Vitalik Buterin Outlines Ethereum's Future With 'Soulbound Tokens'

The future of Ethereum ETH/USD will revolve around a different type of non-fungible token (NFT), according to creator Vitalik Buterin.

What Happened: In a paper published last week seen by Defiant journalist Jason Levin, the Ethereum creator and two co-authors explored what Ethereum’s future might look like.

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Buterin expects the blockchain’s future to be defined by “Soulbound Tokens” or SBTs — a type of NFT that cannot be transferred to another user after they have been received.

“Once you receive an SBT, you hold it in a Soul wallet forever,” explained Levin on Twitter Inc TWTR.

Buterin and co-authors Glen Weyl and Puja Ohlhaver believe SBTs will be available by the end of 2022 and have predicted the 2024 “up cycle” of crypto will be focused around them.

The team outlined three use cases for these non-transferrable NFTs: universities, digital credential verifications and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

“If universities gave NFT degrees now, graduates could sell them to anyone online. But if a graduate receives an SBT degree, he would not be able to transfer or sell it,” stated Levin.

Levin further elaborated on how these tokens could be used to identify whether someone had attended a certain event and airdrops in the realm of decentralized governance, which Buterin refers to as “Souldrops.”

Use case 3: A DAO wants to build a community of environmentalists.

The DAO can airdrop SBTs to attendees of environmental conferences and graduates of environmental programs.@vitalikbuterin calls this a "souldrop".

— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) May 19, 2022

Read Next: Vitalik Buterin To Trolls: 'No, Ethereum Was Not A Mistake'

ETH Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, at press time, ETH was trading Friday morning at $2,034.95, up 3.64% in the last 24 hours.