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ERC-4907: Rental NFT Standard

ERC-4907 provides a standardized approach to the rental and time-limited usage of non-fungible tokens, addressing a significant limitation in existing NFT funct

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Abstract

ERC-4907 provides a standardized approach to the rental and time-limited usage of non-fungible tokens, addressing a significant limitation in existing NFT functionality. Prior to this standard, lending or renting NFTs required cumbersome and often risky escrow-based methods or complex social trust agreements. ERC-4907 adds an ‘expires’ functionality to the standard ERC-721, allowing owners to delegate usage rights to a user address for a specified duration, after which the rights automatically expire and return to the owner. This is particularly significant for gaming, ticketing, and service-based NFT use cases where temporary access is more valuable than permanent ownership. The standard is designed to be highly gas-efficient and seamless, promoting interoperability across platforms and gaming environments, thereby unlocking new rental markets and utility for digital assets. Authors: Shuaifeng He, Zhenyu Yan, Douglas Horn, Archer Fu Publication: Ethereum Improvement Proposals Publication date: 2022-01-01

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Key findings

  • The standard allows for automated time-limited access without the need for complex escrow mechanisms.
  • It enables the creation of secondary rental markets within existing gaming and service platforms.
  • Implementation is compatible with legacy ERC-721 assets via extension wrappers.
  • The ‘expires’ variable provides a transparent and verifiable mechanism for managing usage rights on-chain.

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Citation

Shuaifeng He, Zhenyu Yan, Douglas Horn, Archer Fu (2022). ERC-4907: Rental NFT Standard. Ethereum Improvement Proposals. https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4907
Canonical knowledge ID: research:erc-4907-rental-nft-standard