How NFTs Are Transforming Membership Experience
Main Takeaways
NFT memberships give projects and businesses the opportunity to build online communities binding together their most loyal customers.
NFT-based memberships can grant holders a suite of online and real-life perks, ranging from access to exclusive events and services to voting rights and rewards.
Discover how NFTs can help transform and enhance community membership experience.
From Christie's sale of Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" making international headlines to museums like St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage recognizing NFTs as an art form, NFTs have already secured a prominent place in our cultural zeitgeist. As NFT adoption increases, use cases have evolved beyond collectibles and gaming. Digital-native firms and even mainstream brands like Nike are implementing NFT-based memberships to grant exclusive access and perks to their loyal customers.
Keep reading to learn more about how non-fungible tokens transform the membership experience.
What Are NFT Memberships?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic assets used to uniquely represent all manner of digital items. The metadata of an NFT is secured on a blockchain, ensuring the verifiable proof of each token’s uniqueness and ownership. This also ensures that an NFT can't be altered or forged.
Common applications of NFTs include digital art, collectibles, and in-game items. This asset class can also be utilized to prove real-world asset ownership (think property deeds), tickets, certifications, and even identity.
Popular brands, including sports organizations, can use NFT-based membership systems to reward their customers or supporters. Access can be granted to a user when they connect their crypto wallet to the organization's platform and verify their ownership of a membership NFT. These tokens can then unlock a suite of online and offline perks, such as access to exclusive events and services and much more.
Indeed, the mechanics of NFTs are an excellent addition to traditional membership systems: they can serve as a token of a status that grants exclusive benefits to the particular individual who qualifies for them. In that sense, it is fair to say that a membership is non-fungible.
How Are NFT Memberships Being Used
Much like traditional membership models, NFT-based memberships can afford their holders all kinds of perks and can be used to connect organizations with their communities to help them build a deeper relationship.
For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT owners can participate in exclusive clubs within the community and unlock first access to new NFT drops and upgrades.
Stoner Cats is an animated series co-created by Mila Kunis where getting an NFT membership is the only way you can access and watch the show. To unlock the gated content and other exclusive benefits, you have to buy the show’s token and verify the authenticity of your purchase.
Those who own Nike’s first NFT sneakers, CryptoKicks, are granted access to a unique virtual experience in the brand’s metaverse store and exclusive product drops in the future.
NFT Membership Benefits
On top of offering NFT holders exclusive perks, NFT memberships can potentially disrupt the traditional membership system by solving its inefficiencies.
Creating a seamless user experience
With NFT-based memberships, the sign-in or verification process can be drastically simplified. All you have to do is make sure you have the right NFT in your wallet before you connect it to the organization’s platform, then go straight to enjoying the benefits you are entitled to.
Additional income opportunities
The lifetime value of traditional memberships rarely goes up: most people get the same benefits they have subscribed for. Some companies may even decide to cut certain perks after some time. With NFT memberships, it doesn’t have to be this way.
With the help of smart contracts, NFTs can provide ongoing royalties to their creators, and this can apply to membership NFTs as well. If the holder of such a token decides to sell the NFT on a secondary marketplace, a percentage of the resale value may also be redirected to the creator. Furthermore, some membership tokens come with NFT airdrops as one of their perks, allowing holders the opportunity to resell the airdropped NFTs.
Minimizing the chances of loss or forgery
One of the major downsides of traditional membership cards is that they can be easily forged or stolen, creating a situation where people who are not entitled to the benefits get to enjoy them. But since NFTs are stored on a blockchain, counterfeiting becomes nearly impossible. Anyone can validate the NFT’s authenticity on the blockchain and check the history of ownership.
Since NFTs are stored in a digital wallet, users no longer have to worry about misplacing their physical cards.
Limitations of NFT Memberships
While there are many benefits to NFT memberships, getting a traditional membership is still much faster and easier for most people. Like with many Web3 innovations, one of the main barriers to adoption is lack of information and skills to leverage the technology. For the same reason, the number of businesses that offer NFT memberships is still quite limited.
Conclusion
With the explosive growth of blockchain technology and Web3 applications, NFT users and businesses have the opportunity to build a stronger long-term relationship. As they are stored on the blockchain, NFT memberships are easily authenticated, and the user's login experience can be more seamless. Due to blockchains' immutable nature, it's close to impossible for bad actors to forge membership credentials. Although the technology behind NFTs is still in its early stages, with the speed that it's developing, it has the potential to transform the traditional membership systems dramatically.
Dive Into the World of NFTs
Check out exclusive NFT collections on Binance NFT – a marketplace where artists, creators, and NFT enthusiasts come together to trade premium digital collectibles. Follow Binance NFT on Twitter and Telegram to receive updates on our weekly IGO drops and exclusive Mystery Box releases!
Read the following helpful articles for more information:
(Blog) How Can Blockchain and NFTs Decentralize Your Digital Identity on Web3?
(Academy) Top 7 NFT Use Cases
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