What is a “Soulbound NFT”, Vitalik Buterin’s latest idea?

Finding Web3’s Soul via a decentralized society

We are connected in a thousand different and non-transactional ways, and our tech needs to reflect it. Web3 came to be because of a lack of social links🔗. To reach wide-spread adoption, it needs to reinforce these links💪, not erode them. This is where “soulbound” NFTs come in.

This type of NFT is not transferable, and creates digital proofs of our social links. It embodies the theory of identity proposed by G. Simmel, in which individuality emerges from the intersection of social groups👪, just as social groups emerge as the intersection of individuals🧍‍♂️.

It will serve two purposes. Firstly, aggregate online the specific social elements that make us unique. Secondly, highlight and categorize social connections between entities🏢 and people, creating a spiderweb of networks that enables a wide variety of use cases👇.

1. 🌐Reducing online manipulation : A system can be put in place to ensure that only socially “rich” or “reputable” crypto wallets can participate in projects, ensuring that no one can create many wallets to influence governance in decentralized projects.

2. 🤝Improving social links : Some parts of society are heavily lacking in social…