Hello,
TLDR:
Longer version:
On the offchain-wide web, there is sometimes a need to refer to NFTs through a unique URI.
An NFT does have a uniqueish ID but that is normally very namespaced, typically internal to a smart contract for ERC721-based tokens. There is not a globally unique way to refer to NFTs, so people end up describing them or configuring them through multiple pieces of information (“the NFT of type ERC721 with ID xxx on contract 0xabc on the mainnet”) or, worse, through a centralized marketplace URL (no example here, out of decency).
To address that gap, a simple and standard approach would be to introduce URNs with an nft namespace, as described in TLDR#1 above. Basically, it’s urn:nft:<method>:<identifier>, where <method> is the type of NFT you’re working with, and <identifier> is an identifier that makes sense for that type of NFT.
As both an illustration and a serious proposal, ERC721 NFTs would be described as urn:nft:erc721:<identifier>, where identifier is <chain_id>:<contract_address>:<token_id>. See spec URL in TLDR#2 above.
Of course, it would be great to see proposals for the other types of NFTs out there.
Such URIs would be useful to improve interoperability in the NFT world, including marketplaces and wallets. Imagine copying your NFT URI from a marketplace and just pasting it quickly in your wallet to have it appear there.
Bold CTA:
I would really like to know your thoughts, here and/or in the repos’ issues.