WTF Are POAPs? The Intriguing Power of Proof of Attendance Protocol

In the last few years, the Proof of Attendance Protocol, commonly referred to by the acronym POAP (pronounced “poh-ap” or “poe-app”), has grown in leaps and bounds alongside the NFT space. Once perceived as a simple platform used to issue commemorative NFTs to Web3 communities, in 2022 alone the protocol leveled up, completing a $10-million funding round and incorporating.

Yet, while POAP has proliferated to the farthest reaches of the non-fungible ecosystem, the general NFT enthusiast remains unaware of the true power of the unique platform. While many are happy enough to click a link, collect a commemorative badge and move on, few have dove deep into understanding the possible significance of POAP as it pertains to blockchain tech and Web3 culture.

As POAP has grown in popularity, the company’s Head of Communications, David Chung, and Head of Growth, Anthony Bertolino continue to vouch for the viability of their platform in the changing NFT market. We sat down with the pair to get some insight on the tech and team behind the evolving protocol and to find out why Chung and co believe POAP to be “the perfect merger of the human condition and Web3.”

What is POAP?

Put simply, POAP is a protocol that enables users to create digital badges or collectibles through the use of blockchain technology. The origins of the company date back to 2019, when it was introduced at ETHDenver. Similar to other marketplaces/platforms in the NFT ecosystem, POAP allows users to, well, create NFTs. But a very specific and unique type of commemorative badge-style NFTs. And these NFTs are commonly called POAPs.

Yes, that’s right, the platform itself is called POAP and the badge-style NFTs created on the platform are also referred to as POAPs. It’s important to note that while other commemorative NFT platforms similar to POAP do exist, the Proof of Attendance Protocol was the first of its kind, leading to nearly every NFT of a similar nature being called a POAP. Think of it as a sort of genericization, like how facial tissues are often referred to as Kleenex®.

The major function of the POAP platform is to enable events coordinators, project developers, and even the average joe to create commemorative tokens to immortalize events, activations, and memories on the blockchain. (More on the process of creating POAPs later.)

“Throughout human history, humans have always collected things. Whether that be, in most recent times, baseball cards, movie tickets, or concert tickets. Or if we go way way back it’d be something like passing down shells between tribesmen,” said Bertolino. “POAP is one of the first protocols for digital collectibles. It’s built on blockchain technology, so collectibles can be permanently stored without you needing to maintain them.”

What are POAPs mainly used for?

As the NFT space grew throughout 2021, POAPs quickly became an avenue through which organizers could reward event attendees, Twitter Space participants, NFT drop participants, Discord members, and more. Over time, POAPs started to gain utility as status symbols, incentivizing holders to collect them on OpenSea to potentially receive perks down the line.

To date, several artists and developers have used POAPs to whitelist holders for subsequent drops, with Gmoney’s Admit One collection becoming one of the most prominent to do so. As POAPs gain more utility, they’re even becoming a backward-compatible prerequisite for attendees of earlier events to acquire NFT tickets for future ones.

But Bertolino notes that while portability, transferable provenance, and immutable digital ownership are of course prominent features of POAP — as they are with NFTs in general — the protocol exists in a way that allows not only those privy to blockchain tech, but also everyday people the ability to become issuers. This is where the POAP really shines through as a steward of mainstream NFT adoption.

In speaking on the use cases of the POAP platform, Bertolino highlights that POAPs can be created for any type of physical or digital event. “Anything from like a big corporate where you’d want to give out a digital collectible at your booth, to a personal event, like commemorating a wedding or a birthday, or a community event, like a Twitter Space,” Bertolino said.

“You can use [POAP] in any way you want. You can use it for token-gating, you can use it as a loyalty badge for the same 10 attendees who come to your event every year, or it could be used to build a small personal community. It’s very accessible. I guess that’s the word we should use. It’s, accessible to everybody,” Chung added.

Commemorative NFTs are cool, but are they useful?

Undoubtedly, POAP is defined by its commemorative and accessible nature. And while these two features may seem trivial, they speak to the core values that help drive innovation within the NFT ecosystem.