POAP is an NFT that certifies that the event participant was “there”.
It is deployed on an Ethereum sidechain called xDAI, and there is basically no gas fee for both issuing and receiving. Users, regardless of whether they are individuals/companies, are free to issue and receive POAP.
Many crypto-related names such as Bankless DAO, CoinGecko, Decentraland, and SushiSwap line up among the companies that have issued NFTs for POAPs, known as “badges”. Among them are some of the biggest companies of yesteryear, such as adidas.
Today, I will explain how to issue and receive POAP, which are often used at crypto currency and NFT-related events.
How To Use POAP
Issue Badge
First, select “Create your first POAP” on the top page of the official website.
Next, enter detailed information about the badge on the “Create Drop” screen.
| What are you commemorating? | Event Name. *Required, less than 150 characters |
| What do you want people to remember about this drop? | Description field for POAP. Enter the content and drop (distribution) method. The text entered here will be stored in the NFT metadata and will appear in the POAP mobile app and throughout the POAP ecosystem. *Required, text available in English only. |
| City/Country | Distribution Location. Select “Virtual Drop” for distribution in virtual space. |
| Start Date/End Date/Expiry Date | Distribution Start Date/End Date/Expiration Date. Select “Multi-day Drop” to set up distribution over multiple days. |
| Do you have a website attendees should visit? | Enter the websites you would like participants to view. |
| Template | Template. If you do not need it, you can leave it as Standard Templete. |
| POAP artwork | Select POAP images in PNG or GIF. *Required Images cannot be changed or edited after the POAP is issued; 500 x 500 pixels, round, 200 KB or less is recommended. The maximum size of an image is 4 MB. |
| Edit Code | Code for editing. (will be automatically filled in) A 6-digit Edit Code setting is required to update the drop content. |
| What is your email? | E-mail address. *Required You will receive an email notification after the drop setup is confirmed. |
| How many mint links do you need? | Number of mint. *Maximum 50,000 |
| Private Drop | ON/OFF function for private settings. If this box is checked and dropped, it will not appear in the drop list. You will also be able to delete badges in the future (as of July 20, 2022, you cannot delete minted badges). Check this box for test distribution. |
After completing the settings, press “Save” at the bottom of the screen.
This completes the issuance of badges. Next, I will look at the process of distribution.
For this test, I set up the NFT with 100 mints, with an email address, and with Private Drop. I have entered some other settings as well, but I will skip them since they are not really relevant to the rest of this story.
After pressing the “Save” button, I immediately received an email notification of completion.
The email included a URL for tracking dropped NFTs and a URL for editing private drops. The image below is a screenshot of the tracking URL page. It show the current supply status.
If one person has already received the badge, the display will look like this The number “1” appears.
Below is a screenshot of the URL page for editing private drops. Additional mints can be made by clicking on “Request more codes”. You will need to enter the “edit code” for additional mints.
Five minutes after the last email, I received an email with a text file attached containing a link to distribute the badge.
Only one person can mint per link.
Notify each event attendee individually of this link and the badge distribution is complete.
I minted 100 this time, but there were only 10 links. Maybe it is because it is a private drop. Let me jump to the link at first.
Get A Badge
When you access the URL for badge distribution, you will see a screen like this.
Enter your Ethereum wallet address and press the Mint button to mint your POAP badge. If you mint with “Free minthing in xDAI” checked ON, you will not be charged for gas.
All POAPs are minted in xDAI, but are essentially viewed and managed on the POAP platform. If you want to use POAP on ethereum main net, you must turn off the “Free minthing in xDAI” checkbox. In that case, you will have to pay for gas at the time of minting.
I have not yet confirmed that minting by ENS name and email works. Note that according to the official help, entering an email address does not mint a POAP on the blockchain.
There are four types of wallets available: MetaMask, WalletConnect, Portis, and Coinbase Wallet. Choose one of them and proceed to authorize connection to the POAP platform, authorize gas payments, etc.
If the mint is successful, you will be taken to a screen like this. The Browse collection button will take you to the collection viewing page of your POAP. This is how to receive your badge. It’s that easy!
If you try to Mint with a wallet address that has already received a badge, the message “Badge couldn’t be claimed: Collector already claimed a code for this Event“ will be rejected. Thus, POAP allows only one minting of the same badge per wallet. If a person who already has a badge tries to mint it from a link other than the one used to receive the badge, the minting will of course be denied. (I actually saw it work that way.)
I have given the impression that the issuance and receipt of the badge went smoothly, but the truth is that I made a wrong turn when I received the badge. I will record this as a bad example.
(Operation)
(1) I pressed the mint button with xDAI unchecked (I thought I had checked it).
(2) Since the gas bill was not waived, I realized my mistake and refused to authorize payment of the gas bill.
(Result)
“Congratulation!” and congratulated Mint on their success.
Gas bill had not been paid. Badges were issued but not visible from the Ethereum mainnet. *Same situation as when I minted with “Free minthing in xDAI” checked.
Be careful not to press the mint button with “Free minthing in xDAI” unchecked unless you intend to. If you have a situation where your badge cannot be minted due to a mishandling, contact the badge issuer. They may be able to help you with additional minting or other methods.
Utility Of POAP
POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) is a mechanism that allows for pragmatism in both badge issuance and collection.
The real world and virtual space event venues will be crowded with visitors who come for the badges issued. Collecting badges increases proof of the holder’s own activity history, and depending on how the badges are used, they can provide incentives such as participation in airdrops, communities, live events, and product sales that are exclusive to POAP holders.
There are many possibilities for the value that POAPs can have, including “value as a certificate,” “value as a ticket,” “value as a collection,” and “value of the badge itself.
Although they may be used differently from NFT, the aforementioned values themselves are not unique to POAP, but are common to NFT in general; utilities that emerge from NFT in the future will have an impact on POAP as well.
FYI: Apart from POAP, there is also a service called BADGE that allows the POAP mechanism to be used with Polygon. According to the BADGE official website, there is no review process to issue a Link, and the Link can be downloaded in CSV format and displayed in OpenSea. If you are interested in this service, please give it a try.
Let’s make use of the badge and live a careful NFT life~.
