One of the most valuable aspects of the modern Internet is the widespread availability of application programming interfaces (APIs.) APIs deliver software-as-a-service and sold online without downloading anything or paying for a license.
APIs are tremendously valuable because they enable software applications to easily connect. For example, the Google Maps API enables any company to make a product connected to Google Maps and not have to recreate mapping software themselves.
APIs also enable companies to maintain their own user interfaces. When a company connects an API to their software, its customers will have the same user experience but now with the added API functionality. For example, adding a payment API to an e-commerce website simply requires adding a new button connected to the API that now enables users to pay with a credit card.
NFT Minting-as-a-Service
APIs can also provide the benefits of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs enable digital media to be uniquely identified for authentication, quality assurance, and ownership purposes. Minting a piece of digital media as an NFT requires connecting the media to a unique token secured by a blockchain network.
Companies that already have lots of art, publications, or other media can plug into an API for NFTs. By doing so, the company and its users can easily mint their media as NFTs. The benefit for companies and creators is being able to quickly enhance their brand, sell new types of content, and build communities. Contract compliance and product quality can also be improved and streamlined by plugging existing enterprise workflows into an NFT API.
On-Chain NFT File Storage
Importantly, the full benefits of APIs for NFTs requires the images, PDFs, and other NFT media files to be stored on blockchain. On-chain storage assures that the media is stored permanently, can be easily be connected to other software, and provides the most robust copyright protections. By contrast, storing NFT media files outside of a blockchain network creates a major risk that the media may be deleted. Off-chain storage also undermines the ability of NFTs to provide authentication because off-chain media cannot be easily verified.
On-chain NFT minting as-a-service is now available at ICME. ICME's API for NFTs makes it easy for anyone integrate NFT minting, cheap on-chain storage, and marketplace functionality into existing software.
Please get in contact with us to learn more.
Houman Shadab is a cofounder of ICME
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