecture that uses blockchain

tokenization, i.e., NFTs, to identify and validate user and

IoT assets uniquely. The suggested architecture guarantees

unique asset representation by using smart contracts for IoT

assets and user authentication. The suggested functions and

components have performed well when evaluated regarding

time complexity and gas usage. The proposed change is

efﬁcient regarding time complexity and gas price since the new

set of functions to query the smart contract for the status of

assets in the NFT registry does not incur any transaction fees.

This architecture uses Blockchain and SHA-III encryption

mechanisms to provide a safe and effective smart city solution

with robust security features.

3) E-voting: Yavuz et al. [56] explore the possibility of

developing a trustworthy electronic voting system by using

blockchain technology and, more signiﬁcantly, Ethereum. With

its distributed and secure nature, blockchain technology can

address many issues associated with traditional e-voting sys-

tems. They propose using smart contracts on the Ethereum

platform to develop a trustworthy Electronic Voting System.

Traditional paper-to-box voting systems have many problems,

including a lack of transparency and the potential for cor-

ruption. E-voting systems have been studied extensively, but

few implementations are reliable enough for ofﬁcial elections.

The authors in [56] developed a prototype e-voting app using

Ethereum wallets and Solidity programming language. The

Ethereum blockchain stores ballots and votes after an election.

Users can submit their ballots from an Android device or

Ethereum wallet. Every node on the blockchain uses con-

sensus protocols to process these transaction requests. This

paper presents a compelling argument for using blockchain

technology to create a secure and transparent e-voting system.

C. Healthcare

NFTs have been proposed as a potential tool for various

healthcare applications as shown in Fig. 6. The use cases of

NFTs in Healthcare from recent literature are as follows:

1) Patient Data Management : Bharath et al. [57] discusses

the issues with the conventional system of patient-data man-

agement, which stores stored as unstructured physical records

on paper prescriptions, ﬁles, and other traditional forms of

storage, which are prone to redundancy, degradation, and loss

of record. The authors propose using blockchain technology to

manage patient data into a single record owned by the patient.

This would allow for better transparency and ownership of

sensitive data, thereby promoting and transforming the health-

care industry. Conventionally, centralization of information

meant that every healthcare provider and the hospital has to

maintain all information about the patient records on their

premise, that is, the locally maintained storage and databases.

The authors conclude that electronic health records (EHR)

using blockchain is a revolution in the medical industry that

can signiﬁcantly minimize the time and effort expended in

managing patient data with effective and efﬁcient results.

They argue that it solves most challenges today because of

trust in the medical sector. It provides a reliable patient data

exchange platform and a faster and more ﬂexible system. By

assigning a unique NFT to each patient, healthcare providers

and researchers could track the ownership, usage, and history

of patient data while ensuring patient privacy and security.

2) Medical Device Tracking : Data integrity, ﬁnality, trace-

ability, and transparency are some of the challenges associated

with the data of medical devices used in healthcare supply

chains. As they pose a substantial threat to the safety of their

consumers, counterfeit devices are a signiﬁcant challenge that

the healthcare industry is attempting to eliminate. Existing sys-

tems adhere to a centralized architecture which is prone to total

failure or outage of the systems and eliminates transparency

and veriﬁability. The proposed solution relies on non-fungible

tokens (NFTs), smart contracts, tokenization protocols, and a

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NFTs in

Healthcare

Cer tific at es &

Cre d enti a ls

To track the supply chain of

medical equipment.

Each policy or claim could be

represented as an NFT, simplifying the

verification and settlement process.

Tra ck ing

Pha r maceu t ical

Med ical D evice

Tra c king H ea lth Insur ance

& C laims

Per sonali zed

Med i cine

Hea lth & W elln es s

Tra c king

Pat ient Data

Man a geme n t R esear ch &

Fin d ings

Enable the creation of personalized

treatment plans and genomic data. To reward individuals for maintaining

healthy habits and achieving specific

health goals.

To establish ownership of

research finding and

clinical trial data.

To provide certifications

and credentials for

healthcare professionals.

To track pharmaceuticals,

and other health care

products.

To create secure and

tamper proof medical

records.

Fig. 6: NFTs opportunities in healthcare.

decentralized storage system to ensure reliable and effective

medical device traceability. In this system, NFTs represent the

medical device’s digital counterpart. This digital twin collects

important information about a medical device throughout

its entire life cycle, from production to distribution, current

usage, and ownership. This NFT-based solution provides a

dependable and efﬁcient method for tracking and managing the

ownership of medical devices throughout their life cycle. This

system addresses the difﬁculties associated with data integrity,

provenance, traceability, and transparency in healthcare supply

chains through smart contracts and a decentralized storage

system.

3) Traceability of Pharmaceutical Supply Chain : Chiacchio

et al. [58] proposes the NFT track and trace prototype solu-

tion’s design and implementation., which consists of a pro-

gressive web Dapp (decentralized application), a blockchain

server integrated with the serialization manager for inventory

and an NFT smart contract deployed on the VeChain Thor

blockchain. The unique beneﬁts of this approach are:

•Transparency: The NFTs provide a digital twin of the

serialized products, allowing for the tracking and tracing

of their history and status along the distribution network

from the manufacturer to the ﬁnal client.

•Quality control: Traceability offered by NFTs can con-

tribute to the quality and safety of pharmaceutical prod-

ucts by enabling the identiﬁcation and prevention of

issues such as tampering, contamination, counterfeiting,

and fraud.

•Regulatory compliance: The traceability provided by the

NFTs can help to comply with regulatory requirements

for serialization and track-and-trace in the pharmaceutical

sector, such as the EU directive 2011/62/EU.

•Recall management: The traceability provided by the

NFTs can facilitate the recall management process by

allowing for identifying and retrieving speciﬁc batches

or units of products that may be affected by a quality or

safety issue.

4) Personalised Medicine: NFTs, which enable the safe and

regulated exchange of patient genomic data, have the poten-

tial to revolutionize personalized treatment. NFTs guarantee

the validity and ownership of genomic data while reducing

worries about data integrity and trust by tokenizing genomic

information as distinct digital assets. With NFTs, patients may

use smart contracts to govern precisely who has access to

their data, improving privacy and consent administration. By

encouraging cooperation between healthcare professionals and

researchers, this restricted sharing method using blockchain

technology accelerates the identiﬁcation of diseases and per-

sonalized treatment approaches [59]. Healthcare professionals

may use the tokenized genomic data of patients to create

personalized treatment plans, choose the best medications, and

reduce unpleasant responses. Large-scale genomic investiga-

tions may be fueled by the collection and anonymous exchange

of tokenized genomic data, which might promote precision

medicine and better disease diagnoses.

5) Health Insurance and Claims: Processes related to health

insurance and claims, including several parties, documentation,

and veriﬁcation requirements, may take time and effort. By

tokenizing insurance plans and claims, NFTs can accelerate

these procedures, beneﬁting patients, healthcare professionals,

and insurers. The speciﬁc conditions of an insurance policy

may be safely saved and quickly veriﬁed on a blockchain by

representing them as NFTs [60]. As a result, manual veriﬁca-

tion procedures are no longer necessary, and administrative

costs for insurers are decreased. Using the NFT linked to

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the patient’s policy, a healthcare professional may swiftly

conﬁrm his insurance coverage when the patient visits him.

The practitioner and the patient beneﬁted by saving time

and increasing the productivity of this simpliﬁed veriﬁcation

procedure. Payment of insurance claims may be made simpler

by tokenizing them as NFTs. A patient’s claim may be

tokenized as an NFT that includes relevant data like the

speciﬁcs of the therapy, the cost, and any necessary supporting

materials. The insurer may securely receive the NFT and use

the data included in the token to speed up the veriﬁcation and

decision-making processes for the claim. With less manual

paperwork and back-and-forth communication needed in the

claims process, healthcare providers may be paid more quickly,

and patients’ ﬁnancial burdens may be reduced. Transparency

and immutability are also brought through using NFTs in

health insurance and claims procedures. Because blockchain

is decentralized, it guarantees that the data held in NFTs

cannot be changed or tampered with, giving a trustworthy and

auditable record of policies and claims. This maintains the

integrity of the whole process and aids in preventing fraud.

6) Research and Finding: Establishing ownership, prove-

nance, and monetization of research discoveries, intellectual

property (IP), and clinical trial data is made possible by

NFTs. Researchers may build a veriﬁable record of their work

and open up new opportunities for rewarding and commer-

cializing their discoveries by tokenizing discoveries, research

papers, and other scientiﬁc contributions as NFTs. Research

results and intellectual property may be tokenized as NFTs

to provide a distinct and unchangeable record of ownership.

Each NFT is a unique research output or intellectual property

asset safely stored on a blockchain. By doing so, open and

immutable evidence of ownership is established, prohibiting

misuse or unauthorized use of the work [60]. Researchers’

capacity to safeguard and defend their intellectual property

is improved by their ability to assert their ownership rights

and provide a trustworthy digital record of their contributions.

NFTs also make it possible to trace the origin of research and

intellectual property. Blockchain technology’s decentralized

structure ensures that an NFT’s complete history, including

its creation, ownership changes, and related information, is

openly recorded. In areas where trust and repeatability are

crucial, like scientiﬁc research and academic publication, this

enables researchers to show the provenance and legitimacy of

their work.

7) Certiﬁcates and Credentials: NFTs are a viable approach

for delivering safe and veriﬁed certiﬁcates and credentials.

Healthcare professionals may have a digital record of their

continuous education and training by tokenizing their cre-

dentials and credits as NFTs. This will simplify sharing

and conﬁrming their credentials with employers, regulatory

organizations, and other essential stakeholders. The validity

and integrity of data are guaranteed by tokenizing credentials

as NFTs. Each NFT is a tamper-proof and veriﬁable record of

a healthcare professional’s educational credentials [61]. NFTs

may lower the danger of falsiﬁed or fraudulent credentials,

improving the veriﬁer’s ability to rely on them. Healthcare

workers may readily share their credentials with employers, li-

censing bodies, and other parties safely+ that need veriﬁcation

by storing their NFT-based certiﬁcates in a digital wallet. This

simpliﬁes the qualiﬁcation veriﬁcation and review process,

saving time and effort for all the participants in the veriﬁcation

process.

8) Health and Wellness Tracking: NFTs provide an exciting

way to encourage and reward people for developing, main-

taining, and accomplishing healthy behaviors and objectives.

A veriﬁable and transferable record of an individual’s accom-

plishments may be created by tokenizing health and wellness

data as NFTs and collecting it through wearable technology

or health applications. These NFTs may then be exchanged

or redeemed for other prizes, encouraging people to adopt

healthy lifestyle practices. Creating a digital record certifying

a person’s efforts and development is possible by tokenizing

health and wellness data as NFTs. For instance, wearable or

health-tracking software may gather information on exercise

habits, sleep patterns, diet, or other health parameters. This

information may transform into distinctive NFTs that signify

speciﬁc successes or milestones. The NFTs act as a digital

badge, giving veriﬁable proof of the person’s commitment

to his wellness and health objectives. These NFTs provide

concrete incentives encouraging people to engage in healthy

behaviors actively. The beneﬁts range from exclusive access to

health-related activities or experiences to savings on medical

services, exercise gear, or wellness items. The possibility of

exchanging or redeeming these NFTs for worthwhile prizes of-

fers a gamiﬁed experience that encourages people to continue

with their journey towards wellness and health [62].

D. Supply Chain Management

The paper [63] showcases the use of smart contracts in fa-

cilitating e-commerce transactions, including order placement

and shipment tracking between suppliers and consumers. This

is extended in paper [64], in which the authors propose using

NFTs to track products and their ingredients throughout their

life cycle in the supply chains. Each product is assigned a

unique NFT, which records its origin, transportation, and other

relevant details. This enables greater transparency and account-

ability in the supply chain and helps to prevent counterfeiting

and other fraudulent activities. As explained in the previous

section, this can be used as a supply chain of pharmaceutical

drugs and medical equipment [58]. This can also be extended

to the supply chain of agricultural goods to track the journey of

agricultural products throughout the supply chain, as explained

in the upcoming section.

E. Gaming

NFTs are used in the gaming industry to create unique in-game

and virtual real estate items. Players can purchase NFTs for

particular items, such as weapons or clothing, which can be

used in the game or traded on secondary markets. NFTs can

enhance the gaming experience by allowing players to own

and trade virtual assets outside the game environment. This

would create a secondary marketplace for in-game items and

could provide players with a new source of income. Some of

the applications of NFTs in the gaming industry are listed.

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 14

NFTs in

Education

Gam ificat ion &

Rew a rds

To issue digital certificates and credentials,

such as diplomas, degrees, or professional

certifications.

Dec en tral ized

Aut onomou s

Org anizat ions

(DA O s )

Cer tific at ed &

Cre d e ntia l s Educ ationa l

Rec o r ds

Mic ro cr ed enti al ing

& B adges

Fun d Rai sing

Cro w dfund ing

Pee r- to-Pe er

Lea r ning

Res ea rch &

Col l abora t ion

Each educational record of

the students can be tokenized

with NFT.

NFTs can be utilized for micro credentialing

and issuing digital badges for specific skills

or competencies.

To make collective decisions about

educational programs, curriculum

development, or resource allocation.

NFTs can be used to

establish ownership of

research findings.

To create gamified

educational experiences.

To raise funds for

specific projects or

initiatives.

To enable peer-to-peer

learning and the creation of

an educational marketplace.

Fig. 7: NFTs opportunities in education.

1) Development and trade of game art: Development and

trade of game art as NFTs have been discussed in [65]. NFTs

represent considerable opportunities for game developers and

the potential for incentivizing game developers and content

creators. Using NFTs in games enables players and investors

to buy and sell in-game content, creating considerable revenue

and interest. NFTs also enable the collection and trading of

unique game objects, such as in-game artworks or collectible

items. Additionally, NFTs can be used to integrate unique

rewards for players or groups.

2) Tradable Digital assets in games: The InterPlanetary File

System (IPFS) and NFTs enabled by Distributed Ledger

Technologies (DLTs) are used in the paper [66] to create a

ﬂexible and decentralized system for exchanging game assets.

The proposed solution creates an entirely decentralized system

in which novel revenue streams are enabled, as the evolvable

game assets can be priced and resold according to their

scarcity, and the digital artist can be compensated for the same

without needing a trusted third party. The system guarantees

that assets will always be accessible on the blockchain without

any single point of failure, so users don’t risk losing control of

their items or value even if the game’s developer loses interest

or declares bankruptcy.

F. Education

One key application of NFTs in education is creating and dis-

tributing digital certiﬁcates and credentials. Traditional paper-

based certiﬁcates can be easily lost, forged, or damaged,

leading to potential issues in verifying one’s educational

achievements. NFTs can revolutionize how educational content

is created, distributed, and monetized. Educators and content

creators can tokenize their educational materials, such as e-

books, lesson plans, or online courses, as NFTs. These NFTs

can be a form of attribution, recognition, and collaboration,

fostering a culture of trusted and safe knowledge sharing

and innovation within educational communities. NFTs have

immense potential to enhance the various aspects of the

education industry shown in Fig. 7 and discussed in the

following section.

1) Educational Records as NFTS : The candidates’ authen-

ticity about their credentials and knowledge is susceptible to

numerous defects, like establishing their credibility. Degree

and certiﬁcate forgery is one such example. This also affects

hiring decisions, as companies cannot validate a candidate’s

competency. The authors in [67] propose a decentralized edu-

cation model that utilizes blockchain technology. Students’ ed-

ucational credentials are cryptographically hashed and stored

as NFTs, uniquely identifying each educational record on the

blockchain. It is proposed to use IPFS (Interplanetary File

System) to store original data and return a unique Content

Identiﬁer(CID), which can be used to access educational

records.

2) Certiﬁcates and Credentials: The authors in [61] present

a solution for the problem of certiﬁcate packaging by using

blockchain, smart contracts, and NFTs. Several colleges are

using NFTs for certiﬁcation and working in remote learning

environments. Duke University is one such instance that

has accepted NFTs as proof of education for its Master

of Engineering in Financial Technology program [68]. The

solution aims to preserve the authenticity of certiﬁcates and

prevent counterfeits from being afﬁliated with them. The

solution works by converting certiﬁcates into e-certiﬁcates

created as NFTs, which can be used as a transaction method

between recipients of the certiﬁcates and issuing organizations.

Creating a soft copy of certiﬁcates can aid in mitigating the

issue of certiﬁcates getting damaged. The e-certiﬁcate can be

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 15

constructed using a PDF as its document format. The proposed

solution uses smart contracts to store e-certiﬁcate data on

a blockchain network effectively. The blockchain solution

developed with Solana [69] is ideal for the proposed system

as it offers a wide range of smart contract applications and

consistency.

3) Fund Raising and Crowdfunding: NFTs can revolutionize

fundraising and crowdfunding in the education industry. Edu-

cational institutions like schools and universities can leverage

NFTs to raise funds and engage their communities. Institutions

may delight and cherish their supporters by issuing limited-

edition NFTs that symbolize rare opportunities, access to

prestigious events, or extraordinary experiences [70]. These

NFTs may be auctioned, enabling anyone to place bids and buy

highly desired physical items or digital assets. Institutions may

also provide limited-edition digital items like music or artwork

as NFTs, giving fans one-of-a-kind digital collectibles. Alumni

engagement can be fostered by recognizing and appreciating

donors through NFTs, showcasing their contributions to the

institution. Through NFTs, collaborative fundraising initiatives

involving students and faculty may also be supported, strength-

ening community connections. In addition to collecting funds,

NFT-based fundraising fosters a feeling of belonging and

participation among supporters, demonstrating the institution’s

dedication to innovation and community involvement.

4) Peer-to-Peer Learning: NFTs have the potential to en-

hance peer-to-peer learning experiences by providing unique

beneﬁts and incentives. Learners may use NFTs to trade

knowledge with their peers by producing tokens that signify

their proﬁciency in speciﬁc ﬁelds or abilities. These NFTs help

learners become respected experts in the peer-to-peer learning

community by establishing their credibility and recognition.

NFTs may also operate as rewards for teamwork, with students

receiving tokens for contributing actively, offering feedback,

or helping a fellow student [71]. These collectible tokens may

be exchanged for other items or used to open up new learning

opportunities, increasing incentive and engagement.

5) Micro-credentialing and Badges: Micro-credentialing and

badges are additional ways that NFTs are used in education

to provide creative methods to identify and highlight speciﬁc

abilities and accomplishments. NFTs may produce distinctive

digital badges that signify attaining speciﬁc tasks, abilities,

or achievements [71]. These badges connected to particular

skills may be kept in wallets and readily sent to companies,

educational institutions, or internet platforms. NFTs also func-

tion as veriﬁable evidence of a person’s talents, validating

the associated badge’s legitimacy and validity by encoding

pertinent information inside the token.

6) Research and Collaboration: NFTs can completely change

how people collaborate and are rewarded for contributing

to Research and Development (R&D) initiatives. Researchers

may establish ownership and fairly compensate contributors by

minting NFTs for research results, datasets, or software code.

Researchers have historically had trouble claiming ownership

and getting credit for their contributions to joint initiatives.

Researchers may tokenize their work using NFTs and provide

distinct digital tokens for speciﬁc research outcomes [72]. A

research paper, for instance, might be tokenized as an NFT

with the author as the original owner. This ownership may

be extended to other coworkers, ensuring each contributor is

acknowledged and credited for their contributions.

7) Gamiﬁcation and Rewards: NFTs provide an effective

method for gamifying the educational process and inspiring

students with rewards and recognition. Institutions may build a

fun, dynamic atmosphere that appeals to students’ innate desire

for competitiveness and success by incorporating NFT-based

incentives into educational platforms or ecosystems [73].

Educational institutions may display virtual badges, trophies,

or other digital artifacts that reﬂect speciﬁc accomplishments

or milestones using NFTs. For instance, ﬁnishing a tough

assignment, understanding a complex idea, or getting a good

grade on a test might give students unique NFT tokens

connected to their achievements.

8) Decentralized Autonomous Organizations(DAOs): Inte-

grating NFTs into educational DAOs, also known as decentral-

ized autonomous organizations, provides numerous valuable

educational applications. When DAO and NFT come together,

it creates a new form of decentralized avenue and investment

source in the market. The DAO in NFT platform development

ensures transparency through a distributed decision-making

system. It will automate the governance of the NFT market-

places, where users will take part in deciding the future of

the marketplace. By minting these tokens as NFTs, anyone,

including students, teachers, and administrators, may engage

in decision-making processes and inﬂuence educational policy.

These tokens serve as ownership and voting rights inside the

DAO. NFTs may be utilized in educational DAOs, where

participants come together to decide on educational initiatives,

curriculum design, or resource distribution [68].

G. Intellectual Property

1) Digital Software Licensing: Madine et al. [74] explores

the use of NFTs to protect the intellectual property rights of

software. By creating unique NFTs for each software license,

developers can prove ownership and control the distribution

of their licenses. This would help developers prevent unautho-

rized piracy and ensure they are adequately compensated for

their work.

2) Patents: The authors in [75] explore the development of an

NFT-based patent protection system. The system depends on

generating an NFT for each patent using a hashing algorithm

and storing the hash on a blockchain network with a digital

timestamp. The blockchain network can verify the patent’s

existence and its origin, linking it to its original owner and

thereby preserving the organization’s contribution. The authors

propose using the above system to protect patents as it provides

conﬁdentiality and trust in data collection, reporting, and

review processes during patent registration.

H. Charity and Donations

NFTs can also be used for charitable purposes. By creating

NFTs for charitable donations, donors can track the impact of

their contributions and see how their donations are being used.

This would create greater transparency and accountability in

the charitable sector, helping to build trust between donors and

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 16

Traceability & Supply

Chain Management

Carbon Credits &

Sustainable Practices

NFTs can play a role in promoting

and incentivizing sustainable

agricultural practices.

Agriculture Insurance

NFTs may play a key role in

merging blockchain technology

with traditional insurance

practices.

Livestock Identification

and Tracking

Certification & Quality

Assurance

NFTs can be used to certify and

authenticate organic, fair trade.

Farm Management

Each piece of farm asset can be

tokenized, enabling better asset

tracking, maintenance records,

and ownership history.

To track the origin and journey of

agricultural products throughout

the supply chain.

NFTs In Agriculture

NFTs can be employed for

individual identification and

tracking of livestock.

Fig. 8: NFTs opportunities in agriculture.

organizations. Fundraising to support various philanthropic

causes, such as animal protection, child rights protection,

gender equality, and education, is a recent trend involving

NFTs. Shaquille O’Neal, a former professional basketball

player from the United States, recently raised $2 million for his

philanthropic foundation, which assists underprivileged youth

through selling his NFTs. Animal enthusiasts can purchase

NFTs of their favorite animals while supporting conservation

efforts. WildEarth created NFTs for 25 animals in Djuma

Game Reserve, South Africa. About 40% of NFT sales go

to habitat care, and 8% of trades go to caretakers. The

Patchwork Kingdoms is a collection of 1,000 data-driven

NFTs introduced in January 2022 by UNICEF, the biggest

organization in the world for aiding children with humanitarian

and developmental needs. The revenue from the main sale of

these NFTs will go towards funding projects like Giga [76].

I. Agriculture

Some of the potential applications of NFTs in agriculture

include the following as shown in Fig. 8:

1) Traceability and Supply Chain Management: Tracking the

origin and movement of food products is a common use case

for NFTs shown in Fig. 9. This ensures transparency and

trust in the supply chain. This could be particularly useful

in food-borne illness outbreaks or verifying organic or non-

genetically modiﬁed (GM) claims [77]. NFTs can represent

ownership of unique assets in the food supply chain. The

tracking of ownership of food products is done through digital

certiﬁcation, while smart contracts enable seamless trading.

In the case of food products, composable NFTs are utilized,

representing complementary items like raw materials and

packaged products in a hierarchical structure of parent-child

relationships. This results in added value within NFTs, mainly

when subsets of NFTs are necessary. NFTs can be integrated

into supply chains to enable warehouses, manufacturers, and

consumers to understand better and reﬁne the product journey.

By creating a secure and veriﬁable supply chain, the utiliza-

tion of NFTs leads to decreased food waste, improved food

safety, and augmented proﬁt margins. It provides consumers

with complete transparency and conﬁdence in the food they

purchase.

2) Carbon Credits and Sustainable Practices: NFTs are

crucial in promoting and offering incentives for sustainable

agricultural practices in the context of carbon credits and

environmental sustainability. Renewable energy sources or car-

bon sequestration techniques are examples of climate-friendly

agricultural practices that may be tokenized as NFTs [78].

NFTs representing carbon credits may be purchased, sold, or

exchanged on speciﬁc platforms or marketplaces. As a result,

interested buyers may support sustainable agricultural meth-

ods. The acquisition of these NFTs offers ﬁnancial assistance

to the farmers and encourages the adoption of sustainable

practices more generally.

3) Agriculture Insurance: Agriculture insurance using NFTs

is a groundbreaking concept merging blockchain technology

with traditional insurance practices. Each farm or agricultural

asset is represented by a unique NFT containing crucial

data, enabling smart contracts to automate claims based on

predeﬁned conditions, such as adverse weather events [79].

Real-time data sources, like IoT devices and satellite im-

agery, inform these contracts, and premiums are determined

by risk assessment models. The transparent, secure nature

of blockchain reduces fraud, and secondary markets allow

farmers to trade their coverage NFTs. Decentralized insurance

pools can spread risk, but regulatory compliance and edu-

cation are key to widespread adoption, ultimately enhancing

efﬁciency and risk management in agriculture insurance.

4) Farm Management: NFTs can represent farmland owner-

ship, ensuring transparent and fraud-resistant land documenta-

tion [80]. Farmers can track and manage crops by associating

each cycle or batch with an NFT that contains relevant data

such as planting and harvesting dates, fertilizers used, and

certiﬁcations achieved. NFTs can streamline farm equipment

and asset management by storing maintenance history, usage

statistics, and ownership records. Integrating NFTs into farm

management applications can improve transparency, trace-

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 17

An NFT is minted for

different agricultural

produce

Producer Distributer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer

Decentralized Storage

An NFT based token is created

A smart contract based

agreement is made to

claim ownership by

distributer

A smart contract based

agreement is made to

claim ownership by

wholesaler

A smart contract based

agreement is made to

claim ownership by

retailer

A smart contract based

agreement is made to

claim ownership by

consumer

All transactions are stored on decentralized storage

Fig. 9: NFTs in the agricultural supply chain.

ability, and efﬁciency across various aspects of agriculture,

revolutionizing the industry and beneﬁting farmers, investors,

and consumers.

5) Certiﬁcation and Quality Assurance: NFTs may greatly

aid the certiﬁcation of agricultural product quality and au-

thenticity. For example, organic farmers can create NFTs that

represent their organic produce. These tokens may include

details regarding the farm’s organic certiﬁcation, the proce-

dures followed, and any audits carried out by other parties.

Consumers may conﬁrm a product is organic and believe the

farmer’s claims by scanning the NFT attached. This boosts

customer trust and rewards farmers for maintaining high-

quality standards [81].

6) Livestock Tracking: The application of NFTs in livestock

tracking has the potential to revolutionize agriculture by pro-

viding secure and transparent digital records. Farmers may

easily monitor and manage livestock throughout their lifespan

by assigning distinctive NFTs to each animal [82]. These

NFTs enable the traceability and provenance of the animals

by including crucial data like breed, age, medical history,

and ownership information. Farmers may assure transparency

and accountability in the management and transportation of

animals by establishing an unalterable audit trail using NFTs.

NFTs help livestock transactions go smoothly by facilitating

ownership transfers, which lowers the chance of fraudulent or

disputed deals.

V. CHALLENGES

Even while NFT has made signiﬁcant progress in recent years,

it still faces several signiﬁcant obstacles to overcome before it

can be widely used. Some of the challenges in the wide-scale

adoption of NFTs are:

A. Usability challenges

In the context of NFT, usability challenges relate to the prob-

lems that users face while attempting to utilize NFTs. These

problems may affect the user experience and prevent NFTs

from being widely used. The following are some widespread

usability problems with NFTs:

1) Lack of Standardization:Currently, there is a lack of

standardization in NFT creation and management, which

presents several challenges within the NFT ecosystem. Dif-

ferent platforms and marketplaces have their speciﬁcations

and standards for creating and managing NFTs. These speci-

ﬁcations can vary regarding ﬁle formats, metadata, royalties,

and smart contract functionality. As a result, NFTs created

on one platform may not be compatible or easily transferable

to another platform. This lack of standardization can create

confusion and limit the liquidity of NFTs [83]. Due to the

absence of standardized protocols, verifying the ownership

and provenance of an NFT can be challenging. It becomes

difﬁcult to determine whether an NFT is an original or

a copy and whether the creator or current owner has the

legitimate rights to sell or transfer it. This lack of transparency

can undermine trust and lead to disputes over ownership,

potentially devaluing the NFT. Furthermore, the fragmented

nature of the marketplaces makes it challenging for users

to compare assets and navigate through various platforms.

Each marketplace may have different user interfaces, features,

and payment options, creating a fragmented experience. This

fragmentation also makes comparing prices and discovering

NFTs across different platforms harder. Non-standardized NFT

speciﬁcations limit cross-platform functionality and hinder the

potential utility and value of NFTs [19]. For example, certain

platforms may have unique features, such as interactive or

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 18

gamiﬁed NFTs, which may not be supported or accessible on

other platforms. This restricts the potential use cases and value

propositions of NFTs, preventing them from reaching their full

potential. Additionally, the absence of standardization can lead

to confusion and a steep learning curve for NFT users. Each

platform may have different procedures, requirements, and ter-

minology, making it difﬁcult for newcomers to understand and

navigate the ecosystem. This lack of user-friendly standards

can discourage adoption and limit the broader accessibility of

NFTs.

2) Scalability:The scalability issue is becoming more crit-

ical in the NFT ﬁeld as its popularity grows. The underly-

ing blockchain technology for NFTs has certain limitations

regarding transaction throughput, scalability, and economic

efﬁciency [84]. Congestion on the network might cause trans-

action times to lengthen and costs to rise as more people use

NFTs. During busy times, such as when popular NFT falls or

digital marketplaces see many customers, this congestion may

be a signiﬁcant issue. The smooth experience essential for

mass adoption might be hampered by slow transaction times

and high costs.

3) Quality control:The vast number of NFTs being made

and sold makes it difﬁcult to maintain quality control in

the NFT ecosystem. It becomes more challenging to verify

the authenticity and quality of NFTs as more digital assets

enter the market [85], which may lead to problems like

fraud, scams, and a possible loss in the reputation of NFTs.

Centralized quality control methods are difﬁcult to adopt

due to the decentralized and open nature of NFT markets.

NFTs are transacted on blockchain networks, which value

decentralization and immutability above centralized authority

and the ability to regulate and enforce quality standards. As

a result, platforms and markets must develop their own set of

rules and regulations to solve these issues.

Marketplaces and platforms may validate the identity and own-

ership of creators via veriﬁcation methods to reduce the risk

of fraud and scams. KYC (Know Your Customer) processes

may be used for this purpose, during which authors verify their

identities, ownership, and rights to their works of art. Platforms

may increase conﬁdence among investors and collectors by

ensuring artist’s originality and works. To set and maintain

quality control standards, the NFT community must work

together. Artists, collectors, and industry stakeholders may

collaborate to create best practices, exchange knowledge, and

educate users about the value of quality control. By creating

a responsible production and trading culture, this group effort

may improve the general standard and legitimacy of NFTs.

4) Storage and Inaccessibility:For NFT owners, storage and

inaccessibility are crucial factors since safe storage of NFTs

assures their long-term integrity and accessibility. The amount

of security and accessibility, however, might ﬂuctuate across

various NFT markets and platforms, raising questions about

the security of NFTs and the owner’s future access to their

assets [86].

The owner’s ability to access their assets while NFTs are

kept on a particular platform relies on its uptime and sta-

bility. NFT owners might lose access to their assets forever

if the platform were to go out of business or encounter

technological difﬁculties. NFT owners are urged to look at

possibilities for self-custody or decentralized storage solutions

to mitigate this worry. By keeping their NFTs in private

digital wallets, self-custody enables people to maintain total

control over their NFTs. Using blockchain technology, owners

may own and govern their NFTs without depending on a

third-party platform. Decentralized storage options, such as

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), provide a decentralized

and robust infrastructure for storing NFTs [53], providing

accessibility even if certain platforms go out of business. Also,

marketplaces and platforms can put security steps at the top

of their lists to protect NFTs that are kept on their platforms.

This includes establishing strong encryption methods, multi-

factor identiﬁcation, and regular security checks to protect

NFTs from unauthorized access and possible hacking attempts.

5) Technical complexity:Buying and selling NFTs might be

a difﬁcult and technical procedure for those unfamiliar with

blockchain technology and its accompanying ideas. The broad

use of NFTs is hampered by the fact that many individuals

have yet to learn what NFTs are and how they work. Tok-

enization, decentralized ownership, and immutability are all

features of NFTs that need technical expertise to understand

properly. Users must be familiar with blockchain networks,

smart contracts, digital wallets [87], and transaction methods

before participating in the NFT business. NFTs are often

minted and stored on blockchain platforms like Ethereum.

Therefore, familiarity with blockchain technology is necessary

for their development [1], [88]. Users require an understanding

of cryptographic keys, decentralized networks, and the func-

tion of digital wallets in the safekeeping and management of

NFTs [89], [90].

Furthermore, trading NFTs requires familiarity with various

technical markets and platforms. Users need to be comfortable

with the features and interfaces of these platforms, which often

include communicating with decentralized exchanges, linking

wallets, and handling transaction information.

6) Slow Conﬁrmation:The smart contract is used to handle

NFT-related procedures (such as minting, selling, and ex-

changing) in a trustworthy and transparent manner. However,

current NFT systems are tightly connected with their underly-

ing blockchain platforms, which results in poor performance

(Bitcoin achieves 7 TPS (Transactions Per Second) [91] and

Ethereum only 30 TPS). As a result, the conﬁrmation rate of

NFTs is extremely low.

7) Integration of AI/ML:Several challenges to overcome

when integrating AI/ML into the NFT ecosystem include

data security and privacy concerns. Copyright and intellectual

property concerns arise when AI creates or edits digital content

for NFTs since it may use copyrighted materials without

proper authorization. AI-generated content may not always

meet the standards of human-created art or media. It may

not be easy to guarantee the quality and originality of AI-

generated NFTs. NFT markets can be highly volatile, and

AI/ML-based pricing predictions may struggle to account for

sudden market ﬂuctuations or speculative behavior. AI models

often need historical data to o make accurate predictions and

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 19

recommendations. Since the market for NFTs is still relatively

young, getting enough historical data for modeling might not

be easy.

B. Regulatory and Legal Challenges

NFTs can cause legal problems because of how they are

created, owned, and transferred. NFTs face the same issues

that most cryptocurrencies do, such as strict control by the

government. On the other hand, it is also hard to ﬁgure out

how to control this new technology and the market that goes

with it. Some key legal challenges associated with NFTs are:

1) Legal and regulatory issues:Uncertainties exist in several

countries about the legal and regulatory concerns related to

NFTs. Questions of ownership rights, intellectual property

protection, and contractual duties emerge because of the NFT’s

unclear legal position, which poses risks for users and investors

[92]. As a result, there is a pressing need for strong security

measures and authentication processes in the NFT market to

combat fraud and money laundering. Concerns about fraud,

investor safety, and market manipulation raise the prospect of

action by authorities. Clarity on ownership rights, licensing

agreements, and royalty arrangements is essential in the com-

plicated intellectual property and licensing domain.

In addition, international cooperation and standardization ef-

forts are required to create a legal framework that cuts

across national borders because of the complexity of global

problems. Regulators must establish transparent rules and

structures that protect investors and maintain the market’s

honesty while encouraging creative thinking and economic

progress [1]. Developing a complete and efﬁcient legal and

regulatory framework for NFTs requires close cooperation

between industry players, legal experts, and regulators.

2) Intellectual property concerns:The rapid growth of NFTs

has raised several issues related to intellectual property pro-

tection. The question of who owns the intellectual property

rights to the assets represented by NFTs is a major one.

When an NFT is made without the original creator’s or rights

holder’s consent, this becomes an important consideration

[11]. For instance, concerns about ownership and management

of intellectual property rights emerge when a person develops

an NFT of an artwork without the appropriate rights or license

from the original artist. Unless otherwise speciﬁed in a written

assignment or license agreement, the original work’s copyright

may remain with the artist who created it.

In such cases, the original artist and the NFT’s inventor may

have competing rights. The author of the NFT may claim

ownership or control over the digital version of the artwork.

In contrast, the original artist may claim that their intellectual

property rights have been violated. These disagreements may

be difﬁcult to resolve and require legal action to establish

ownership and protect intellectual property. NFT creators,

platforms, and markets must get the necessary permits and

licenses before tokenizing any assets protected by intellectual

property laws [93]. Platforms may add measures to conﬁrm

the validity of assets, such as checking the credentials of the

asset’s creator.

C. Privacy and Security Challenges

NFTs present speciﬁc privacy and security challenges that

users and platforms need to consider. Two signiﬁcant issues

that directly affect the security and privacy of NFTs are

discussed below:

1) Privacy concerns:When it comes to NFTs, privacy is a

major issue. Since NFTs are recorded on a public blockchain,

the world can see their transaction history and who owns them.

While the decentralization and immutability of blockchain are

typically cited as advantages, they may also provide privacy

problems for users who would rather wish not to broadcast that

they are the legal owners of certain assets. The danger of theft

or fraud of digital material is increased, for instance, when

someone can easily ascertain the owner of a high-value NFT

[94]. In addition, users may choose to keep some information

about themselves or their possessions private for safety or

security reasons [95]. People in this category could be artists

or collectors who value their privacy or the security of their

intellectual property.

2) Cybersecurity risks:The storage of NFTs on a blockchain

introduces cybersecurity risks that can severely affect users.

While blockchain networks are difﬁcult to hack, they are

nevertheless vulnerable to other forms of cybercrime [96].

A hacker may steal, transfer, or destroy NFTs linked to a

compromised account or platform if they acquire access to

the private key or smart contract for that account or platform.

Private keys must be kept in a secure environment to authen-

ticate and authorize transactions utilizing NFTs. Malicious

actors may acquire access to a user’s NFTs if their private

key is compromised by phishing, malware, or poor security

procedures [97]. Hackers who access a user’s private key may

use it to transfer or sell the NFTs on the blockchain, causing

severe ﬁnancial harm to the victim.

The formation and transfer of NFTs may be exploited if they

have bugs in their code or security ﬂaws. These ﬂaws let

hackers misuse smart contracts and cause unintended actions,

including transferring, replicating, or destroying NFTs [42].

Loss of valuable NFTs owing to breached smart contracts

might negatively affect the NFT ecosystem, including ﬁnancial

losses.

D. Market Challenges

Market challenges of NFTs refer to the obstacles and issues

within the NFT marketplace ecosystem. Some key market

challenges associated with NFTs are as follows:

1) High gas prices:The high costs of issuing and selling

NFTs are a major barrier to their broad use and accessibility.

Many people, particularly those in poor nations or with little

means, may ﬁnd NFTs ﬁnancially out of reach due to these

prices. Due to the high price, NFTs cannot reach a wide

audience.

Transaction charges and gas fees on blockchain networks are

typically necessary for producing and minting NFTs, which

may be very costly [98]. Costs like this might shift based

on factors like the underlying blockchain technology and the

need for network resources. Individuals with fewer resources

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 20

may be discouraged from participating in the development and

minting of NFTs because of the high transaction costs they

may incur. In addition to being charged to make an NFT,

costs are incurred while selling or buying an NFT. A good

example of how these fees could limit access is those who

want to buy or invest in NFTs but get discouraged by the

higher prices. New research claims that as cryptocurrencies

evolve, their exchange rates will become more stable [99].

Even the blockchain community and developers are working

hard to control and stabilize the costs of using smart contracts.

2) Market volatility:The value of NFTs may vary substan-

tially and be vulnerable to speculative behaviors, making

market volatility a key concern within the NFT ecosystem

[100]. Due to this volatility, users may ﬁnd pricing and valuing

NFT assets more challenging. It might be difﬁcult for investors

and collectors to evaluate the risks and beneﬁts of NFTs if

they are unaware of their underlying signiﬁcance. The problem

is made much worse by the unavailability of appropriate ap-

praisal techniques. Unlike more conventional ﬁnancial assets,

NFTs often lack standard valuation criteria and norms. The

value of an NFT is based on several measures, including

its scarcity, perceived uniqueness, historical importance, and

cultural relevance. Nevertheless, these elements are highly

subjective, which may lead to disagreements in valuation.

The NFT market is still in its early stages. Hence, limited data

is available to analyze market patterns or project future worth.

Price ﬂuctuations and perhaps irrational market behavior might

arise when well-established price discovery procedures and

standardized pricing models are not in place [101]. To over-

come these obstacles, users must thoroughly understand the

dangers and advantages of NFT investments. Education and

research are essential in understanding the elements affecting

NFT values and making intelligent decisions.

3) Perceived value:More than any underlying economic

or technical considerations, supply and demand, as well as

public opinion, drive the value of NFTs [102]. The value of

NFTs is based on the demand for and perceived rarity of the

digital material they represent, as opposed to the underlying

fundamentals or physical attributes of conventional assets like

equities or commodities.

There are dangers for both buyers and sellers in relying

on market demand and perceived worth. Due to variables

including cultural trends, celebrity endorsements, and media

attention, buyers may struggle to determine an NFT’s genuine

value. Overpaying for an NFT that loses value or fails to

sustain its original attraction is possible if the buyer lacks

specialized market knowledge. Similarly, it may be challeng-

ing for sellers to set fair prices for NFTs. Because there

may not be reliable standards or historical data, setting the

right asking price for an NFT might be difﬁcult [103]. Price

ﬂuctuations and speculative behaviors might occur if sellers

establish inﬂated pricing based on their optimistic market

demand forecasts.

4) Lack of use cases:Although NFTs have become more

popular, they have yet to ﬁnd widespread adoption outside of

the art and collectibles markets. NFTs are often associated with

digital art, music, and other forms of intellectual property due

to their dominance in the art industry [104]. New and creative

applications that may promote greater adoption of NFTs must

be identiﬁed and explored if their growth and inﬂuence are to

be sustained over time. There are several reasons why NFTs

need to ﬁnd new applications outside the art and antiques

market. First, it facilitates the expansion of the NFT market,

attracting more businesses and consumers. By demonstrating

the usefulness and potential of NFTs in various settings, their

adoption in ﬁelds like gaming [105], real estate [54], supply

chain [58], and ﬁnance [106], among others, becomes more

feasible.

E. Environmental Challenges

People are encouraged to use NFTs and their parent technolo-

gies even though several studies have shown their negative

environmental impacts. NFTs have faced criticism and con-

cerns regarding their environmental impact.

1) Environmental concerns:Energy usage by NFTs is a

major cause of environmental worry. Blockchain networks,

particularly those using the proof-of-work consensus method,

need many resources to facilitate the creation and trade of

NFTs. Since blockchain networks are so high in power con-

sumption, many are worried about their carbon footprint and

how NFTs will affect the environment. Mining and validating

transactions on these networks need a lot of power, and much

of that power comes from fossil fuels, which adds to global

warming and other negative environmental impacts [107],

[108].

F. Ethical and Social Challenges

NFTs present various ethical and social challenges that must

be addressed. The ethical and social challenges NFTs may face

in getting adopted for real-world applications are discussed

below:

1) Cultural and social issues:Many difﬁcult questions arise

when digital assets with cultural or social value are represented

as NFTs. The potential for commercializing and exploiting

these assets inside the NFT ecosystem is a crucial cause

for worry. Questions of ownership rights and appropriate

remuneration may arise when NFT transactions take place

without the participation or knowledge of the original creators

or owners [109].

The preservation of cultural heritage and commercializing

cultural assets might conﬂict with each other due to the NFT

market’s ability to digitize and monetize cultural and creative

works. Some worry that NFTs may devalue cultural artifacts

by turning them into fungible digital assets that can be traded

for proﬁt. Because blockchain technology is decentralized and

the NFT market is still quite new, developing clear rules

and ways to deal with cultural and social issues is hard. It

is primarily up to individual users, platforms, and groups to

ﬁgure out how to deal with these complicated problems [110].

2) Ethical concerns:NFTs pose ethical questions when used

to create and trade controversial or offensive assets. Due to the

lack of regulation and centralization in the NFT market, any

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 21

digital content, including potentially offensive or discriminat-

ing items, may be tokenized and traded without the permission

of the original artists [111].

The potential for NFTs to be used to distribute information

that promotes violence or discrimination is a serious cause

for worry. The simplicity with which NFTs may be minted

and sold enables the spread of such material, prompting

inquiries about the roles played by platforms, artists, and

purchasers. This raises moral questions about how far the

right to free expression should be extended, how this would

affect marginalized people, and whether or not NFTs might

be used to spread bad ideas or behavior. Within the context of

NFT, exploitation is also a major ethical problem. Personal

information, photographs, and creative works belonging to

vulnerable persons or communities may be tokenized and sold

without their knowledge or agreement [112].

VI. FUTURE DIRECTIONS

NFTs have become increasingly popular recently in various

domains, especially in the art and collectibles industries. One

important research direction will be the development of NFT

standards and protocols. Currently, several NFT standards are

in use, making it difﬁcult for users to exchange NFTs across

other platforms. Researchers may focus on standardizing NFT

protocols, making it easier for NFTs to be traded and used

across different platforms. Another future direction will be

facilitating the wide-scale adoption of NFTs in different in-

dustries. While NFTs have gained popularity in the art and

collectibles industries, many other potential applications exist

for these tokens. Researchers may investigate the use of NFTs

in sectors such as gaming, sports, or real estate, exploring

how these tokens can represent ownership or access to unique

assets or experiences.

Research may also focus on the potential of NFTs to promote

sustainable practices, such as using carbon offsets or other

environmental incentives. NFTs have been criticized for their

potential environmental impact, as minting and trading these

tokens require signiﬁcant energy. Researchers may investigate

ways to mitigate this impact, such as using renewable energy

sources or other sustainable practices. Overall, future research

in NFTs will likely focus on improving the usability and

accessibility of these tokens, exploring new applications for

them in different industries, and addressing concerns related

to their environmental impact. As NFTs continue to gain

popularity and become more widely adopted, research in this

area will likely continue to expand and evolve in new and

innovative ways. Some of the potential areas of focus for NFTs

are discussed below:

1) Scalability: As the use of NFTs increases, scalability

solutions will be needed to support a more signiﬁcant number

of transactions. Researchers are considering implementing new

blockchain features like sharding or other consensus methods

to improve scalability. Splitting the blockchain into smaller

pieces, or shards, enables faster transaction processing and

greater scalability. The scalability issues that NFTs experience

may be eased with the help of these developments, which

seek to improve the capacity and efﬁciency of blockchain net-

works. Additionally, the introduction of alternative blockchain

networks like Flow and Tezos designed for NFTs hopes to

solve scalability issues [113]. It is important to remember that

scalability is an ongoing challenge that needs rigorous testing,

agreement, and acceptance throughout the NFT ecosystem to

ﬁnd success.

2) Interoperability: NFTs are currently isolated within their

respective ecosystems and cannot be easily traded across

different platforms. Stakeholders in the sector need to col-

laborate towards developing common standards and protocols

to overcome these interoperability difﬁculties. For NFTs to

be easily traded and used across platforms, interoperability

solutions must be developed via close cooperation between

platforms, developers, and the blockchain community. Cross-

chain or cross-platform protocols are being developed and

implemented as a possible solution [114]. These protocols are

designed to facilitate the movement of NFTs across distinct

blockchain networks or platforms. If interoperability standards

are established, NFTs may beneﬁt from improved market

visibility, liquidity, and value.

3) Security: The security of NFTs is paramount to their value.

Strong security practices must be a top priority to reduce

the severity of these cyber threats. Private keys should be

encrypted, safe storage solutions should be promoted, and

users should be urged to adopt best practices, including using

hardware wallets and two-factor authentication [115]. Strict

security assessments should be performed on all platforms and

markets that deal with NFTs.

4) Governance: The governance of NFTs is a crucial consid-

eration, as it impacts the ability to make changes or updates

to the underlying protocols. Future research may investigate

decentralized governance models for NFTs, such as DAOs

(Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), to ensure they

remain transparent and decentralized.

5) Technical Complexity: Newcomers without technological

experience may feel overwhelmed by the platform’s speciﬁc

needs and processes. Improving the user experience and mak-

ing instructional materials available are two key ways to break

down these barriers to access. Individuals without technical

skills may be encouraged to join the NFT business if the

onboarding process is simpliﬁed by developing user-friendly

interfaces, simple platforms, and clear documentation. Efforts

to educate the public about NFTs and blockchain technology

may include guides, tutorials, workshops, and other forms of

community outreach. Simplifying user interfaces and making

NFT platforms more intuitive may also aid in closing the

knowledge gap. Making NFTs more approachable for those

without strong technical backgrounds may be accomplished

by developing user-friendly interfaces.

6) Use Cases: While NFTs have gained popularity in the art

and collectibles, there are many other potential use cases for

these tokens. Future research may explore how NFTs can be

used in other industries, such as gaming, sports, healthcare,

agriculture, education, or real estate, to represent ownership

or access to unique assets or experiences. The technology

behind NFTs and their future uses may be further explored

if their scope of application is broadened. The blockchain

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

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IEEE OPEN JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY 22

technology upon which NFTs are based offers the beneﬁts

of immutability, transparency, and distributed ownership. By

ﬁnding relevant use cases, these beneﬁts can be put to work

to improve operational procedures and address pressing issues

in the real world.

7) Slow Conﬁrmation: The technology follows a rigorous

veriﬁcation and authentication protocol to ensure secure trans-

actions, which may affect transaction speed. So, this can be

overcome by redesigning the blockchain or by upgrading the

consensus mechanisms [116].

8) Integrating AI/ML to NFT: Integrating AI/ML into the

NFT ecosystem presents challenges that can be addressed

through a combination of technological, regulatory, and ethical

measures. To ensure data privacy and security, robust encryp-

tion, access controls, and compliance with data protection

regulations should be implemented. Copyright and intellectual

property issues associated with AI-generated content can be

managed by establishing clear guidelines and obtaining proper

authorization when using copyrighted materials. To enhance

the quality and uniqueness of AI-generated NFTs, continuous

improvement of AI models and incorporating human curation

can be adopted. Dealing with the volatility of NFT markets

requires real-time data integration and risk management strate-

gies. Collecting and augmenting available data can mitigate the

need for more historical data availability.

9) Privacy Concern: Privacy is a major concern that NFTs

may face. Since NFTs are stored on a public blockchain

accessible to all users, there is a higher risk of theft and fraud.

So, to overcome this challenge, a researcher needs to develop a

blockchain network that includes privacy options. While some

blockchain networks include privacy options, they have not yet

found widespread adoption in the NFT sector due to scalability

and efﬁciency problems. Zero-knowledge proofs [117] is one

such privacy feature, which is a cryptographic mechanism

that enables transaction veriﬁcation without disclosing private

information. Other existing privacy-preserving solutions like

homomorphic encryption [118] and multiparty computation

[119] have been proven to enhance privacy on blockchain

networks signiﬁcantly, but as their security assumptions and

cryptography primitives are hard to understand, they haven’t

been used with NFT methods yet.

10) Environmental Challenges: Energy consumed in the mint-

ing and transferring of NFTs is a major cause of environ-

mental worry. There is a rising movement within the NFT

ecosystem to implement environmentally responsible practices

in response to these issues. One solution is to switch to

proof-of-stake or any other energy-efﬁcient consensus proto-

col instead of the more traditional proof-of-work. Proof-of-

stake blockchains minimize the need for processing power by

validating transactions depending on how much Bitcoin the

participants own [120].

Powering blockchain networks with sustainable energy is also

very important. To make the process of producing and trading

NFTs more environmentally friendly, many projects have been

developed to encourage and incentivize the use of renewable

energy in mining and transaction processing. Several initia-

tives have promised to buy carbon credits or fund renewable

energy initiatives to make up for the pollution caused by

their NFT dealings. Efforts to reduce NFT’s destructive effect

on the environment have driven the sector’s development in

recent years. Adopting energy-efﬁcient practices and encour-

aging renewable energy sources call for cooperation between

blockchain developers, markets, and participants. The NFT

ecosystem may help create a greener, more accountable digital

economy by placing a premium on sustainability, which aligns

with larger environmental aims.

VII. CONCLUSION

NFT is a new and developing technology in the domain

of blockchain. This paper discusses how NFT technologies

could revolutionize the market for digital and virtual assets.

First, the technical component of NFT and its related features

that allow readers to understand the mechanism behind such

technology better is discussed. Then, how the evolution of

NFTs has occurred from RFID to blockchain and then to NFTs

is explored. Different token standards required to build an

NFT token on the Ethereum blockchain are also discussed.

Various applications like agriculture, education, healthcare,

gaming, smart cities, etc., where NFTs can be adopted are

also discussed. Different challenges the NFT must solve to

allow its large-scale adoption are also addressed. Finally, the

future scope of NFTs and the solutions related to some of the

challenges so that the NFTs can be adapted to different real-

world scenarios are discussed. This paper provides a timely

analysis and summary of proposed solutions and projects,

making it easier for newcomers to follow progress in NFTs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Mohsen Guizani appreciates the support provided by the

Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artiﬁcial Intelligence

(MBZUAI) under project number: 8481000021.

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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/OJCOMS.2023.3343926

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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Full-text available

Mar 2025

The rapid advancement of technology has led to the emergence of Non- Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse, representing unique digital assets and a post-reality environment that combines virtual and digital worlds. This review aims to explore the legal and ethical challenges associated with NFTs and the Metaverse in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to identify opportunities for the UAE to position itself as a leader in these technologies. A review of 15 research articles was conducted, focusing on privacy, cybersecurity, regulatory concerns, and socio-cultural issues related to NFTs and the Metaverse in the UAE. Information relevant to the UAE was included, while unrelated data was excluded. The findings indicate that NFTs and the Metaverse offer significant opportunities for the UAE to lead in technological innovation. However, substantial legal and ethical challenges must be addressed to realize these benefits fully. Enhancing the financing and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UAE is recommended to foster innovative applications of NFTs and the Metaverse. Addressing legal and ethical challenges is crucial to improving citizens’ lives, boosting economic competitiveness, and driving innovation.

Blockchain-Driven Academic Learning Record Management in Higher Education: A Comprehensive Review of Methodologies, Applications, Benefits, and Challenges

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2025

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the education sector by improving the legitimacy and security of academic procedures. The academic learning record management records the learner’s academic qualifications and achievements. Keeping track of higher education academic learning records is essential to assess students’ credentials and advance their careers. The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the need for flexible and collaborative learning systems. However, the processes of recording credit accumulation, verification, and transfer are complicated by the disparate credit schemes found in different universities. This creates the need for an academic credit management system. Secure learning record management is necessary because validating the professional and academic accomplishments listed on the resumé currently poses a challenge. Blockchain can remedy this scenario by guaranteeing data privacy, reducing the possibility of hacking, and offering transparent, traceable academic credentials as well as verification of other achievements. Despite these benefits, challenges are still associated with implementing blockchain in academic learning record management. These include handling multiple credentials with a unique identity, absence of smart contracts, on-chain and centralized storage, scalability problems, transaction costs, restricted control over student data, and inadequate student data recording standards. The main objective of this review is to examine recent studies on blockchain-driven academic learning record management by categorizing them into learning record management and academic credit management. This paper identifies research gaps and suggests further studies and practical applications to enhance transparency, efficiency, and trust in the education system.

Volatility and Risk Assessment of Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Using GARCH Modeling: An Analytical Study on Dogecoin, Polygon, and Solana

Article

Mar 2025

Minh Luan Doan

This study analyzed the volatility and risk profiles of three prominent blockchain-based cryptocurrencies—Dogecoin, Polygon, and Solana—using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model. Volatility, a key risk metric for cryptocurrencies, was modeled through the GARCH(1,1) framework, which effectively captured the time-varying nature of price fluctuations. The analysis revealed that Dogecoin exhibited the highest volatility and risk, primarily driven by its speculative market behavior and social media influence. Polygon and Solana, while also volatile, demonstrated more stability, with their risk profiles reflecting the technological advancements and broader use cases within their respective blockchain ecosystems. The study also incorporated Value at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) metrics to assess the potential downside risks for each cryptocurrency. Dogecoin had the highest potential for extreme losses, followed by Polygon and Solana. The GARCH model successfully identified the volatility persistence in these assets, showing that past market conditions heavily influenced future volatility. This research contributes to the literature on cryptocurrency volatility by applying the GARCH(1,1) model to analyze digital assets with varying market characteristics. The findings emphasize the need for robust risk management strategies tailored to the unique behaviors of individual cryptocurrencies. Limitations of the study included the use of historical data and the focus on only three cryptocurrencies, suggesting opportunities for future research. Potential areas for further study include the incorporation of additional variables, such as macroeconomic indicators, and the exploration of alternative volatility models, such as EGARCH or TGARCH, to better capture the complexities of cryptocurrency markets. These insights provide valuable guidance for investors, risk managers, and policymakers navigating the volatile and evolving landscape of blockchain-based digital assets.

A systematic approach to predicting NFT prices using time series forecasting and macroeconomic factors in digital assets

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2025

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained mainstream attention in the fintech community, but there is little research on their statistical properties. This study investigates the long-memory characteristics of NFT returns and volatility, focusing on their potential for predicting price movements. As NFTs do not conform to traditional models, understanding their unique features is crucial for comprehending complex market dynamics. This study aims to reveal the impact of macroeconomic factors on NFT prices, understand their correlation and develop predictive models using autoregression and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This research utilized datasets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Christie’s, Dune, and Google Trends. Correlation and p value tests revealed strong relationships between NFT prices and variables such as weekly volume, pandemics, inflation and security. The Baseline Model using autoregression with NFT volume, security and technology factors outperformed all other models demonstrating the speculative volatility of NFTs. The Transformer Model using transformers, an architecture used by ChatGPT, Gemini and Stable Diffusion, showed high accuracy with less feature selection and preprocessing efforts. This study provides a novelty using a systematic approach for researchers to perform financial forecasting and contributes to the scarce literature on NFTs. This research offers valuable insights to investors and private agents regarding the right economic conditions for NFT investments by reducing portfolio risks and making informed decisions. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study to utilize time-series transformers for forecasting NFTs based on macroeconomic factors.

PERAN BLOCKCHAIN DALAM GAME ONLINE UNTUK MENINGKATKAN TRANSPARANSI, KEAMANAN, DAN KEPEMILIKAN DIGITAL

Preprint

Full-text available

Feb 2025

Reza A Mardiansyah

Environmental Contributions of BTCEN Project: Sustainability with Blockchain

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2024

Cihan Bulut

The BTCEN project has begun to leverage blockchain technology, an innovation to increase efficiency and transparency in supply chain activities, promote recycling, and improve environmental sustainability. BTCEN has integrated Blockchain technology with platforms of e-commerce, tokenization, CRM, and ERP modules into its own systems. In this way, it increased data security while creating an effective tracking system. As a main activity, BTCEN recycles the beverage bottles of product users, increases the participation rate and conversion amount through gamification and some tangible rewards, and uses "Bring Back (BB) Coin" and NFTs as tools. Recycling vending machines strategically placed in different local centers make the process convenient and interesting, while additional incentives such as discounts encourage sustainable behavior. Awareness campaigns in various forms and partnerships with some environmental organizations, educational institutions, and local governments will support BTCEN's successes. BTCEN aims to combine ecological balance and sustainability methods while using technological innovations in its activities. By setting a standard that combines all these, it also encourages the social responsibility culture necessary for a clean environment to be left to future generations.

Developing Blockchain Framework and System to Preserve the Arabic and Islamic Culture and Heritage Ownership as a Digital Asset using Non-Fungible Tokens

Conference Paper

Nov 2024

Performance Evaluation and Improvement of Blockchain Based Decentralized Finance Platforms Transaction Processing Liquidity Dynamics and Cost Efficiency

Article

Dec 2024

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms need to handle increasing transaction volumes, ensure stable liquidity, and keep user costs manageable. This study evaluates the performance of a blockchain-based DeFi platform, focusing on synchronization accuracy, rendering speed, liquidity growth, and gas fee control. The platform consistently achieved high synchronization accuracy (99.2%) and low rendering latency (105ms) during peak transaction periods, demonstrating the effectiveness of its technical design. The platform’s liquidity pools grew steadily by

1.5 million per day, reaching

45 million over the study period. Price movements during large trades were kept within 5%, showing the success of its slippage management tools. Gas fees were reduced by 15% on average through transaction batching and throttling, though external factors like network congestion still caused occasional cost spikes. These findings highlight the platform’s ability to scale effectively while identifying areas for further improvement, such as integrating additional solutions to reduce gas fees and improve cost predictability. This study shows how thoughtful design can improve the performance and usability of DeFi platforms. Future work could focus on expanding cross-chain compatibility, improving gas fee management, and further optimizing the handling of liquidity and price stability. These efforts will help meet the growing demands of DeFi users and support the broader adoption of decentralized financial systems.

Delving NFT vulnerabilities, a sleepminting prevention system

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023
MULTIMED TOOLS APPL

The rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is beginning to revolutionize the digital world thanks to the unique property of these tokens. Indeed, they can represent the ownership of physical or digital assets. They are implemented using smart contracts, therefore if the code of the smart contract contains bugs, an attacker can exploit its vulnerabilities to perform an attack called sleepminting. Sleepminting consists of transferring NFTs owned by an address, without the owner’s consent. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the sleepminting attack and, thanks to the insights gained, we propose a prevention system to reduce the number of sleepminting attacks. Our prevention system is based on analysing the transactions included in new blocks, detecting those that are related to sleepminting attacks and keeping track of the addresses that are involved in these transactions. A dictionary-like data structure can be used to keep track of the addresses involved, where the key is the address and the value acts as a counter for the number of times the address is involved in sleepminting. With this information, block-creating nodes can add another verification step before adding a transaction to a block, which consists of blocking transactions when the addresses involved appear in sleepminting attacks a number of times greater than a threshold. The evaluation shows that sleepminting is a relevant phenomenon, and now it involves NFT transfers rather than NFT minting. Our proposed prevention system is able to block up to 87% of attacks.

Blockchain and NFTs in the Cultural Heritage Domain: A Review of Current Research Topics

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2023

In the last few years, blockchain technology and NFTs have been the subject of much research in different sectors ranging from informatics, to medicine, to economics. Although it is most often associated with cryptocurrencies, due to its features of immutability and durability, this technology has found its place in various fields, including GLAM institutions. This article will review the literature from 2017 to 2022 dealing with blockchain and NFTs in the heritage sector. Topics covered, proposed models, and projects will be highlighted. Archives are currently leading the research into the use of blockchain technology and have already developed models such as TrustChain. However, libraries, museums, and galleries are also beginning to show an interest in the new technology and its potential benefits. Therefore, we also approached the GLAM sector as a whole, to emphasize the importance of the joint development on the advancement of shared approaches and protocols in utilizing blockchain technology to enhance the trustworthy management and preservation of digital resources. This is particularly important because GLAM institutions care for a shared heritage and serve a common audience. In the second part of the article we will discuss the proposed uses of the technology and highlight still unexplored topics that should be elaborated in further research. The aim of this paper is to make a synthesis of previous research and bring the potential of blockchain technology and NFTs closer to experts in the heritage field, given that they are still quite unknown.

The Outlook of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs): an alternative for academic manuscript ownership and scholarly publications

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jan 2023

scientific research is expanding at an astounding rate, introducing new and compounding existing challenges and exacerbating those that already exist with regard to peer review quality, scholarly publishing and the emergence of predatory journals, and challenges with academic integrity and frauds in publication. To address this problem, this article suggests using NFT (Non Fungible Token) as a new, less costly, and more equitable means of publishing when it comes to intangible property ownership and identification. Blockchain enables autonomous, decentralized data, eventually resulting in a shared infrastructure where transactions are recorded and preserved. Our method covers the whole spectrum of NFT capabilities for academic manuscripts and scholarly publications through a decentralised solution using open-access tools

Using Composable NFTs for Trading and Managing Expensive Packaged Products in the Food Industry

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

The authenticity, traceability, and management of expensive food products require trusted, secure, and transparent end-to-end data provenance and transactions. In today’s systems, transactions and data related to managing and tracing the origins and history of food products are typically stored in segregated data repositories, and controlled and managed by centralized entities, with no access or visibility to the public or key stakeholders. This increases the risk of data loss, alteration, and tampering. Further it erodes trust among all stakeholders, and weakens consumer sentiment and confidence in the expensive food market, and raises concerns about the verifiability and authenticity of expensive food products. To overcome this problem, this paper addresses the lack of traceability and authenticity problems in expensive food products utilizing blockchain technology and NFTs. NFTs are blockchain-based tokens that can be utilized to represent ownership of unique assets. We propose an NFT-based solution for expensive food products trading management, where the ownership of a food product is maintained by using digital certification, and the trading process is facilitated by smart contracts. We utilize composable NFTs for food products, where interrelated products, such as raw materials, packaged products, and Lots, are represented as top-down and bottom-up composable NFTs in the form of parent-child relationship. Composable NFTs embed extra utility within NFTs, especially when subsets of NFTs are needed. We integrate the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) decentralized storage into our solution to avoid storing large files on the blockchain while maintaining their permanency and immutability. We present various diagrams to show the system elements and the interactions among them. We illustrate algorithms along with the solution implementation details. We evaluate our solution by conducting cost and security analyses. We make our smart contracts code publicly available on GitHub.

Non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, Web 3.0, and the metaverse in education: From university to metaversity

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2023

The pandemic has accelerated technological advances in higher education. Learning management systems that make use of the persistent platform, a wide range of communication options, and profoundly immersive qualities quickly become the platform of choice for learning management systems. The blockchain enables non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and uses the blockchain architecture to validate college diplomas and transcripts, opening the way for a diverse variety of e-portfolios owned and shared by students and teachers. Another type of blockchain that is relatively new to the education scene is decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Through this, technology courses, certificates, and more can become automated and authenticated on the blockchain. The current state of the web is rapidly evolving into what is known as Web 3.0. It is the emerging evolution of the internet to make it machine-readable, which includes leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the cloud, and distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain. From the perspectives of the university and the metaverse, this paper discusses the shift in education brought about by NFTs, DAOs, Web 3.0, and the metaverse. The powerful mix of Web 3.0 and the metaverse is about to revolutionize the way people learn and teach in the modern world.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Chapter

Sep 2024

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that represent ownership of a particular item or can represent in-game items or virtual real estate. They are exclusive and limited in quantity, and their ability to be modified and controlled is what makes digital assets so valuable. The objective of the initiative is to develop interactive and immersive gaming experiences by utilizing the unique capabilities of NFTs. This concept is made possible through the use of smart contracts, which decentralize the ownership of NFTs and increase their desirability. The endeavor entails the creation of two online games employing NFTs. “Obstacle Assault” is a side-scrolling game in which players guide a character through obstacles and adversaries to reach the level's conclusion. The game will use NFTs to depict weapons, armor, and power-ups that can be purchased and used to improve the player's character. “Turtle Sidestep” is a puzzle game in which players must guide a turtle through a succession of obstacles in order to reach the level's conclusion. NFTs will be used to depict virtual real estate in this game, allowing players to purchase and own specific locations within the game world.

Definition and Detection of Defects in NFT Smart Contracts

Conference Paper