Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have soared in popularity over the past year or so, and now have a solid footing in our consciousness. That being said, the public perception of NFTs and their usefulness is largely limited to trendy artwork and internet buzzwords. While use cases for NFTs are almost limitless as a blockchain-based accounting mechanism, crypto enthusiasts and developers have only scratched the surface of their capabilities.

You may even hear about using NFTs for art, gaming, fashion, social media, and music — or perhaps the digitization of real-world assets. But a lot of the most practical uses are understated, especially as trade accounting tools, as methods of ownership, and even for ownership and access to data.

The XDC Network made headlines when it was used to complete the first trade-finance based transaction with an NFT, but there are a host of other NFT use cases with XDC’s Network able to store private information in smart contracts to access it later.

It would be relatively easy to create a dApp allowing multiple parties to pass data from one contract to another while keeping access totally restricted to those who are authorized by the token on the XDC Network.

This data could be KYC data, ticket info, medical data, identity information, login information, or anything else extremely sensitive and worthy of protection.

In this example, we’ll store a Social Security Number in a contract that will mint an NFT on the XDC network while placing the SSN data into the contract & only allowing the data to be seen by the holder of the token. Fundamentally, the concept of minting a token is no different than minting any other NFT. The contract code governs the use of the token, and this contract gives the holder of the token a security tool to manage data.

This is only possible on blockchains with privacy capabilities. Most blockchains are public, while the XDC hybrid Network has both Public/Private ledgers, allowing the safe access of private data. Users of these future dApps will not have to worry about their information falling into the wrong hands with a DB breach or being broadcasted to the entire world publicly. With XDC’s low gas fees, fast performance, and privacy, the XDC Network can create an ecosystem of reliable trade finance and security tools on the blockchain.

About the Author: R Quincy Jones XDC Foundation developer, who on behalf of the XDC Network is building new standards and applications for the XDC Network. With over four years in cloud development, and a growing following on YouTube: CoinClubCrypto, is well-suited to break down the fundamentals of blockchain-based technologies for general audiences.

GitHub link: https://github.com/QCloud-DevOps/PrivateAccessToken

The content above represents my own individual perspective as an XDC community member and does not reflect the official stance of XDC Foundation