WakeUp protocol: an On-Chain mechanism to Delegate NFTs

At WakeUp, we found a problem worth solving for utility NFTs (those that can be used for more than just a profile picture — see more): they still lack the right tools to reach their full potential in a cost-effective, interoperable, and decentralized way.

Our first big goal, that aims to solve this problem, is to offer to the NFT ecosystem an On-Chain mechanism to Delegate NFTs simply and securely. We are building the infrastructure that will help to bring this functionality to life by extending the NFT standard’s current capabilities.

We are developing an NFT delegation protocol that will help users delegate their NFTs and, optionally, get a passive income for that, always keeping in mind that the NFT will not leave the owner’s wallet, ever.

And there is no simple, not even a native/standard way to do this.

Some platforms offer marketplaces to delegate via rental against crypto as collateral. Some others provide to lend copies of the original NFT (namely, “wrapped NFTs”). These have different issues. In the former, nobody guarantees you that the NFT will be returned to you, and in the latter, you have nothing to do with the original NFT. You just hold a copy of it.

WakeUp Delegation protocol supports new Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) (willing to become ERC standards) to enable native delegation features for NFTs. The actual NFT owner won’t risk losing the NFT, while the other part will be recognized as the only “tenant” of the actual NFT (and not a copy of it), being the beneficiary of all the benefits the NFT brings with it when renting it.

So, let’s imagine that you have an NFT annual pass for a series of events or concerts (it could be on the metaverse or in real life). And for some reason, you can’t attend some of them. You will be able to delegate your NFT event pass to someone by using WakeUp protocol. This new user will have the right to attend these events that you can’t go to; meanwhile, the NFT will be in your wallet all the time, and the usage rights will return to you once the delegation time is over. At this point, you will be able to use your NFT annual pass again.

The essential part of all this is that every delegable NFT will be ERC721 compatible to be used on any platform or marketplace out there without any friction.WakeUp Delegation protocol enables new revenue streams for NFT projects and holders while lowering at the same time barriers to access for less wealthy people, thus, promoting massive growth in active users.In future articles, we will get deeper into how the protocol works and how it economically incentivizes the different actors to participate and make it smooth for NFT owners and renters.

We envision a multi-chain future and our ethos is composability and interoperability, so everything we build will be backward compatible and will promote new community standards (more about what’s WakeUp, here).NFT Projects will be able to rely on WakeUp to avoid incurring extra development costs to create and maintain ad-hoc solutions by integrating our protocol in a seamless way.