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Solidity POC project – Ethereum tokens backed by Magic cards

2 points by mtgex ↗ HN
Hey HN,

In an effort to learn a bit of Solidity, I built a simple proof of concept crypto token backed by physical assets: Brushwagg Coin.

The idea is that users mail in their cards to a centralized repository and are issued a token. Getting the cards back involves calling a few contract functions and mailing in a self addressed envelope.

I started with a single card because supporting every card would require a much larger effort. As a proof of concept I think it's interesting, and the idea of scaling it has a lot of interesting potential uses.

I think physically backed tokens are a really interesting concept, and applying it to assets like trading cards creates a number of interesting applications. For example: using them as loan collateral, renting them out for tournament events, real time price speculation, more accurate price information, as well as the monetization ability of the service, selling cards off of your own exchange at very low prices.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts:

http://www.mtgex.io

2 comments

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wizbright
Sounds like Pucatrade without the extra steps.
mtgex
Fair point. Pucatrade is essentially a virtual binder of cards you say you have. You can easily lie about that. Centralizing the cards allows for the creation of a token that is transferable between users. If someone trades you one token, you know that it's not with the person who gave it to you, it's with mtgex.

Pucatrade also created their own currency which they themselves have complete non transparent control over. They can print as much of it as they want at any time with no one knowing about it.

Even though it is centralized, a blockchain / smart contract based solution offers transparency. Along with third party audits of the physical cards users can have some measure of trust that the token they hold correlates to a real card.