Semi-Fungible Tokens

When do you need a semi-fungible token or why do you need them in the first place? Of course, depending on your use case they can really add more value to your project as they bring both fungibility and non-fungibility, and not to mention that it may be as a significantly cheaper option than minting non-fungible tokens for everything. This article has more information.

Have you ever been to a rock concert, one with people screaming, jumping and acting crazy? Thousands of people stand on a pitch in a stadium, for example? Or a new year’s party in a nice, cozy and cool pub? Or visited any ancient cities like this one that requires hours of walking to explore? If the answer is yes, then you know that you need a ticket to do that. For example, let’s say you pay for them for your family or friends and buy 4 tickets. Now let’s take a look at each example with your tickets. Think about that concert. Does it really matter the number on that ticket as everybody is standing and having fun? Or when you are sitting at a table in a pub with your friends does it matter which chair you are sitting in?

The only thing that matters to the owner is you have that ticket to enter the place. You can change your ticket with your friends or anyone else, or you can buy that ticket from someone who cannot attend. There is no difference in that sense because you still have a ticket that allows you to join the event. So you have to have at least one of them but it doesn’t really matter which one. This is a perfect use case for a semi-fungible token! It utilizes both fungibility and non-fungibility.

Let’s dive deeper. What if there are different groups of tickets like bronze and gold ones, for example? Gold ones have a limited amount of direct access backstage. Then you will need to mint 2 types of semi-fungible tokens like 1000 bronze concert tickets and 40 exclusive fun tickets. You can implement your use case with regular NFTs with a 1040 minting process and it will exactly give you the same functionality. But that will come with some additional costs. On the other hand, minting two semi-fungible tokens (with a 1000 + 40 supply) is cheaper than minting 1040 NFTs.

One of the best use cases of semi-fungible tokens is in gaming and the metaverse. They are widely used in online gaming today. In-game items, characters, gold, and coins are perfect examples of it. You can push your imagination, the possibilities are endless. An example is the idea of Steve Jobs’s semi-fungible figure on the Sandbox. As you can see it’s minted as 100 and that indicates 100 different owners could have a right to use it in their game basically. (Or only one owner can use it 100 times of course; it’s some sort of licensing in that sense.)