Why EIP 5643 Matters - Subscription Based NFTs

Current NFTs work on a "pay once, receive value forever model" which means that once you purchase an NFT it can be used essentially forever with no additional cost. In many ways, this is good for consumers as their NFTs resist the wear and tear of physical products. For example, my Splinterlands cards that I purchased several years ago are in the same pristine, mint condition as the day I bought them, and if you were to purchase NFT music, you never have to worry about the sound quality degrading or the disc getting scratch marks. Best of all, once you are done with the NFT, you can sell it. While this may seem like a universal benefit, the indestructibility of current NFTs makes it incredibly difficult to offer subscription-based services via NFT. If I offer a streaming music NFT for $10, I must pay employees, rent servers, and pay utilities forever while only receiving that one-time $10 payment. In today's post, we are talking about EIP-5643 which proposes a new token standard that would allow the creation of NFTs with a definite expiration date as well as the ability to cancel or renew a subscription.