Token gating (AKA Token Granted Access) is a concept that has gained significant traction in recent years, particularly within decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and non-fungible token (NFT) communities. At its core, token gating involves using tokens to grant or restrict access to a community or resource. In this blog post, we'll explore the history, use cases, advantages, challenges, and future of token gating. We’ll also explore the possibilities of extending its current usage to cater for developers building for the web.
In simple terms, token gating is the idea of using tokens as a means of verifying membership or access to a community or resource. This can be done by requiring users to possess certain tokens in order to join a community or access certain resources.
Token Gating Backstory
The concept of token gating was first popularized by the Collab.Land team, who made it possible for DAOs and other tokenized communities to verify membership through the possession of specific tokens. A good example of this is how the Developer DAO restricts access to their community. In order to join the DAO, users must purchase the $CODE token and have it in their wallet. When a user joins the DAO's Discord server, they are required to connect their wallet via the Collab.Land bot, which verifies that the user possesses the required membership token. This then grants the user access to the DAO.
The success of this approach has led to Collab.Land connecting over 6.5 million verified wallets to different communities. This has paved the way for the next level of token-gated access on the web – the ability for developers to grant access to their websites or specific parts of their websites based on the possession of required tokens.
Token Gating Use cases
So, what are some popular use cases for token gating? One common use case is to grant access to online communities. By requiring users to possess a specific token in order to join a community, developers can create a sense of exclusivity and ensure that only those who are truly interested in the community are able to join. Token gating can also be used to control access to certain resources, such as premium content or exclusive events.
Advantages of Token Gating
There are several advantages to using token gating. One of the main benefits is increased security. By requiring users to possess specific tokens in order to gain access, developers can ensure that only authorized users are able to access their communities or resources. Token gating can also improve the user experience by ensuring that only those who are genuinely interested in a community or resource are able to access it, rather than being bombarded by spam or irrelevant content. Additionally, token gating gives developers better control over access to their communities and resources, allowing them to decide who is able to join or access certain resources.
Current Challenges
However, a potential drawback to token gating is that users must possess the required tokens in order to gain access. This may exclude some users who are genuinely interested in joining a community or accessing a resource but do not possess the required tokens. Additionally, integrating token gating into existing systems can be a time-consuming process.
Future of Token Gating
Looking ahead to the future of token gating, it's clear that this concept has the potential to continue evolving and be used in new and innovative ways. As more communities and resources adopt token-based access, we can expect to see token gating becoming an increasingly common feature of the web. This is why the Collab.Land team is leading the way to provide developers with Token Gating APIs to manage access to website and online resources.
Collab.Land Website Token Gating APIs
Yesterday, Collab.Land announced a new /access-control endpoint for its token gating API that allows developers to control access to their websites and web applications based on the possession of specific tokens.
The endpoint accepts two parameters:
-
account- The wallet address of the user. -
rules- The token gating rules that specifies the token(s) to look for in the users address.
For each rule, Collab.Land will return a response indicating whether or not the rule has been granted or denied for the user. Here’s a sample request to the Collab.Land /access-control endpoint:
POST https://api.collab.land/access-control/check-roles
BODY:
{
"account": "0x01c20350ad8f434bedf6ea901203ac4cf7bca295",
"rules": [
{
"type": "ERC721",
"chainId": 1,
"minToken": "1",
"contractAddress": "0xbc4ca0eda7647a8ab7c2061c2e118a18a936f13d",
"roleId": "001"
}
]
}
Where account represents the users wallet address and rules is an array of objects representing each rule to be checked against the users wallet.
This call would return a sample response like this:
{
"roles": [
{
"id": "001",
"granted": true
}
]
}
To learn more about the Collab.Land token gating APIs, please read the official documentation or dive into a practical tutorial to build a gated website in minutes. You can also get your hands dirty with the Github repo. Want to build a token gated website with JavaScript? here’s a sample code snippet to call the Collab.Land TGR endpoint using fetch:
const res = await fetch(`https://api.collab.land/access-control/check-roles`, {
method: 'POST',
headers: new Headers({
Accept: 'application/json',
'X-API-KEY': process.env.COLLABLAND_KEY,
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
}),
body: JSON.stringify({
account: myWalletAddr,
rules: [
{},
{}
]
})
});
Using the website token gating APIs, Collab.Land extends the successful patterns of token-granted access to communities and DAOs to the web. With this API, developers can now gate and grant access to different parts of their websites and web apps based on the possession of specified tokens. I expect these two pieces of the puzzle to come together in the future to power the intersection of web2 and web3 experiences for the advancement of the internet. I’ve also made a video tutorial to show you how to implement this API in a Next.js project. Feel free to share your thoughts about this with me.