Last week, thousands from around the world gathered in the big apple to celebrate the fifth annual NFT.NYC conference.
It ran from April 12th to 14th, but projects and communities started their experience days in advance. And what they focused on spoke volumes about the path being forged in the NFT space and web3 at large.
What was discussed? Let’s dive in.
There’s been a lot of talk over the past few months about the future of cookies in marketing and business. And as concerns around user privacy and tracking come to a head in debates worldwide, one single question reverberates in conference halls, rooftops, and board rooms alike: What does a cookie-less world look like?
The answer circles back to one seemingly unrelated technology: NFTs.
By nature of the underpinned blockchain technology, NFTs can be tracked and verified across different platforms and devices.
And today, businesses and projects are developing ways to utilize NFT technology to transparently and ethically aggregate data while receiving permission from users. These use cases are beginning to span from e-commerce to fashion to gaming and everything in between.
Speaking of e-commerce…
As projects start to think through applications of NFT technology, an obvious but historically overlooked use case is e-commerce. And as more legacy brands begin dabbling in the web3 space, so does the need for an e-commerce solution within web3.
Throughout satellite events during NFT.NYC, we heard from industry experts on the current state of buying and selling within web3. Great strides have been made since the advent of the internet (web1 + web2) to make buying and selling as frictionless as possible. Think of how easy it is to buy with Apple Pay or Google Wallet.
But with web3, users find that experiences are lacking and have taken ten steps in the wrong direction. It’s often confusing and frustrating (obviously these users haven’t used RECUR).
Throughout the week, projects were selling physical goods on-chain, aka using blockchain technology, and gifting an NFT with every purchase. Their one-click checkout was an un-intimidating way for people to purchase the physical items they wanted, while getting exposure to web3 in a seamless way.
With all this talk around e-commerce and NFT technology, a clear industry stood to run with its potential: luxury goods.
The luxury goods industry is rooted in exclusivity, rarity, and authenticity, and NFTs provide a unique opportunity to take these values to the next level. Not only can luxury brands create limited-edition NFTs that represent—or are the digital twin to—exclusive, one-of-a-kind pieces. They can then take this offering and engage with their most loyal customers, giving them a sense of ownership and (you guessed it) exclusivity.
Luxury brands could then take ownership a step further. Currently, in the luxury industry, brands struggle to maintain provenance and provable authenticity in secondary markets (think eBay or Poshmark). But NFTs can help brands combat counterfeit items by creating unique digital assets representing their products (aka digital twins).
If you’ve been following our blog or newsletter, you already know that NFTs are disrupting loyalty programs for the better. We won’t rehash the ‘why,’ but we couldn’t help but notice that not a single panel went by without mentioning NFTs and loyalty programs.
Whether it was about the new wave of cookie-less marketing, e-commerce, luxury, or climate, projects and communities everywhere were starting to think through how they could leverage an NFT-powered loyalty program to engage with their following.
These conversations are just scratching the surface of applications being built and explored in web3.
We mentioned digital twins a few times above, and that alone was being practically explored in new and interesting ways. Climate-conscious building was also an important driver and discussion point around project growth. Leaders weren’t only thinking about interesting, ground-breaking applications of NFTs. They were also internally building through the lens of climate-conscious, sustainable growth. And we haven’t even mentioned gaming or community engagement. The applications of which we’ve started building ourselves.
In short, the potential with NFTs and web3 only ends with what we can conceive.
While we were on the ground, we had the chance to reconnect with our community IRL. Community members and RECUR teammates joined together at The Winslow, an intimate space for good vibes and great conversation.
Attendees were able to catch up with friends they would otherwise chat with virtually and sit down with RECUR leaders Zach and Max Bruch to learn more about the platform and our vision for the future. And at the end of the night, we gave away three Care Bears KoolTunes™ coolers.
