What is an NFT? pt. 6 - Legal Documents as NFTs
Could NFT technology help improve legal documents?
Legal Documents as NFTs
This is post number 6 in my "What is an NFT?" series here in the LBI world. The first post was a sort of general overview of NFTs as a whole for noobs, the second post was a deep dive into how vIRL NFTs can be used for commerce, the third post was an overview of how musicians can sell music as NFTs, the fourth was some ways that blendable NFTs can be used for various things, and the fifth was a look at NFTs being used in DeFi. If you wanna learn more about NFT technology and some of the use cases, I encourage you to take a peak at those posts.
As always, the goal here is to highlight some things that can be done with NFTs aside from just profile picture JPEGs. The technology has a ton of use cases that are being overlooked by people trying to get rich flipping over-hyped collectibles. Today, we're here to look at how NFTs could be used to replace or enhance legal documents.
On a daily basis, people deal with all kinds of legal documents such as titles to cars, deeds to houses, and other various documents that typically require notary. I've always looked at this as a very flawed system because these documents are faked all the time. Not only that, they can be physically lost or damaged and the process to get them replaced is an act of congress. I've personally had to have a title to a car replaced and it was a living nightmare. What would happen if we eliminated paper from the equation and put these documents on the blockchain?
I know you might be thinking "some of that stuff can already be digital", which is a totally fair statement. I know some states in the U.S. have digital driver's licenses and such. What I'm talking about here is eliminating the need for a physical document while still having that document 100% verifiable. Sure you can have digital driver's licenses but what stops someone from finding a way to make fake ones? That's where the blockchain side comes in. If the document is an NFT on whatever blockchain (Hive, for example), it can be verified publicly by viewing the asset on a block explorer.
Those well versed in NFT technology will probably say "but you could transfer your ID to someone else's wallet or have your identity stolen". I know, there's all these factors. The truth is, that people have their identities stolen every single day. Having your driver's license on the blockchain as an NFT that is bound to your wallet would eliminate this as well. Forgot your wallet at home? No problem. Odds are you have your phone which can access your wallet so when you get pulled over, the officer can verify who you are.
Imagine if the title to your car was an NFT on the blockchain. How much easier would it be to sell your car? Literally just transfer the NFT to the new owner's wallet and bam. You're mostly done. I'm sure there would still have to be something that runs through the department of motor vehicles that transfers your ownership... But this eliminates the need for a bunch of unnecessary paper and finding someone to notarized the bill of sale and whatnot.
There's no need for a notary to say the document is legitimate when it's all on chain. It can be verified by anyone at any time just by looking at the block explorer. I know I already mentioned this but, no more applying for a lost title when the title gets damaged or misplaced. It lives in your crypto wallet just like your precious shit coins. To prevent theft of the title, it could be bound to your wallet unless a key is used to unlock it, most likely the agency that handles transportation.
I read a post not too long ago by @esmeesmith where she talked about blockchain being used for death and birth certificates. I honestly love this idea. Believe it or not, there's a black market for fake death and birth certificates. These things get faked all the time for whatever reason. Blockchain and NFT technology could make that impossible, or highly unlikely as it would all be public record and not privately managed.
A couple months ago, I wrote about the new Alfa Romeo Tonale having built in NFT tech. This can be used for a number of things such as recording maintenance, recalls, and much more. It could also be used for recording accidents, owner history, and even repairs. No more taking a gamble at that used car lot and possibly getting yourself a nice shiny lemon. Verify everything on the blockchain.
What are some other ways you could see NFT technology change the way we do things? Let's talk about it.
Post written by: @l337m45732 aka NiftyPhill.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
