POAP Replays the Broken Dreams of the Internet: Technology Changes, but the Endgame Remains the Same

Author: Zen, PANews

On August 3, Isabel, co-founder of POAP, announced that this digital collectibles project, which has been running for over five years, will cease further development.

After the news broke, many early users reopened their wallets. There still lay the badges from Ethereum conferences, hackathons, community gatherings, and online events they had attended. Some were from conferences that have already been discontinued, some belonged to projects that have long since faded, and others recorded significant industry moments like Ethereum's successful merge upgrade.

The badges can still be queried and displayed, as if the past has not left. But the team that created these mementos has decided to say goodbye.

POAP is not a failed product that is unused and unloved. It grew from an experiment within the Ethereum community to become one of the most representative participation credentials in the crypto industry, entering brand events, concerts, and large industry gatherings.

In fact, this is not the first time the internet industry has attempted to turn memories and commemorations into a business. Over a decade ago, a startup called GetGlue allowed millions of users to check in for TV shows, movies, and books, collecting digital stickers, only to take all digital records away when the servers shut down.

POAP has retold this story using blockchain technology, stepping into the same river once again.

POAP's Departure from the Denver Plateau

In February 2019, thousands of developers gathered in Colorado for ETHDenver. The conference took place during a low point in the crypto market, with Bitcoin having significantly dropped from its previous bull market peak, and "NFT" was far from being a buzzword.

At this hackathon, early POAP members like Patricio Worthalter first attempted to distribute ERC-721 digital badges to participants. POAP stands for Proof of Attendance Protocol, allowing participants to receive an on-chain badge proving they were present at a specific time and place.

A year later, the pink bow badge with a QR code had become a recognizable symbol at some Ethereum conferences. Attendees could scan the QR code to claim their POAP to their Ethereum address. Those who could showcase their participation in multiple events like Paris EthCC, Osaka Devcon, Berlin DappCon, or Denver ETHDenver through a mobile app were the trendsetters in the crypto circle.

By March 2020, POAP had covered over 100 events, with approximately 7,000 badges claimed. Subsequently, POAP gradually evolved from an internal experiment within the Ethereum community to one of the most representative digital participation credentials in the crypto industry.

Essentially, POAP captures a long-standing commemorative habit.

Travelers collect fridge magnets, postcards, and tickets; sports fans cherish game tickets; concert-goers keep wristbands; and attendees might take home name tags and commemorative badges. Most of these items are not expensive; what truly matters is that they carry memories of certain experiences, the people present at the time, the places, and the emotions generated.

The core practice of POAP is to transform the emotions and memories represented by tickets and name tags into an on-chain credential held by the user.

By the time of the Metaverse Fashion Week in 2022, POAP had even become a significant factor in attracting crowds at events. As participants entered the venue, they would ask each other if they could claim a POAP. Even if some events were lackluster, as long as a POAP claiming session was set up, lines could still form.

In addition to industry events and venues, POAP also began to attract the attention of brands.

Adidas issued limited POAPs to some users, who subsequently gained priority access to purchase the "Into the Metaverse" NFT; Estée Lauder built a virtual space inspired by the "Advanced Night Repair" serum in Decentraland, where visitors could unlock POAPs and receive NFT wearables.

POAP's brightest moment occurred in September 2022. At that time, Ethereum completed its historic upgrade from proof of work to proof of stake. During the merge, over 41,000 people watched the official viewing party, and participants placed over 366,000 pixels on the POAP collaborative canvas. The minting information for the commemorative POAP of the merge painting party was subsequently announced during the live broadcast.

An unrepeatable historical event was recorded as a digital badge that could be stored in a wallet for the long term. For a project that has long developed around community rituals and shared memories, this was almost the ideal application scenario.

From Cultural Experiment to Tied to Economic Rights

As the NFT market heated up, POAP transitioned from a cultural experiment and volunteer project at hackathons to a formal company. In September 2021, POAP Inc. was registered in the United States. Just four months later, the company announced it had completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Archetype and Sapphire Sport.

POAP's definition of itself far exceeds that of "event badges." The team envisions that the conferences, courses, communities, and projects each person has participated in can gradually form a social relationship map, becoming a digital identity that does not rely on names, nationalities, or identification numbers.

Since each badge and its holding address can be queried on-chain, communities and project parties can identify specific users based on POAP holdings, granting them access to lotteries, event tickets, exclusive content, whitelist qualifications, and distributing NFTs or token airdrops.

This potential benefit significantly enhances POAP's appeal. For project parties, issuing POAPs to event participants allows for low-cost recording of early users and community members, who can later be rewarded based on their holding records; for users, claiming a free badge incurs almost no cost but may serve as proof of early identity or entry into subsequent events or airdrops.

Thus, users' motivations for collecting POAPs have never been entirely the same from the beginning. Some hope to preserve an experience, viewing it as a community identity, while others simply bet on the potential rewards that the badge may bring in the future. This duality has helped POAP spread rapidly within the crypto community, but it has also sown the seeds of long-term contradictions.

When badges may correspond to airdrops or other economic rights, publicly available claiming links attract many users who did not genuinely participate in the events, and individuals may use multiple wallets to claim in bulk. As airdrop botting, witch attacks, and reward arbitrage have gradually become common issues in the crypto industry, POAP's situation has also become more awkward.

For project parties issuing rewards, a POAP that can be claimed at low cost and collected in bulk is hard to serve as a reliable basis for judging community contribution and user quality. When project parties are no longer willing to allocate rights based on POAPs, those users who primarily came for potential rewards will also leave quickly.

POAP has thus fallen into a cycle that is hard to escape. A product that originally aimed to record real experiences becomes increasingly detached from its most important value as it gets integrated into the incentive system of the crypto industry.

Stepping into the Same River: The Web 2.0 Version of "POAP" That Died Over a Decade Ago

Before the emergence of blockchain and NFTs, there was already a highly similar experiment in the Web 2.0 era that attempted to turn people's daily experiences into collectible digital badges.

In August 2010, a viewer of the hit TV series "True Blood" could sit in front of the television, open the newly released GetGlue app, and check in to the episode they were watching. Seconds later, a digital sticker designed by HBO would appear on their personal homepage.

If they checked in continuously, commented, or completed certain hidden tasks with no public rules, users could unlock rarer stickers like "Truebie." After collecting a certain number, users could request GetGlue to mail them physical versions of the stickers for free, which they could then stick on their laptops, bookshelves, or walls.

GetGlue initially started as a browser plugin that provided social recommendations based on web content, but gradually shifted to "entertainment check-ins." Users could tell friends what TV shows they were watching, what books they were reading, what music they were listening to, and even what drinks they were having and what topics they were thinking about. Each check-in would accumulate points, unlock stickers, and sync to Twitter or Facebook.

Image Source: Reddit Community

Focusing on socializing TV viewers, GetGlue experienced rapid growth in 2010. At the beginning of that year, it had only about 30,000 users, but by October, that number had exceeded 650,000, with over 10 million check-ins and ratings in a single month.

In early 2012, GetGlue completed a $12 million financing round, supported by institutions such as Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Time Warner Investments, accumulating about $24 million in total financing. Its user base also expanded to 2 million, with over 100 million check-ins.

Moreover, GetGlue had partnerships with dozens of major media companies, with HBO, Showtime, PBS, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Random House, and many others issuing stickers and discounts to fans for hundreds of programs. Fox, NBC, HBO, and DirecTV integrated GetGlue's data and features into their own websites and apps.

At that time, the business logic seemed very smooth. Users checking in expressed interest while also promoting the shows; TV stations obtained data on when viewers watched live, on-demand, or recorded content. GetGlue could make money through brand partnerships, membership rewards, merchandise recommendations, and advertising. On the surface, GetGlue seemed to possess all the elements of a successful consumer internet company.

However, the problem was that what users truly wanted were the TV shows, movies, and books, not the check-ins themselves. GetGlue also realized that the check-in stickers that initially attracted users were insufficient to sustain the business, and by 2012, it no longer placed stickers at the core but attempted to use users' check-in records to recreate an electronic program guide, recommending content worth watching in future time slots.

In 2012, competitor Viggle announced plans to acquire GetGlue for $25 million in cash and stock, but the deal fell through. In 2013, GetGlue was acquired by the TV application company i.TV; in early 2014, the company was renamed tvtag, changing its interface from blue to red, while continuing to retain check-ins, stickers, and real-time discussions. Less than a year later, users received farewell emails: tvtag and its associated apps would shut down on January 1, 2015.

After the servers shut down, GetGlue users' check-in records, discussion content, and relationship networks disappeared as well. Those physical stickers that had been stuck on computers, notebooks, and walls might have long been damaged, fallen off, or lost.

The check-in records, discussions, and relationship networks in digital accounts vanished with the server shutdown. Those physical stickers that had been stuck on computers and notebooks might have long been damaged, fallen off, or discarded.

More than a decade later, POAP has retold this story about digital memorabilia using blockchain, facing the same commercial challenges as GetGlue. The difference is that, at the end, the POAP electronic badges that have already entered wallets will continue to exist as on-chain records.

Emotional Value That Cannot Drive Consumption

The similarity between POAP and GetGlue essentially lies in the fact that they face the same product structure. What users truly value are the activities, shows, and communities behind the memorabilia, while the platform provides an additional record after an experience is completed.

GetGlue users loved "True Blood," the Oscars, or a certain novel. POAP users cherish an Ethereum conference, a hackathon, a concert, or a community gathering. Stickers and badges can enhance memories but rarely become the primary reason for people to attend events or watch shows.

Such products can be popular but are hard to monetize.

For POAP collectors, the most attractive aspect of the badges is their free, low-threshold, and gift-like nature. Small communities, schools, and open-source projects are willing to issue POAPs but often lack ongoing software budgets; large brands have the capacity to pay but are more likely to view it as a marketing project for a new product launch rather than a foundational infrastructure that requires long-term subscription.

This creates a situation where the product's value, users, and payers do not completely overlap.

POAP also faces a contradiction that GetGlue did not encounter—it was born in the NFT market but has always tried to distance itself from NFT speculation.

During the NFT peak from 2021 to 2022, the most effective user distribution methods often involved price increases, airdrop expectations, and secondary market trading. Projects issued tokens or NFTs, rapidly expanding their communities through scarcity and wealth effects, then converting transaction fees, royalties, or token appreciation into revenue.

POAP did not wish to develop along this path. It emphasizes that badges represent shared experiences rather than tradable assets. Only when an event is truly worth commemorating should a POAP be issued. If users claim badges solely for future airdrops or trading value, the record itself loses its significance.

This restraint protects the POAP brand but limits its commercialization space.

Isabel stated in her farewell that the financing cycles and distribution mechanisms in the crypto industry make it difficult for POAP to establish a sustainable business without eroding its original spirit. In other words, the most valuable part of POAP is in the most severe conflict with the most mature monetization methods in the crypto industry at that time.

The closure of POAP does not prove that digital memorabilia lacks meaning. The millions of badges still residing in users' wallets have already demonstrated that it once created real cultural value. However, there is no automatic conversion channel between cultural value and commercial value.

Regrettably, POAP ultimately preserved the past for many but failed to find a sustainable future for itself.

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