The ubiquitous metadata in the standards is crucial for the efficiency of the entire system as it stores unverified information to reduce the on-chain burden. Furthermore, metadata can be used to store preprocessed information, and for information that requires verification, it can be addressed through service provider commitments.
Unverified or unverifiable information should be stored in metadata. Unverified information refers to non-unique, user-customizable information, such as duplicate user nicknames, where users have the expectation that "this is not unique." Another type of "unverified" information is because it cannot be verified. For example, in a minting contract, symbol is commonly used to enhance the human recognizability of tokens, but it is repeatable, and we cannot verify which token the user expects for the symbol. Therefore, we should store symbol off-chain.
For example, rendering avatars and calculating equipment values allows the application side to retrieve information, perform calculations, and render complex NFTs directly from metadata.
Many types of NFT information require the combination and rendering of underlying data, such as composite avatars and multi-attribute land NFTs. The rendering types can also be diverse, including 3D and streaming media. When the structure of NFTs becomes complex and the types become diverse, real-time data retrieval and rendering from the blockchain by the frontend is highly inefficient. Prerendering technology delegates the rendering behavior to service providers for one-time processing and writes the results into metadata, which can then be directly accessed by the frontend.
The prerendered data is guaranteed to be somewhat authentic through signatures, as described in the service provider section. However, before sensitive operations like NFT transactions, the information should be retrieved from the blockchain again for rendering and verification.
Once the AIT protocol matures, every visual NFT should have prerendered information. Dapps no longer need to perform real-time rendering, reducing the complexity of applications. Wallet applications should provide accurate and highly available renderers for users to preview changes before modifying an NFT.
In large-scale applications that involve a significant number of NFTs and user data, accurate information should be obtained from metadata, as the interactions occur on-chain and do not require verification.
Note: The description of service providers in this standard is advisory and aims to express the goals of AIT.
Service providers act as intermediaries or data layers for NFTs, ensuring the usability of the NFT ecosystem and providing Dapps with a user experience similar to centralized services. Service providers can charge users or Dapps for their services, explore ZeroCost technology, or include preprocessing services as part of decentralized storage services. There may be unforeseen business models as well. The description of business models here aims to standardize the verification specifications of preprocessing technology.
Assuming the existence of a marketplace for service providers, where service providers have no malicious intent, if preprocessing technology lacks corresponding verification mechanisms, there is at least a possibility of "passive malfeasance" where service providers lose the motivation to invest in security until security issues arise, such as replacing users' prerendered images with ads or viruses.
Although the market will self-regulate, and service providers with security issues will lose trust and be phased out, this only serves as a constraint for service providers. However, in the case of monopolies or other circumstances, the market may fail, making verifiability essential despite increasing the overall system's cost.
In prerendering technology, the corresponding public chain for issuing NFTs should have a community-recognized mechanism for service provider discovery and verification. Service providers need to register and pledge a certain amount of tokens. If the data processed by the service provider is incorrect, anyone can claim compensation directly through signatures. In prerendering technology, the oracle mechanism is sufficient to ensure the security of NFT-like classes.
The application layer should have developer-friendly verification methods, including comprehensive toolchains and low-cost verification mechanisms. For example, in Dapp frontends, minimal random sampling verification can be performed after page rendering is complete. Therefore, resources with higher traffic receive more verification. Such a verification mechanism is "perceptually transparent" to users.
Decentralized databases contribute to a more thorough implementation of "Chainless." After metadata changes, the database address remains unchanged, eliminating the need to submit information to the blockchain again. Additionally, decentralized databases like OrbitDB have read and write access control, allowing users to fully delegate the security and real-time updating of preprocessing data to service providers.