What is POAP?

POAP stands for Proof of Attendance Protocol, which means Proof of Attendance Protocol. It is an ERC721 standard NFT protocol.

POAP aims to create a way to record life experiences using blockchain. As long as the event organizer supports POAP, POAP collectors can get a unique NFT badge on the blockchain as a souvenir after participating in the event.

These NFT badges showcase a user’s attendance at events, whether in the virtual or real world. Each badge is unique, and generally speaking, the only way to earn POAP is to attend a specific event.

POAP first appeared at the ETHDenver hackathon in 2019 and was released by Argentinian developer Patricio Worthalter.

Initially POAP was built on the Ethereum mainnet, but Ethereum network congestion made it expensive to mint and send and receive badges, so in 2020, the development team added POAP to the Ethereum sidechain xDAI network and assumed the costs of minting and issuance.

What is POAP used for?

1. Commemorative significance

The most direct role of POAP is as a commemorative certificate of attendance. For event participants, POAP represents their various event experiences, and these experiences are recorded on the blockchain through POAP.

A hackathon, an AMA, a community vote, a birthday event, or even some milestone you reach in the game can be commemorated using POAP.

Any individual, community or project can use POAP to create badges for their activities to encourage more participation.

2. Digital identity

When a large number of POAPs are collected at a user's address, this series of POAP collections represents the user's digital identity to a certain extent, because these POAPs can prove your social role and social relationships in the digital world, and it does not rely on any typical personal identifiable information such as name, gender, or ID number.

When you participate in certain activities, the POAP you hold can become a symbol of your identity, and POAP can build your on-chain reputation by creating a verifiable record of the activities you attend.

3. Voting

In a decentralized community, governance is of paramount importance, and voting is a key step in governance. By using POAP, voting organizers can initiate proposals and specify that only those holding specific POAP can participate in the vote.

4. Lucky Draw

POAP can also serve as a lottery ticket because each POAP has a unique Token ID that can be used as lottery numbers. Event organizers can also limit the participating audience by specifying the type of POAP.

How do I get POAP?

The method of obtaining POAP is also relatively simple. Generally speaking, as long as users attend the event, they will be eligible to receive the corresponding POAP.

The organizer of the event will usually directly send the link for collecting POAP to the participants, and they can enter the wallet address in the link to collect POAP; or a secret code will be given in the event, and the participants can send the secret code to POAP BOT to get the collection link, and then enter the address to collect.

What is the value of POAP?

Typically, POAPs are given free of charge and are generally not limited in quantity, so POAPs have little value from a financial perspective.

POAP is more of a sentimental value. POAP represents the personal experience of the collector, and POAP can help them record their life experiences in a secure blockchain network as a testimony of their participation in major events or achievements.

POAP is not a bound token, which means that users can transfer it again after receiving it. Therefore, POAP, like regular NFTs, can be circulated in the secondary market.

From the perspective of commemorative significance, especially for POAP issued for some significant events, POAP may not only be valuable to the participants themselves. For example, someone spends a high price to buy a ticket stub for a concert of The Beatles, even though he has never attended the concert. At this time, the value of this ticket stub may come from the collector's love for The Beatles or the status and influence of this band in music history.

The same is true for POAP. As POAP becomes more popular, more and more large-scale events will distribute POAP to participants. For example, rapper Kevin Gates distributed POAP to participants at his concert. I believe that in the near future, we will be able to see more valuable events or milestones POAP NFT.

The future of POAP

Many projects are currently trying to give POAP more usage scenarios besides commemorative medals.

For example, the SushiSwap community has discussed using POAP as a blockchain resume, where employers can use an applicant’s POAP collection as a reliable record of their participation in the community.

There is also the use of POAP as a proof of stake, measuring user participation and time by the amount of POAP in the user's wallet. More POAP means more stake, such as Bankless DAO allocating airdrop funds based on POAP.

POAP may be combined with DID in the future to further enrich users' identity information in the blockchain world.