NFTs have certainly livened up our world in the last few years.  With use cases that range from quaint, pixelated artwork to a proof of real estate purchase, it made us collectively think about what might be possible.  

Though NFTs were first created nearly a decade ago, their explosion into the public consciousness happened around two years ago, then dipped after a period of overhype.  What didn’t make it into the news was all the very interesting ways people were using NFTs to explore this new concept of decentralization.  Because our lives have been ruled by centralization in so many areas, it has been difficult to start looking at the world with decentralized eyes.

The biggest evidence for this is the fact that even our “decentralized” infrastructure is still largely not.  In the Web3 ecosystem, it is possible to have assets and even smart contracts on-chain.  However, there are still major parts of the Web3 interface that are firmly centralized, including hosting, storage, content delivery, DNS, RPC endpoints, and more.

It’s a bit disappointing to think how far we’ve come toward decentralization, only to realize that even though the shiny veneer is decentralized but a lot of the core components are not.  However, the decentralized evolution hasn’t stopped, and Fleek Network believes it has the next step toward a fully decentralized ecosystem.  Let’s examine the concept of their Non-Fungible App (NFA), what problems it might solve, and if this could be the vehicle for that decentralized vision.

NFA Basics

So what exactly is an NFA?  As the name suggests, a Non-Fungible Application is a unique entity, but instead of a basic token, it consists of the elements required for a self-contained app.  It is built on top of the ERC721 NFT Standard, adding all the on-chain metadata for the elements of the app.  This includes the app’s name and domain, its build history, endpoints, etc.  However, the goal is for the NFA to not only contain these items, but actively manage the app itself.  This could include owning and updating the content hash; determining which versions will be served based on their endpoints; and even manage the payment aspects of the app, including hosting, delivery, databases, storage, and any other services that may be required.

This type of structure would bring us closer to a fully decentralized app, and an app independent of any specific architecture.  It could move around freely, be traded, and could take whatever predetermined actions that a founder would normally be responsible for.

Three Reasons to Care

So why would we actually need NFA’s if current app founders can just keep managing their apps?  Well, it turns out that there are a few issues in Web3 that aren’t creating headlines yet, but only because the field is still fairly new.  As the industry continues to grow, these areas will become genuine pain points, and will even halt progress toward a truly decentralized ecosystem.

First, Web3 Apps need to find a way toward decentralization, especially on the frontend.  All the benefits touted about a community-led platform, borderless operations, and the ability to be completely independent is quickly put to a halt when the frontend operations are served and hosted on a traditional server with a person who has to actively manage it.  This is like replacing your house windows with bullet-proof glass and forgetting that you haven’t installed a front door yet.  

Second, this lack of full decentralization means a strong vulnerability to censorship, as well as a risk of accessibility from the app’s community.  Hosting on a traditional server means borders, and that has the potential for a single point of failure, closing access to those borders, and isolating users from the app and vice versa.  In this regard, there are other groups working to find censor-proof solutions with Web3 infrastructure.  This is excellent, but the efforts aren’t mutually exclusive.  The NFA concept was designed knowing these other efforts were underway, and instead of being developed as a competing standard, the NFA was designed to work with any of these infrastructure services such as Dappnet and Backpack.

Third, the use cases for NFA’s are pretty extraordinary.  As a business model, you could treat the NFA similar to an NFT.  As a self-contained object, once you build your app and begin its operation, you could sell the entire NFA as an object very cleanly.  As an investment, it would be an interesting addition to any portfolio, especially when the payment for services like hosting, storage, etc., can be completely automated.  In a way, it would be like purchasing a small business that already employs a competent manager who can run the day-to-day operations.  Beyond buying/selling, NFA’s could be used as loan collateral, similar to both a normal business and an NFT.  But the real power of NFA’s lies in a structure of community ownership.  Imagine some of the apps you use most often.  What if you were part of a community that owned the app and governed how that app would operate and grow over time?  Where great ideas and suggestions would flow to the top of the pile through community interest, and could be funded and built from the app revenue stream?  When we talk about a decentralized ecosystem, this is the vision many of us have.

What’s Next for Decentralized Infrastructure?

While Fleek has introduced the NFA concept, this is an idea that should broadly take hold and take flight.  It will be interesting to see the NFA structure grow and adjust itself based on early feedback, then start to really take off as the Web3 community is searching for this solution for their decentralized ambitions.  The use cases to date have been especially exciting toward a grand vision of a decentralized ecosystem, but we will see even more use cases as the infrastructure is used and adjusted to make continuous improvements.