On August 26, the Web3 Travelers community organized the first dinner in Slovenia using non-fungible tokens as tickets. The 17-course dinner was sold out. Guests paid a total of 1 Ether for the 10 tickets (at the time of writing, that's just under €1,600).
The event took place in a restaurant called EDEN in Žiri, Slovenia. As the name suggests, we enjoyed it in a paradise-like garden while the renowned chef Tadej Kržišnik and his team made sure that our culinary horizons were expanded. Besides the excellent culinary delights, the evening was full of inspirational talks about Web3.
While food, drinks, and vibes of the Web3 folks were the most important aspect of the dinner, we will start with the technology itself. In short, the benefits of using NFT tickets are:
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authenticity of the tickets
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transparent secondary market
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royalties on secondary sales
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interoperability of tickets
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permanent memory of the event
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future benefits for ticket holders
All of the above (except the future benefits, we will test those too ;) ) were tested with Non-fungible dinner organization. For the verification of NFT tickets we used Rarepass - a solution developed by our community member andy#9029. Dinner ticket holders downloaded the app, which recognizes all the NFTs they have in their wallets. Clicking on the NFT creates a QR code that changes every 5 seconds. In turn, we as organizers have used another feature in the app that allows you to scan these QR codes and verify through the smart contract that the ticket is valid. The app is still in the MVP phase but has definitely proven to be useful and necessary at events like this.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/hBaD2qh0j-8?feature=share
Once our ticket holders were verified, we could start getting to know each other with our real names, rather than the Discord tags we use as our digital identities. And slowly, the magnificent 17-course dining experience began.
The first course on the menu was *drum roll* the menu itself. From then on, we were surprised and impressed by every course that came out of the kitchen. Between courses, the table was buzzing with Web3 jargon, that was briefly interrupted each time the chef himself came out to explain the masterpieces on our plates.
Not to spoil too much of the experience. We will reveal only one more course here - the final dessert - the EDEN. Everything in between will remain a secret until you visit EDEN yourself.
The chef knew we had to end on a high note. Not only did we eat our menu, but we ate the design of the NFT as well. To all the haters of NFTs who make fun of the fact that you can just right-click save the image. We took it up a level and ate it. But the data is still visible on the blockchain. Except for NFT number 9 - someone took this symbolic act too seriously.
Overall, this dinner is another important step in exploring the opportunities that new technologies like NFTs bring to the hospitality industry. The sold-out dinner proves that we already have a new type of consumers/travelers who prefer to use Web3 services. And the EDEN will definitely see another edition of NFTs (join our Discord so you don’t miss it).
We would like to thank everyone who attended! You were part of history.
There is no group photo because we did not ask our ticket holders to sign a GDPR, and since two of the guests are lawyers by profession, we did not want to risk it 🙂 (all kidding aside, we did have a cameraman documenting the experience, and we will get the video to the ticket holders as soon as it is ready).
You can take a look at a short teaser here:
And here are some of the guests testimonials:
- Tinosestric, #fakealphapixel, Charify.art, Slovenian web3 Community, FHC:
It was a marvelous culinary and web3 experience, we had a lot of fun, and I'm proud, that I'm a holder of the 9/10 NFT, that's something special. I was also very pleased and surprised, to get a bite of one of the dishes that was named by my NFTs - Dyselxia. Would highly recommend it to anybody that loves local ingredients crafted in edible masterpieces. Big thanks to chef Tadej and his team.
Why are events like this important? Because like our friends at CABIN say:
“Community happens at a dinner table, not in an elevator, organically, locally and in small groups.”
And these small groups (full of Web3 founders and contributors) have the potential to move Web3 forward. Towards decentralization and ownership of the internet.
The project was developed by:
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Tadej Kržišnik - chef at EDEN restaurant
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Boris Balant - NFT designer
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Jaka Godejša - Web3 Travelers, co-founder & core member
With partners:
If you like what we do you can support us by collecting this article as an NFT. Money will go to the treasury of Web3Travelers which will be used to fund the innovation and organization of the next cool Web3 experiences.
Speaking of that, we have a last-minute call for attending the 5-day Web3 camping retreat we’re organizing on a mysterious Greek island in September. More info here.