The Most Difficult Question to Answer About Emblem Vault and COVAL Is Also Its Biggest Problem

The Solution: Circuits of Value and Emblem Vault give Keys to your NFTs. Who will you give them to?

This is a community-written musing about COVAL and Emblem Vault

Recently, I saw a conversation between a top Crypto Influencer and another Telegram user. The user asked the Influencer to look into Emblem Vault and Circuits of Value (COVAL). To which the Influencer immediately replied:

“What does it solve? Why should anyone care about it?”

So what does it solve? Why should anyone care about it? Moreover, how do I, a community member, answer that question? So I did what most people did and I asked my Google Home Mini the question, “What is Emblem Vault?” And much to my surprise it actually answered back to me (try it!):

Emblem Vault is a completely decentralized token developed to solve problems in the simplest way. Trade multiple tokens at the same time as a single token! Transact not just Tokens, but also Digital Files

Reread that… Okay… It’s developed to solve problems… And if it does its job well, then the problem is solved in the simplest way… Not the homerun answer I was looking for. So let’s dig a little bit deeper and ask the question again word-for-word, “What is an Emblem Vault?” Go ahead and ask your Google Assistant she (mines set to the British accent) will answer. Spoiler alert: it’s not the answer I want. So I did this the old fashioned way and pulled out my Encyclopedia Britannica set (aka my keyboard and mouse) and searched the index (Google) for the next most relevant article. There I found the same exact question I asked, from the people whom I wanted an answer from — a Medium article written by Emblem Vault called: What IS an Emblem Vault?. Finally, I found an answer that I could run with:

An NFT that represents the right to claim, can be transacted just as any ERC721 token can be, thus transferring the right to claim the ENTIRE contents of the vault out to whoever actually claims it. Whoever currently owns the NFT has the ability to “claim” the contents of the vault from the emblem.finance website.

Now let’s go back to that conversation with the Influencer. The user tried to answer the question about “What does it solve? Why should anyone care about it?” with a series of use-cases:

1. It can make all crypto using it into a privacy token
2. It can trade Layer 1 (or Layer 2) assets on other Layer 1 networks!
3. The vaults can be moved using Layer 2 gas and fees (cheap! ahem, I mean, economical)
4. You can send encrypted messages, and therefore data within the Emblem Vaults
5. You can buy a video game key and sell it (or gift it) along side another valuable piece of hot, new NFT art
6. I can send you Bitcoin and Ethereum together in one transaction
7. “Seriously, I got more. Just keep listening to me!”

The Influencer’s attention was long gone. The questions “What problem does it solve?” and “Why should anyone care about it?” were never answered. Only a list of use-cases rattled off into the Telegram ether.

So here we are again thinking about those two questions with the only half-decent answer I can find, “An Emblem Vault is an NFT that represents the right to claim, can be transacted just as any ERC721 token can be, thus transferring the right to claim the ENTIRE contents of the vault out to whoever actually claims it. Whoever currently owns the NFT has the ability to “claim” the contents of the vault from the emblem.finance website.” Who cares?

Well, NFTs are kinda HOT right now

Emblem Vault at its core is an NFT, so what problems do other NFTs solve? Who exactly cares about them? Let’s go to to Opensea and check out the top NFTs by Market Cap. It became immediately obvious that this musing would turn into an art show…

So I jumped to the “Utility” category and filtered by “Owners” to find out how many people might care about NFTs that are not Art, Collectibles, Trading Cards, or Digital Real Estate. I found Emblem.Finance at the 23rd position with 68 owners (on Ethereum Network). More interestingly, the Top 5 in the list drop from ~9,400 to ~1,600 Owners. I think these Top 5 might serve as good case studies for “Why does anyone care about it (Utility NFTs)?” You’ll find that list below, and most of them go beyond a conventional “Art” NFT and certainly expand the ERC721 usecases. So let’s look at their surface (I also encourage you to look deeper as some are quite interesting).

POAP — It’s a system that event organizers can easily use to distribute attendance crypto-badges to people that show up, a tool for attendees to display and share the badges they have obtained and an open standard for Dapp developers to build on top of. And written here is their explanation on why someone might care about it.

Urbit ID — Urbit reimagines the internet as a peer-to-peer network designed to stay that way. Previous attempts to “decentralize” the internet have only attempted to solve certain corners of the problem. Urbit proposes that only a new stack, built from the ground up as a tightly integrated system, can realize a great user experience for people using a peer-to-peer web. Assuming Urbit OS is simple enough for an ordinary user to own and operate, how do they log in? How do people identify one another on this new network? When people want to get data, files and messages to one another, how do they do it? And how do we prevent spam?Urbit ID is the answer to all these questions. Urbit ID is a decentralized addressing and public key infrastructure designed for Urbit OS.

Kudos — Kudos is the easiest way to show appreciation and build relationships in open source. This is done simply — through sincere, unique compliments. We’re excited about creating space for all sorts of compliments to other Gitcoiners… via all sorts of Kudos.

Math Wallet — Spoiler Alert: This is a great multichain wallet, but alas, they are just masquerading in the “Utility” category with collectible NFTs. Still, Math Wallet is a multi-platform (mobile/desktop/extension/hardware) universal crypto wallet that enables storage of all BTC, ETH/ERC20, NEO/NEP5, EOS, TRON, ONT/ONG, ENU/Telos/EOSC/BOS, BinanceChain, Cosmos, VeChain, and Polkadot tokens. Math Wallet also features cross-chain token exchanges, a multi-chain DApp store.

Vatoms — Vatoms are dynamic, compelling digital objects, that connect brands and customers, artists and fans, citizens and governments, friends, families and global gamers. Designed for discovery, a Vatom can be dropped onto a map, captured in augmented reality, moved into virtual reality, transferred and stored. Interactive digital goods that can move seamlessly and instantly between users and across any smart device.

Let’s improve upon that^

Emblem.Finance — An entire wallet inside an NFT. Emblem Vaults are containers of assets. Transfer / Gift / Sell entire collections of tokens and assets by transferring the NFT. Check them out on Telegram and Twitter.

Back to it — What does problem Emblem Vault solve?

After thinking about that question, I think I am ready to take a shot at it.

An Emblem Vault serves the purpose to bridge the entire blockchain ecosystem with any piece of arbitrary data its users want to tokenize.

And finally — Why should anyone care about it?

All data is arbitrary until it serves to satisfy a purpose, then it becomes an asset. Emblem Vaults are the vehicles to transfer those assets .

Therefore, Emblem Vaults allow you to tokenize any digital asset, publicly or privately. For example, 8hhdjri4z0zq3fm is just an arbitrary alphanumeric string. Well, I could go on to emblem.finance and create an Emblem Vault and enter that data to be encrypted within the NFT. Then I can turn it into a piece of Limited Edition Artwork by uploading a MS Paint drawing done by my three year old. Finally, I want to send some BTC and ETH to the wallets stored within the this Emblem Vault NFT to publicly show there is some value behind it. For fun, I am also going to drop some Vatoms and Kudos into this vault to make the next owner feel special. Now instead of selling it, I am just going to give it away for a good cause to a Children’s Hospital, because I’m feeling charitable. Luckily, I can just send a link in an email to their charity email address for them to claim ownership of this very special Limited Edition 3-year old’s artwork with $500 of Bitcoin and Ethereum and a CD key for Hitman 2 (Gold Edition!).

I think I am ready to answer back to that Influencer — Emblem Vaults are powered by Circuits of Value, taking anything you value, making it secure and transferrable. What is it that you value? Can your NFT do that?