As an advocate of Decentralized Identity and Verifiable Credentials (W3C) I’m often asked what can NFTs do that Verifiable Credentials can’t. Still haven’t heard a compelling answer.

decentralization enthusiast. dev @ TBD, focused on decentralized identity & individual privacy

Allow ownership transfer. ERC-721 is just an interface. Utility of it is extended by implementation. They’re two totally orthogonal ideals.

BDFL of Quilibrium, Eng @ Farcaster, ex-Coinbase, always opinionated, never hydrated

/quilibrium

You can transfer Verifiable Credentials just like you can transfer any piece of data. What that means semantically, depends heavily upon impl/usage. Same with NFTs. Often you don't want transferrable claims--transferring my birth certificate doesn't make sense

Don’t quite agree. NFTs have value because of their creator. This is why “counterfeit” BAYC NFTs are worthless: provenance matters VCs codify provenance in a much more robust manner.

Right, which is my point – VCs really don't make sense to be transferrable. VCs are a bit orthogonal to NFTs in that VCs impose an authority, NFTs are typically in a trustless ctx. I don't have to know/care YL created BAYC, but I'll care that a VC was issued by my state's DMV.