I redeemed a POAP. Now what?

February 10th, 2023

Estimated reading time: 8 min Level: Intermediate

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Congratulations on your (first?) POAP. It means you’ve been engaged in activities and you got a Participation/Attendance proof in the form of an NFT.

If you’re not familiar with what an NFT is, lets try to clarify the term. No need for technical knowledge, we leave the implementan to the ones how know.

NFT is basically the opposite of FT… Non Fungible Token as opposite to Fungible Token, a token that’s not fungible, i.e. unique and not interchangeable.

“Money” in essence is fungible, you lend 10 Dollars to someone and when you get them back (hopefully) it’s not really important how you receive them. One 20 Dollar bill is the same as two 10s. Fungible, doesn’t matter which you have since they all are alike.

That is not the same for a painting. An original Picasso is not the same as a copy (the same goes for a series of 100 registered and numbered). There is a degree on fungibility. You may not mind having returned a new copy of lost book, but that may not be true if you cherished that particular copy. Could be a matter of sentimental attachment, a special edition or a signed copy by the author.

In fact full fungibility is almost impossible on anything. A bank note, a book or a napkin can immediately become fungible if a special mark is put on it. Imagine having a 1 Dollar bill signed by Elvis….

Bitcoin is at the moment having an hype on that idea. Ethereum introduced NFTs a new technical solution (ERC-721 - initial one). Ordinals is a new protocol for NFT creation on the Bitcoin mainchain but instead of creating new entities just uses Satoshis and gives them an individual attribute - like a signed Dollar bill (Satoshis, not bitcoin, are the atomic, native currency of the Bitcoin network. One bitcoin can be sub-divided into 100,000,000 satoshis, but no further).

NFT were initially used mainly for images and therefore art became the first use case with scale. Uses also to protect intelectual property and life cycle revenue as the 2 main strong points.

An NFT can represent anything, a digital native assets, the ownership of a real asset (RWA - Real World Assets) e.g. stocks, cars, real state or even credential for access clearance. Using the NFT characteristics on the above use cases is an extensive reflection that we will have to park here.

Knowing that an NFT is an unique entity on the Blockchain is enough for now. And we are ready for the “NFT of the month”, the POAP:

POAP is in essence a “Proof of Attendance Protocol”. Ok… What?

Imagine today’s tickets and certificates, paper or digital fungible copies like pdfs. The future will bring digital memories for different life experiences — and that’s where the proof of attendance protocol (POAP) NFT comes in.

On this article I will try to explain the basics you need to know about POAP NFTs to collect and explore them. Or maybe you decide to become a creator…

Let’s start the journey: What is a POAP NFT?

POAP is a NFT that proves you’ve attended or participated on an event, leaving space for both virtual or in-person. A ceremony, private meeting, concert or something that requires attendance… any celebration. All those can be represented as digital badges or stickers and “sent” to your wallet as a reward for your attendance. POAPs can also be proof of your achievements, such as your engagement in a community or club.

POAPs are representations of life experiences materialised into the eternal blockchain. They show that you’re more than an web3 address by linking your off-chain (or real-life) attendance to your on-chain presence. In a way, POAPs add a touch of humanity to the blockchain — and create an immutable record of your activities.

How does it work?

When you attend an event, achieve a milestone or deserve a reward there’s a chance there’s a POAP badges available. It’s as simple as that. You just need to be included in distribution or receive info on how to redeemed it.

POAPs work a lot like other NFTs. In fact they were first created as a smart contract in the Ethereum blockchain. They have now been migrated to Gnosis Ethereum for more efficient transaction costs.

The proof of attendance protocol is unique and there are three conditions for a POAP NFT: -It must be minted via the official POAP smart contract -It must hold metadata related to a specific date or period for up to a year -It must contain an image associated with the specific event

A new way of social and brand engagement?

POAP is at the same time an NFT, with all the potential it already provides - other topics to be explored, and includes another protocol on top by its characteristics.

Being a smart contract provides more info than your certificate or ticket. It links into the full network of people sharing the same life time events, festival participated, etc. It provides you with the “crowd attendance” in the blockchain style… you get to know as much as the others are willing to reveal to you.

Apart from the quality of a POAP drop there aren’t rules that dictate which events can have POAP badges. Size can be as big as one. As long they are approved, you can have POAP NFTs for your virtual or in-person events. You can then invite people to mint them and win gifts.

The primary purpose of a POAP is to prove attendance but it may prove other milestones like an accomplishment. Here are a few examples of different ways that POAP NFTs are used:

- To show participation or attendance at events - To gain access to private events, such as an invitation to join weekly community meetings - As security clearance for private groups or clubs, a membership card - as collectables to show you’re a fan of something, a person, a brand, a place - Gifts or rewards for achieving something, such as being among the first 100 listeners to a podcast - Souvenirs, such as a game shirt worn by a professional athlete - Invites to vote on protocols, attend in-person meetups or join private chat rooms

POAPs can also provide engagement metrics not only on events but personally, right of usage as a subscription, etc.

The use cases for POAP NFTs are in fact innumerable , they’re not currently used much by people outside crypto communities. It’s the obvious place to start, the native environment. But apart from a small “one time step” there is not many technical barriers… normal online stuff.

It eventuality arrive on your lap without you realizing. Some relevant off-chain businesses e.g Warner Music Group, US Open and Lollapalooza , are entering the POAP ecosystem. Recently, rapper Kevin Gates gave out POAPs to attendees of his show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Ok… POAPs are cool, but whats in it for me?

People typically collect POAPS so that they can obtain exclusive benefits. Collecting a certain POAP, may give you access and participation on private online communities. The more POAPs you collect, the more voting power you acquire in POAP-exclusive community polls, which is a big advantage if you want to weigh in on governance proposals.

For DeFi and crypto enthusiasts, POAP collections can serve as an on-chain résumé. You can get more of these NFTs by attending and participating in more crypto events or protocols. It can build your reputation by creating a provable record of all the special events you’ve attended.

By collecting POAPs, you can connect and chat with community members who also attended the same event through exclusive chat rooms that give access to specific POAP holders.

And the above are only examples that don’t include nowadays multitude of possibilities. Urban runs medals, physical clubs access card, customer rewarding for benefits, etc.

Sometimes, collecting POAPs can also earn you money. If you have a unique POAP badge from a super-exclusive event, you may be able to sell it for a lot of money. For example, there was recently a POAP on OpenSea entitled 999 Club: Genesis going for nearly $22,500. Now, just to remind you, POAPs are free to acquire — because you don’t have to pay a gas fee. So this POAP is selling for a $22,500 profit!

Another benefit of holding on to these collectibles is that creators can airdrop NFTs to wallets that have collected POAPs. This way, you can get more tokens without having to mint them.

Great, I’m in, how do to do it?

There are four ways to claim a POAP:

- Use a link to claim a POAP - Use a code to claim a POAP - Use a secret word or phrase to claim a POAP - Scan a QR code to claim a POAP

To begin claiming POAPs, create an account on the POAP app or website using your email or ETH address. Open the app, click on Mint and choose the claim type.

Personally I like MetaMask to acquire an ETH address, but in fact you only need to have an ETH address and have the private key independently of where it was generated.

The mentioned private key may not even be used. It is only needed to sign transactions, and that’s not needed if you only collect POAPs.

In fact you can delete the apps and keep only your Private Key (usually in the form of a seed phrase - 12 words in MetaMask) and the Public key (your address).

By using the Public Address you can also browse directly on the blockchain to see it by using a block explorer.

Below an example. The address contains assets in more than one EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible mainchains.

In our case we are interested in the Gnosis Chain were our POAPs are currently minted

By entering the Gnosis chain and Selecting ERC721 (NFT type contract) you can see all the POAPs received. By clicking on “view NFT” you also gain access to the images and properties.