You asked, so we deliver 🚚 We’ve updated this article with new, more detailed information about our upcoming membership launch and utility NFTs.
Understanding NFTs with utility
NFTs can be much more than digital art and collectibles that are bought, sold, and traded. While NFT artists might argue that digitally scarce art has utility — which is hard to argue with — utility-based NFTs go beyond the artistic realm.
Utility-based NFTs are typically NFTs that allow access, data/identity verification, or some other functionality not previously associated with art-focused NFTs. For example, an NFT could provide you with access to exclusive content, private communication channels, or limited sale items.
In some cases, an NFT with utility can be digital art. For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Ape NFT holders get special access to specific online areas, in-person events, and exclusive merch drops.
However, these BAYC perks were released after the popular NFTs gained notoriety. Membership NFTs are a type of utility NFT designed from the onset to provide preferential or exclusive access to a platform, community, or other benefits.
Far more than a cool artistic drawing, even Web3 newcomers can see the value in transferable NFT memberships that they can buy or sell on the open market. These NFT memberships can provide access to VIP music experiences, private golf course access, and a whole lot more.
The Onchain Founding Membership is a membership NFT that is designed to offer exceptional onchain and offchain perks to its members. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Utility-based NFT use cases
With the security, transferability, and transparency of blockchain technology, NFTs are providing real-world solutions to pain points left unresolved by Web2 solutions. Let’s look at a few promising use cases.
- Token-gated community access: A utility NFT can serve as an onchain digital key that unlocks access to exclusive online communities, channels, and group chats.
- Token-gated marketplace: Sometimes an NFT can grant you access to exclusive merch, collectibles, and items that are only available to associated NFT token holders.
- Token-gated content: In addition to interactive forums and channels, utility NFTs can grant access to exclusive articles, videos, research reports, and other media.
- NFT identity: Some utility NFTs can serve as soul-bound tokens (SBTs), which are typically used to verify one’s identity and information. For example, you could buy an age-restricted product (lottery ticket, alcohol) without disclosing your name or birthday.
- RWA ownership: A utility NFT can also prove ownership of real-world assets (RWAs). It could represent ownership of real estate — or even ownership of media rights or intellectual property (IP).
In some ways, a utility NFT would take the place of a password, online purchases, or access to subscription-only or paywalled content. However, utility NFTs have some advantages. For example, many can be transferred to confer the same ownership rights. So, you could sell your NFT to someone else if you no longer wanted it — sometimes for a profit. You generally can’t sell or transfer a paid annual subscription.
The Onchain Founding Membership NFT
Onchain will release its own utility-based NFTs to grant access to our comprehensive suite of reports, articles, and research tools. The Onchain Founding Membership is limited to 3,000 NFTs. Once they sell out, you may be out of luck. Notice we’ve increased the number since we first decided on the move. (Even the video is ‘behind’ 😂)
Let’s cover some of the key NFT membership benefits and perks.
- Full access to the Onchain Intelligence Dashboard.
- Unlimited research reports and premium insights.
- Exclusive ‘Founding Member’ NFT with rarity features.
- Guaranteed eligibility for future token airdrops.
- Higher reputation & status in the Onchain Ecosystem.
- Priority access to Onchain events and announcements.
- Private access to Onchain’s Founding Member Telegram group.
Onchain sees a world where everyone is onchain. And we’re not passively waiting around. 🕰️
Our decentralized crypto research flywheel thesis posits that as our member network grows, actionable insights for entrepreneurs will be more timely, accurate, powerful, and useful.
There is power in numbers. A collaborative research environment that decentralizes research and insights is better equipped than even the most talented and dedicated Web3 research team that operates in a centralized manner.
We’re not just creating a research marketplace; we’re creating an entire Web3 ecosystem.
⏩Ecosystems are dynamic.
⏩Ecosystems adapt.
⏩Ecosystems evolve.
We are creating the ultimate decision-making hub for Web3 intelligence. It’s not just insights. We give you a research toolkit to turn those insights into action and an entire community of Web3 alphas around it.
We’ve laid the onchain foundation. Our accomplishments are notable, but we haven’t reached our Web3 destination just yet. Check what’s coming next and when on the updated Roadmap page.
Coming soon: The Onchain Intelligence Dashboard
Our unique dashboard will include metrics you can’t get anywhere else. It can function as your strategic compass to navigating through the blockchain ecosystem.
Here are examples of the unique metrics it includes:
- Transaction costs (median gas fees): Essential for understanding operational expenses.
- Transactions per second (TPS): A key measure of network scalability.
- Developer activity: Gauges the strength of the developer ecosystem and innovation potential.
- Sector & Ecosystem Maps: Explore the top projects creating real-world impact with Web3.
- And more!
You’ll find intuitive visualizations, such as bar charts, line graphs, and scatterplots, to help you compare blockchain networks side-by-side. We want to give you the data and guidance that matter most and empower our members to make smarter, faster decisions.
It’s another utility that comes with the NFT and an excellent reason to sign up for it now.
Web3 Insights Marketplace
An additional benefit worth highlighting is that these Onchain NFTs will grant users access to our Web3 Insights Marketplace, a decentralized marketplace for Onchain’s Web3-focused research. That’s the place where we and other experts, researchers, and analysts share top-shelf insights that merge Web3 with the real world.
We want you to actively take part, evaluate, and comment. By commenting and rating the available insights, you’ll help improve the overall quality of available Web3 wisdom.
But that’s not all. You’ll be able to do more than just consume. Designed with interactivity in mind, our upcoming platform will let you publish your own analyses and be compensated for your contributions. And you’ll be able to request specific research from others.
For example, you could publish your own short insights or in-depth articles on a novel blockchain use case. You can be rewarded based on their quality and insightfulness. These tokenized rewards are designed to benefit all parties participating in our interactive Web3 platform.
On top of that, and maybe most valuable: you’ll be able to request research from others. If you face a specific issue and you can’t find the resources you need, place a request on the Insights Marketplace and someone will dig into the subject.
Anyone is welcome to engage with Onchain. However, founder members get value-added perks like:
- Member-only marketplace badge
- Higher reputation point rewards
- Boosted post visibility
- And much more…
The idea is to bring together everyone in need of Web3 knowledge in one place and create a decentralized ecosystem. Our vision is to create a community that helps the world move onchain.
Onchain’s utility-based NFT
To not miss out on this one-time-only drop, be sure to sign up for the Early Birds email list so you’ll be the first to know about the NFT membership sales launch when it happens.
The benefits, perks, and utility of the Onchain Founding Membership NFT go beyond what is listed above. Like other NFTs, they will be tradeable on secondary NFT marketplaces. This optionality will allow you to sell it if you so choose — but you’d lose the associated benefits as well.
Likewise, if you want an Onchain NFT and regretfully didn’t purchase one before they sold out, you may be able to find a willing seller. Or you may find yourself out of luck.
As a crypto wise man once said: “Don’t continuously regret the past. It’s immutable. You can only take action from the present onwards.”
Stay ahead of the game—claim your place as a Founding Member and lead the Onchain movement.
