Utility NFTs: The Secret Spice of Communities
A new era of NFT projects is making sense of community, education, and transparency its core principles.
The hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exploded in 2021, for both the art world and games. But as the technology matures, developers are tapping into its potential to build communities through reliability, benefits, and collaboration opportunities.
The first boom came when sales of multimillion-dollar artworks hit the mainstream media, and the owners of the first NFTs became overnight millionaires. Then they were soon followed by a bunch of copycats, as a market for buying and “exchanging” NFTs emerged.
But it’s the utility in the NFTs community that may have set it apart; The solution to getting rid of these bad copies was to build communities around your projects.
Soon, participants were posting their NFT avatars on social media, representing their association or feeling of belonging to a unique group.
NFTs are structured in the form of a community because people are investing in the community early on — and they want to be rewarded for doing so.
Drawings are no longer enough to attract the attention of curious shoppers. An emerging wave of NFT projects aims to be more than just a collection of artwork; they are building these engaged communities around their projects to inform, educate and entertain their members.
In general, the community is an important aspect of the decision to buy an NFT project. If the feeling towards it is negative, it is likely that people will not want to keep or buy the NFT.
What if NFT has additional uses?
After analyzing the environment developed by the community, it is possible to offer useful NFTs for those who wish to become active members. These NFTs are based on the access, advantages, and opportunities offered to the holders of these tokens thus offering a clearly defined intrinsic value beyond the usual scarcity associated with NFTs.
This is the concept that will permeate the next generation of digital communities, building on user demand, and offering a range of practical applications for the token. For example, you can grant access to exclusive experiences, early access to products, airdrops, exclusive invitations to events with top celebrities/athletes, and much more.
While the first wave of NFT owners rallied around the values of cryptocurrency projects such as CryptoPunks. Now, NFT projects are taking a community-first approach, creating incentives and tangible value from the start.
Here are two notable examples of using utility NFTs
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
In terms of fame, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the best known. An individual monkey can cost over $2 million. Unlike most simple projects where the NFT is simply a work of art, owning a BAYC NFT is like having lifetime access to an exclusive group, which includes:
The Bathroom — A collaborative project where members draw a single pixel on a screen every 15 minutes.
Mutant Apes Yacht Club (MAYC) — Creators have added a serum to NFT owners’ wallets. After injecting the serum into his monkeys, a mutated version of the monkey appears.
Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) — Each monkey gets its own dog, which is also passed on to members.
Merch store — Exclusive members-only store.
Apes vs Mutants Mobile Game Competition — Released December 5, 2021, the game can be played between Apes and Mutant Apes owners. It involves monkeys tossing a bunch of bananas, then pizzas, at each other.
VeeFriends
Gary Vaynerchuk aka GaryVee created his VeeFriends project. He started the NFT project and released the first collection in May 2021. The aim is to provide a blueprint for others on how to successfully start an NFT project.
He saw, from the beginning, the importance of having NFT tokens with some utility rather than just art. Unlike most NFTs, VeeFriends’ art is nothing to brag about. However, it is what the token unlocks for the holder that gives them their true value.
There are three types of NFT:
Admission NFTs: 9400 pieces
Gift Goat NFTs: 555 pieces
Access NFTs: 300 pieces
All NFTs give holders 3 years of access to VeeCon, Gary’s own conference on business, marketing, ideas, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, and fun. It’s basically a mega networking opportunity.
As the name says, Gift Goat allows holders to receive 6 surprise gifts from Gary per year, in addition to VeeCon entry.
Access NFTs are first-class because they give the holder access to Gary’s time. Whether doing an activity together or 1:1 in person or in person, this is like an idol meeting time for his fans.
Conclusion
In an era where exchange values are valued more than the value of experiences, NFTs seek to join the two by combining art with utility. From simple digital art to being status to unlock all kinds of rewards, the versatility of NFT promises to be an integral part of our lives.
This is just the beginning of a new generation of value through digital communities. It was through this analysis of the future that we developed the NFT features within the SkillCore communities, not to be just memorabilia but a differential opening up unique possibilities that without a token would not be possible. Experiences, items, content, products, and even accelerating the earning of credits within the environment are benefits that NFT holders can claim.
Have you ever thought about where this might take you? If you have fans, followers or are part of a digital community, start your environment now and create your utility NFT ;)
