QR Codes are the solution to NFT Theft!
How QR Codes are the unsung heroes of the Metaverse
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”― John Lennon
I don’t watch sports, but when I do …it’s the Super Bowl! To die-hard sports fans, the concept of a group of disinterested people tuning into their favorite sport just for the commercials must be so infuriating. Sport fans spend the whole season rooting for their favorite teams, crying at the losses, and cheering at the wins. Fans buy merchendise to support their favorite teams & jerseys to support their favorite player. It’s a spiritual event when fans of the same team come together, an unexplainable camaraderie with random strangers filled with passion and love. This all leads up to the championship game, where 50% of the audience is not there for the sport at all. They showed up for the commercials. I guess the closest thing I watch to sports is maybe video game play-throughs … and if someone who wasn’t interested in the video game sat next to me to only watch the ads, I would be so annoyed. Yet once a year, I am that person who only watches the Super Bowl for the commercials. Super Bowl 2022 was a special event for crypto enthusiasts because this was when Coinbase debuted their $6m commercial to a mainstream audience. We expected something fantastic, out of this world & game-changing. Imagine our disappointment when they debuted a commercial that was a QR code bouncing off the edge of the TV screen for 1 minute straight. Like a DVD screensaver from 2002. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was mad. I felt betrayed… Coinbase screwed over the crypto community. “This was our chance, and you blew it!” Then headlines came out the next day; the QR code commercial crashed Coinbase’s website. 20+ million hits in one minute!
It is [insert current year], and we should all be familiar with what a QR code is. In a post-pandemic world, most restaurants replaced their menus with a QR code that links to their menu. What is a QR code? It’s a barcode that stores data. The most popular use case for a QR code is currently to redirect prospects to a landing page or website. There are two kinds of QR codes, static and dynamic. The information on a static QR code cannot be changed, unlike a dynamic QR code, which can be updated as many times as you like. The black squares and dots represent different pieces of information represented in a unique pattern that when scanned translates that information to human-readable language.
“There are always three distinctive squares at the corners of the QR code image, with a smaller square (or multiple squares) near the fourth corner to normalize the image for size, orientation, and angle of viewing. The small dots throughout the QR code are converted to binary numbers and validated with an error-correcting algorithm.” - ChinaChannel
It always bothered me that NFTs could be right-clicked and saved. I know that the image is just the metadata that represents the non-fungible token and not the actual value of the token itself, but still. If I am using an image to represent the fact that I own something, then I don’t want anyone else to be able to steal that image. Is that too idealistic? Adding QR codes directly to an image is a great way to prevent it from being stolen. The QR code should point to the hex address that owns the NFT and be dynamically updated to reflect the new owner’s address every time it is auctioned. QR codes also allow metrics to be tracked such as the location where the QR code is used most, when it was accessed and how many times it was accessed. I’m sure there are cool ways to integrate QR codes into your NFT images while keeping their artistic appeal. The Non-Fungible address secures the NFT on the blockchain, but the dynamic QR code secures it on the image itself. That way, no matter who right clicks and saves your NFT image, however they promote it, the QR code will always lead back to the NFT owner’s wallet address. A QR code can be severely damaged and scratched up, but still maintain its primary function of routing to its destination.
Don’t you find it annoying when you ask the definition of something and the person defines the word using the same word? That’s how I feel when I ask developers, “What’s your linking strategy for the metaverse?” Oh, you know, linking and stuff. It just grinds my gears. The way we link in the metaverse will be different from how linking is done in web2. Linking in its current state is sufficient but when we understand the upcoming developments in AR & VR such as eye-tracking, maybe URLs are a thing of the past and QR codes would be more efficient. I believe all NFT Metaverse apps should implement an interface that allows the inspection of various NFT types to verify their authenticity with QR codes. AR/VR innovations such as eye tracking are most likely to use QR codes to quickly navigate from one app to the next. The metaverse is a combination of AR, VR, MR, and XR, I think it’s time QR entered the chat.
Was that too corny? I was trying to end the article with a cool catchphrase. I’m not sure about “QR entered the chat” because QR is routing. Maybe if I said… “I think it’s time QR linked up with the rest…of…of us …of them maybe?” That doesn’t work either. What does QR even mean? I just realized that I never took the time to find out…hold on…
Opens a new tab in the Chrome browser
clickity clack… clickity clack
Quick Response Code!
Weird, I thought it would mean Quantum Resource or…. Quails Rumerag… Queens Reminis... Quality Recie... Recep... never mind.
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