What is a POAP NFT?
And how it will add some fun to your life!
POAP stands for Proof of Attendance Protocol. These NFTs literally prove that you attended a specific event or participated in a community at a particular time.
While this might feel strange to have an NFT that proves you were somewhere specific at a moment in time, they are actually a lot of fun.
The most famous POAP you’ve mostly likely heard of is Crypto Punks. The highest sale, as of December 2021, was $532 million. (note: this price was likely due to a wash-trade, the second highest sale was for $10M.)
This project is not only a POAP but also used as an OG PFP NFT.
Check out this article to see what a PFP NFT is.
The reason people are paying this high of a price for the CryptoPunks NFT is because the NFT represents a significant moment of time — the inception of the first NFT made! CryptoPunks also pushed the bounds for the technology of NFTs. The 8-bit NFT picture is stored on-chain as opposed to a server. Most NFT projects today are unable to store the image on-chain due to the computing power needed to include the image in a blockchain transaction, which makes the transaction cost prohibitive. Even though the person who bought the $532 Million NFT may not have owned the NFT during the inception of this new technology, they somehow feel connected enough to this moment in enough to want to prove they were there. That’s a POAP.
Other examples of this would be you collecting a POAP for attending your favorite band’s concerts before they hit it big. I recently received a POAP for finding a friend at a conference (which is ridiculous, in a good way). You could get a POAP for being at an event hosted in the metaverse. The possibilities are unlimited.
The POAP NFT sits in your wallet which means you can be verified you were at an event via the blockchain by linking your wallet to Discords or a website. From there, people can know you are a fan of that project in some way, whether through being at an event or paying to someone to say you were there.
Special perks of membership are also provided to POAP owners. Special perks include getting access to first mints of other projects, first access to merchandise, getting access to a Discord channel only for POAP holders, free cryptocurrencies, etc… An example of this would be, if you received a POAP for going to the first ever Rolling Stone concert. A Rolling Stone Discord community could give you special roles in their Discord or access to NFTs they mint before others can access it because you own the POAP.
The POAPS are not always as lucrative as the CryptoPunk example, but they are fun to collect, especially if you can display them somewhere virtually for you to visit memory lane.
To learn more join the New to NFTs Discord!
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