After the initial hype wears off, most people point out something undeniable about selling NFT artwork—people don't usually care if the digital files they download for entertainment purposes are 'authentic.'

Online piracy allows you to listen to the music you like, enjoy the artwork artists put on Patreon and watch whatever movies you want without paying a dime.

The only real advantage of purchasing an 'authentic' original is for licensing and reproduction, clout, getting the warm and fuzzies from supporting someone you admire and investing in something that *could* be worth millions of dollars.

However, I think the shareability of digital files might be one of the most significant advantages of putting something into the blockchain.

NFTs could help cut down on fraudulent activity and fake news, preserve valuable items and simplify asset management.

Making Delicate and Historically Significant Artifacts More Available to the General Public

In recent years digital museums have made all kinds of never-before-seen artifacts more available to the general public. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple.

Some artifacts are too delicate to be handled or kept on display without disintegrating. And in other cases, these items might be needed by researchers and shouldn't be gathering dust in a collection.

With dinosaur bones, the solution was pretty simple. Museums could display recreations of interesting skeletons while keeping the actual specimens safely stored in the appropriate environment.

But recreation was much harder for some items until 3D imaging software came along. Now rare artifacts can quickly be digitally recorded and shared with museums across the globe.

However, if actual artifacts can be faked, so can their digital counterparts. And this is where NFTs could be extremely valuable to archivists.

Once an artifact is verified for authenticity, scanned and packaged into an appropriate file format, that artifact can be recorded to the blockchain as a public record.

Whether or not the archive that owns these items chooses to 'lend' these files out using a smart contract or not, the files are there. This would make verifying the authenticity of any items that make their way into a public collection much more accessible.

No more mislabelled specimens. And if an item is fake, information can be added to the chain that allows the item to be appreciated for the clever forgery that it is.

Cracking Down On Fraudulent Research Papers and Fake News

Fake research papers are a growing problem in academia, infecting how popular science reports these findings.

Every day people are inundated with fake information regarding what's best for their health and are incited to panic by unscrupulous news stations.

But if the original 'sources' cited by a journalist could be recorded to the blockchain with the appropriate metadata on when it was taken and who produced it, we could keep journalism honest.

As a matter of public record, these 'snapshots' would allow consumers to check sources when journalists don't. In addition, information on when a photo was taken would make it easier to verify whether an image is recent or something from several years ago.

Being asked to submit your research paper as an NFT would cut down on people submitting fake documents to scientific journals because there's a certain level of culpability that wasn't there before.

The same is true of photographs taken by reporters and paparazzi. Submitting your photos or videos from a particular day as an NFT would prove that they belong to you. And it would come with the appropriate metadata to ensure whatever is reported with those images is *accurate*.

Preserving Family Heirlooms

*Many families* have been torn apart because of in-fighting over who gets Oma's unique collection of delft china. Or that one time an aunt or uncle accidentally deleted hundreds of irreplaceable family photos.

Why? Some might say greed, but I think it stems from a desire to be able to show your children these unique pieces of family history. Which is hard to do if Dad's special hockey card collection is in Nova Scotia and you live in Alberta.

Cataloguing precious family items or photos to a blockchain could help build up a virtual treasure trove of family history. Special items could be fractalized to siblings or lent out on Smart Contracts to family members all over the country.

And unlike saving these files to your hard drive, the bank-like nature of a Crypto wallet would ensure the relative safety of these items. Which also goes hand in hand with my next point.

NFTs Could Make Insurance Claims Easier

Fire, flood and theft. Nobody plans on any of these three things happening to them, but you can lose all irreplaceable items that are hard to quantify in the moment.

Insurance companies have recommended keeping digital receipts and photographs of these items in case you need to make a claim. But where are you supposed to keep these files?

It can feel a little ridiculous to keep a messy collection of files on a thumb drive or a Google Drive folder for items that are incredibly important to you.

But if you could package images, receipts, warranties and any certificates of authentification into an NFT, the information would be safely stored in your crypto wallet and recorded to the blockchain.

For the insuree, it's clean, neat and organized. For the insurer, they can tell when something is off if you've only just recorded all of your precious items a week or two before the 'mysterious fire.'

And having a neat catalogue of precious items would make putting together a will a lot easier when you can see all your assets in one place.

Closing Thoughts

The instant, shareable nature of digital files is not a flaw or a weakness. On the contrary, it allows us to send interesting and important things halfway across the globe. And there is so much potential for blockchain technology to make digital sharing even better.

Even incredibly murky issues like NFT licensing and copyrights have simple, actionable solutions. So, don't be so quick to write off all the other use cases this new form of technology could support. There are a lot of them.