A Referable NFT Scheme

TL;DR

This paper introduces a referable NFT scheme that enhances incentive sustainability and profit sharing by creating a network of interconnected NFTs using DAG topology, implemented under Ethereum standards.

Contribution

It proposes the first referable NFT network with a DAG structure, enabling relationships among NFTs for improved exposure and utility analysis.

Findings

Constructed a referable NFT network with DAG topology.

Implemented the scheme under Ethereum EIP-1155 standards.

Provided mathematical analysis of participant utility.

Abstract

Existing NFTs confront restrictions of \textit{one-time incentive} and \textit{product isolation}. Creators cannot obtain benefits once having sold their NFT products due to the lack of relationships across different NFTs, which results in controversial possible profit sharing. This work proposes a referable NFT scheme to extend the incentive sustainability of NFTs. We construct the referable NFT (rNFT) network to increase exposure and enhance the referring relationship of inclusive items. We introduce the DAG topology to generate directed edges between each pair of NFTs with corresponding weights and labels for advanced usage. We accordingly implement and propose the scheme under Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) standards, indexed in EIP-1155. Further, we provide the mathematical formation to analyze the utility for each rNFT participant. The discussion gives general guidance among multi-dimensional parameters. To our knowledge, this is the first study to build the referable NFT network, explicitly showing the virtual connections among NFTs.