NFTs: The Future of Software Licensing & Digital Ownership 🔐
Yes, we know. You hear about those non-fungible tokens wherever you look — and it starts getting old pretty quickly… they’re probably just overhyped pictures. 🤷🏼♂️ You’re not entirely wrong, but have you considered some of the use cases for them? 🤔
The world isn’t good or evil and so isn’t any new technology. It always depends on how you decide to use it. Understandably, NFTs are in their early stage, so they attract many dishonest people who make questionable choices that are damaging the whole community. But let’s look at the real potential of the technology that’s behind the pictures.
NFT art probably isn’t for everyone. But software licenses could be.
In Spendee, we’re big believers in supporting new technologies and thinking outside the box. 📦 As a personal finance app with years of experience, we decided to fight the prejudices and make our way forward: we’re introducing NFTs as a digital license to our app. 🎉
Technology is Developing 🚀
We’re so used to doing things a certain modern way, that we often forget the amount of development it took to get here. Do you remember paper boxes with license number stickers? 👀 NFTs are the same approach but digitalized. Can you imagine people nowadays waiting for a license inside a box that’s been traveling on trucks and cargo ships around the world? 🤯 Sounds complicated, not friendly for the environment when this can just be downloaded & digitally verified right away.
Speaking of Digital Ownership 📲
This novel technology will revolutionize the way we pay for apps and other software. Since we’re already making this work, let us explain the use-case through our app. 🤓 Like most apps, we use a freemium model to make money, meaning that we have a fundamental version of the app accessible for free but the paid Premium features unlock the full potential. The “traditional” ways of getting these Premium features include paying for:
- monthly subscription,
- yearly subscription,
- lifetime access.
👉 We’ve been doing this for ages. Not just us — other apps on the market, too. Some software only allows purchasing their license through lifetime access, meaning: pay once, use forever. But what if you’re not sure about the forever part?
Let’s say that you just graduated from college and you’re eager to hop into the “real adulting”. You’d like to use Spendee to see where your money goes, how to spend it efficiently, save more and get rid of your student debt. 💰 This could take you a few years, so it would only make sense to purchase lifetime access. But once this objective is reached, and you don’t need Spendee anymore, you have no way of transferring (selling) the license to someone else. But what if you could?
Reselling Licenses is The Future 🎉
So, as you already guessed, there is another new way of getting Premium features: minting or buying your own NFT. ✅ There is a limited number of minted NFTs for one project (in our case 10 000), which enables to get holders additional benefits. If you’re wondering how an NFT license could be different from Lifetime ownership, here is a simple comparison:
So, how does it work?
Your NFT is unique, not only in terms of the looks (“the picture”) but also in terms of data: it can only be owned by one person and this privilege is easily verified. 💡This way, when you mint or buy your NFT, you can authorize your ownership inside an app. After a few seconds, the provider verifies that you’re a valid owner of the software and unlocks all Premium features. Imagine this! Everything is available for you for as long as you own the token. 😍 The provider can regularly check if the token is still inside your wallet. Once you decide to sell/transfer it out, your account will be transferred back to a free user account.
This will allow you to save money and preserve value. You can resell the token at a higher price or cover at least some of your costs. 🥰 This is not only amazing for users, but for companies, too. From each resold piece, there is a guaranteed small percentage from the price. 🙏🏼 Finding win-win solutions for customers and companies is amazing, so this goes beyond the world of apps.
Software, Movies, Music, Tickets…
The possibilities are truly endless. Imagine buying tickets to Dua Lipa, only to realize that it was postponed. What now? You can’t attend it. You can sell your ticket without any 3rd party website! The buyer can verify its authenticity and ownership is transferred immediately. And Dua Lipa would probably get a cut, too.
Are we the early adopters on the market? Maybe. But we’re proud to be. So what do you think… are we standing at the beginning of something new? 👀
