[Feature] Building Web3 from the Soul Up: Cobo’s collaboration with Metamask Institutional and Gnosis DAO for Soulbound Token Project

While non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are widely known to represent ownership over specific items, assets, or even real estate, Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) are rapidly gaining in popularity as the wider web3 community begins to source for ways in which non-tangible assets such as reputation can be represented and verified.

Finding its etymology from popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, soulbound items in the fantastical realm referenced player gear such as weapons and armour that could not be traded off or sold for commercial value. Rather, these items were tagged exclusively to the gamer’s account and were inherently, as the moniker suggests, bound to their “soul”.

The use cases of SBTs vary widely, from serving as “achievement badges” for completing certain milestones or rewards for attending a live physical event. While NFTs may be transferable between wallets, SBTs are much less mobile as they are tagged to a specific wallet’s address. As such, SBTs serve as a unique way for reputation and identity to be preserved. For instance, an SBT could be used to verify an individual’s professional certification or even nationality and ethnic background, serving as a non-transferable identity or reputation marker for otherwise pseudonymous wallet addresses.

Cobo, Asia Pacific’s largest digital asset custodian and blockchain technology provider, raised eyebrows on 14 December 2022 with the release of its very own soulbound NFT project “EVOLUTION”, launched in conjunction with Metamask Institutional and Gnosis Safe.

“We are excited to launch EVOLUTION, the first soulbound NFT with MetaMask Institutional (MMI) and Gnosis Safe, to our exclusive community,” Dr. Changhao Jiang, the CTO and Co-Founder of Cobo explains.

“EVOLUTION”, Cobo’s new Soulbound token project

“With each organisation having their specialty, it makes this project a compelling first step towards deepening relationships and producing future collaborations to distribute exclusive community benefits to users in the know.”

Indeed, this joint collaboration will see a trifecta of superpowers coming together to deliver an unprecedented and novel product. Combining MMI’s reputation for providing world-class DeFi access for crypto funds, trading desks, and DAOs, together with Gnosis Safe’s ability to develop multi-signature solutions through smart contracts, and Cobo’s position as the world’s only omni-custodian provider of Hardware Security Modules (HSM) and Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology, this SBT is both a wager for future exciting collaborations as well as a salute to a safer web3 future.

“EVOLUTION”, designed by a Ukraine-based visual effects team, will feature two time-based rewards that will trigger a specific gift related to MMI and Gnosis Safe over the course of the first three days it is held by a wallet, and owners of the unique and coveted SBT will also be eligible for a research report detailing DeFi strategies, trends, and opportunities, as well as data compiled by award-winning researchers and teams from Cobo. Of course, the SBT will also serve as an access pass for various in-person and online events as well.

With SBTs as a way of securing a digital identity as they traverse the Web3 space, it also sets the pace towards building immersive metaverses, of which possessing a verifiable digital identity or citizenship is key. Importantly, having a digital asset that can be used for reliable credential verification purposes also helps to ensure that achievements, accolades, and identities cannot be easily transferred or exchanged between Web3 users, fostering confidence from the public and encouraging community building amongst tokenholders.

This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Readers should take the utmost precaution before making decisions in the crypto market. Coinlive is not responsible or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the article or for any damage or loss to be caused by and in connection to it.