Below is placeholder documentation for the Atomic Scan product.
It will continue to get builts out as features get shipped/refined.
Short Answer: Ethereum has achieved escape velocity with respect to NFT quantity, activity, tooling, and community.
Longer Answer: When determining whether or not an asset will exist in 10 years, we need to have assurances that the chain itself has achieved escape velocity. Ethereum has had steady and sustained growth of its developer and user base even after two major bear markets. And even if another L1 chain became more popular, Ethereum has enough of a following to ensure the chain will exist in some form or fashion in 2033.
Short Answer: Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, there are fewer assurances NFTs on this chain will be viable in 10 years.
Long Answer: While everyone is sure their favorite chain will be here forever, the fact is that many top 10 chains have already fallen away into obscurity. Litecoin was once a vibrant alternative to Bitcoin as the 2nd most popular PoW chain, but has failed to achieve its 2018 all time highs. As time goes on, there are no guarantees that it and other chains (EOS, etc) will come back into vogue.
Short Answer: NFT metadata encoded this way are stored on the blockchain itself. As long as the chain exists, the (current) metadata exists.
Long Answer: The TokenURI typically points to a URI. However, the standard doesn’t require nor check that the data stored here is valid. Many have exploited this to stuff in a base64 string. This means that all the metadata is stored on-chain vs an off-chain link. Therefore, the data will persist as long as full archives of the chain exist AND as long as the metadata isn’t alterated again (see below).
The IPFS protocol is web3 native. Missing files can be reseeded if the original exists and uploaded to a node.
Long Answer: The IPFS protocol introduces the idea of a content identifier (CID) versus a location identifier (URI). This is huge, because an IPFS link guarantees a unique finger print for every piece of content out there. The good and bad part of this is that as long as one copy exists, it’ll continue to be serveable. However, if the last copy is deleted without any backups, it’s gone for good.
Short Answer: Network is still not guaranteed by its financial models. It could be abandoned in 10-20 years.
Long Answer: Arweave represents an alternative web3 storage solution to IPFS. Instead of CIDs with multiple copies being replicated across a network of nodes, Arweave literally weaves fragments of each file into its distributed blockchain storage. This means that as long as the network is up, there are strong assurances that every piece of content is permanently stored and retrievable. The only risk factor is if the network itself ceases to be viable financially and all copies of the archive nodes are abandoned.
Short Answer: There are at least a dozen ways this file can become inaccessible or lost.
Long Answer: URIs that are location based are incredibly fragile. Imagine if Facebook is 2023 had to rely on the EXACT same storage pattern that it created 20 years ago in 2004. Obviously this is impossible as the platform has evolved considerably with each major upgrade, and with it all the URLs continue to change. Metadata that is location based will inevitably break as the external platforms keep updating their URL structure over time. Therefore, any HTTP based tokeURI should not be trusted to persist over a 5-10 year period.
Short Answer: It’s rare for an NFT to include no metadata. Please confirm this is your expectation before proceeding.
Long Answer: Imagine getting a birthday present only to open it up and find nothing inside. If a tokenURI is missing, there is no metadata or media present. It is possible this is by design (for example, if you wanted to have a token gated access without tipping off to an outside observer what the intention of the NFT is/was). Therefore, be very careful about NFTs without any metadata.
Short Answer: NFT media encoded this way are stored on the blockchain itself IF the tokenURI is also base64 encoded.
Long Answer: Media URLs typically point to external storage. However, the standard doesn’t require nor check that the data stored here is valid. For very small images, many have opted to use base64 encoded. This means that all the media is stored on-chain vs an off-chain link. Therefore, the data will persist as long as full archives of the chain exist AND as long as the metadata isn’t alterated again (see below).
Short Answer: The IPFS protocol is web3 native. Missing files can be reseeded if the original exists and uploaded to a node.
Long Answer: The IPFS protocol introduces the idea of a content identifier (CID) versus a location identifier (URI). This is huge, because an IPFS link guarantees a unique finger print for every pieces of content out there. The good and bad part of this is that as long as one copy exists, it’ll continue to be serveable. However, if the last copy is deleted without any backups, it’s gone for good.
Short Answer: Network is still not guaranteed by its financial models. It could be abandoned in 10-20 years.
Long Answer: Arweave represents an alternative web3 storage solution to IPFS. Instead of CIDs with multiple copies being replicated across a network of nodes, Arweave literally weaves fragments of each file into its distributed blockchain storage. This means that as long as the network is up, there are strong assurances that every piece of content is permanently stored and retrievable. The only risk factor is if the network itself ceases to be viable financially and all copies of the archive nodes are abandoned.
Short Answer: There are at least a dozen ways this file can become inaccessible or lost.
Long Answer: URIs that are location based are incredibly fragile. Imagine if Facebook is 2023 had to rely on the EXACT same storage pattern that it created 20 years ago in 2004. Obviously this is impossible as the platform has evolved considerably with each major upgrade, and with it all the URLs continue to change. Metadata that is location based will inevitably break as the external platforms keep updating their URL structure over time. Therefore, any HTTP based tokeURI should not be trusted to persist over a 5-10 year period.
Short Answer: It’s rare for an NFT to include no metadata. Please confirm this is your expectation before proceeding.
Long Answer: Imagine getting a birthday present only to open it up and find nothing inside. If a tokenURI is missing, there is no metadata or media present. It is possible this is by design (for example, if you wanted to have a token gated access without tipping off to an outside observer what the intention of the NFT is/was). Therefore, be very careful about NFTs without any metadata.
Short Answer: NFT metadata and media can sometimes change. Its history can add to its value or point to potential risks.
Long Answer: Many NFTs do not have their metadata frozen. This means that it’s possible to change the metadata as often as the minting contract is willing to pay the gas fees. For offchain metadata, this can be changed as frequently a webpage can be updated. To that end, without a full history of a changelog vs blockheight, you can’t truly know if the NFT was always a particular way OR if it evolved over time.
Short Answer: The Opensea registry flags NFTs that are known to be spam or stolen. This can impact its value & legitimacy.
Long Answer: When NFTs are stolen in obviously traceable ways, this data is submitted to OpenSea in an attempt to block the thiefs from being able to profit over the sale.
Short Answer: The Opensea registry has no knowledge of issues related to this NFT being spam or stolen.
Long Answer: Just because an NFT doesn’t appear flagged doesn’t mean that something hasn’t happened. However, there is a high degree of likelihood that most expensive, high value assets that have been stolen will make its way onto this registry.
Short Answer: This ERC721 standard has strong best practices around transfers, updates, and upgrades.
Long Answer: While most people believe NFTs are a universal standard, the reality is that new forms of NFTs will continue to emerge. Example. There is a proposed standard on solana that will allow for creator managed NFTs. A use case might be an AirBNB host that temporarily gives out a token gated NFT, but can retrieve it back from the end-user instead of needing them to send it back. Knowing that an NFT uses a standard like ERC721 (which tends to default to the current owner having the main rights of transferrability) provides stronger assurances around the property rights of this asset.
Short Answer: Similar to ERC721, ERC1155 has strong best practices around transfers, updates, and upgrades.
Long Answer: While most people believe NFTs are a universal standard, the reality is that new forms of NFTs will continue to emerge. Example. There is a proposed standard on solana that will allow for creator managed NFTs. A use case might be an AirBNB host that temporarily gives out a token gated NFT, but can retrieve it back from the end-user instead of needing them to send it back. Knowing that an NFT uses a standard like ERC1155 (which tends to default to the current owner having the main rights of transferrability) provides stronger assurances around the property rights of this asset.
Short Answer: Having the contract source code allows for manual and automated analysis for nefarious behavior.
Long Answer: While some attacks are hidden in plain sight within open source codebases, hackers can better obscure their backdoors when the source code isn’t available. By not providing the source, audits are much harder to achieve and can’t guarantee that some edge cases are covered.
Short Answer: Without the contract source code, it is challenging to determine if there are backdoors to steal this NFT.
Long Answer: While some attacks are hidden in plain sight within open source codebases, hackers can better obscure their backdoors when the source code isn’t available. By not providing the source, audits are much harder to achieve and can’t guarantee that some edge cases are covered.
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