POAPs, the opportunity for brands to build community with NFT

Source: Observatorioblockchain / Javier Callejo

Many of you already know that the Proof of Attendance Protocol , known as POAP, are those particular NFTs that are achieved with effort, that are a signifier of effort . Well, they deserve a reflection. Basically it is a digital certificate that serves to prove attendance at an event. Even when such functionality can occur both in the digital world and in the so-called real world, they are basically directed towards the former.

The so-called meritocratic societies are not so much those that lead those who have the most merit to the best positions, which requires evaluations and criteria and canons for evaluation, but rather those that strive to produce signifiers, which are likely to be able to show themselves as merit. From this point of view, there is an agonizing struggle to obtain these records for merit. There is an obsession with the meritocratic record, which sometimes intersects with the record of ostentation. That is, the thing can go beyond its projection in the labor market, the demonstration of skills, abilities, efforts and knowledge.

POAP, NFT, brands and community

In this struggle for signifiers, the important thing about studies is the title; of the assistance to the spectacles, is the entrance; of the trip, is photography…. If you have worked in a company, the Social Security certificate. The meaning of all these trajectories is condensed in the certificate. The life path becomes a collection of certificates of attendance

Some years ago, the great North American anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote a nice book in which he reviewed the work of leading figures in his discipline:  The Anthropologist as Author . He concluded that a good part of the text that ethnographers write has the objective of demonstrating that one has been «there», in remote lands, among exotic cultures, with particular social categories and in strange ceremonies. They have «been there» where virtually no other Western ethnographer has been. His knowledge and specialization rests on the practice of  having been there . Practically nothing can be refuted about the descriptions and interpretations they make, because they  have been there; while the critics, no.

Show having been there

Individuals in today’s societies are also obsessed with showing that they «were there», that they went through certain experiences and that, moreover, these experiences have been incorporated by them. Experiences that are already part of their social identity, once they can be demonstrated with the corresponding certificate (title, ticket, photograph, etc.).

In this, the POAPs arrive surfing on an ERC-721 token board that crosses the waves of the Blockchain. Its semiotic force is in the “attendance”. In showing «having been there» in a simple and truthful, efficient and effective way. The effort of  having been there  certified in search of vital rewards. Above all,  having been there  in the, on the one hand, fluid and evanescent digital world, and, on the other hand, a world in which every movement becomes a trace. Now, with Blockchain, it is possible for users to obtain proof of  having been there  in a fast and indisputable way.. Something that begins to make sense when many of our activities are carried out virtually: courses, talks, meetings, exhibitions, concerts, jobs, parties in the metaverse or even «tourist trips».

life certificates

If our presence is increasingly virtual, it is required to show that one  was there . Even to show others that you have been living, albeit virtually, and that you have not disappeared from the world. From this point of view, POAPs can become our very old life certificates. Certificates that  we are here , in the world, alive. Certificates that we continue to build our CV on the blockchain. Through the POAPs, certifying in a thorough way where we have been assisting with our effort, will be the elements of our CV written in blockchain language. Every time we need to show it, we can give our portfolio / curricular wallet of POAPs. 

This has a first and clear labor resonance, think of the situation of a job offer in which it is said «Send us samples of your portfolio/wallet of POAPs, as well as a letter of motivation». But things can go beyond this area. Brands that reward their customers for their loyalty and their presence efforts, certified by POAPs, in the production of communities related to those brands.

Now, presence in a particular place and time can mean many things. To the extent that you are with others, it tends to mean a certain involvement with those others. Perhaps, with the project shared by all those who are «there» at that moment. Being  there  is a corporate effort, which makes society or community . A sample of group involvement. Hence, POAPs, to the extent that they certify joint presence efforts, can also serve to access community or corporate rewards.

Involvement in a community

Thus, the POAPs, as recognition of involvement in a community, can be the title that allows receiving compensation such as, for example, certain privileges for having attended most of the games of the season of a sports club: t-shirts, meetings with the players, signed photographs and other symbols highly valued by the followers that, in addition, identify them as such followers. Something that can spread to other communities. For example, fans of television series or movies, musicians or plastic artists. After all, as such tokens are signifiers of membership in the community. Like  attendance tokens , they are special signifiers of the degree of involvement with that community.