Open3 Collective Updates 1/16/23-1/22/23 – web3 UX is really poor at present; until infrastructure providers improve it, here is what consumer brands are doing to make the experience much better

This post includes updates to the web3 for consumer brands/Open3 Collective knowledgebase and sent via email to members. Image created using generative AI of the Tribeca Festival.

The one takeaway for this week’s update

Web3 UX is really poor at present; until infrastructure providers improve it, here is what consumer brands are doing to make the experience much better.

Tribeca Festival released special access passes in the form of NFTs.   What they did, which many other brands have done and are doing, is to bypass cryptocurrency completely and let consumers use a credit card instead, and further, a web3 wallet is automatically created for the user to hold the pass.

What a new web3 consumer has to do if the Tribeca Festival process did not exist:

1. Open cryptocurrency account at a centralized exchange, like Kraken;
2. Transfer fiat from a regulated bank account to Kraken via ACH or wire if international;
3. Convert fiat to ETH cryptocurrency;
4. Download a hot wallet and create an account, like using Metamask;
5. Transfer ETH from Kraken to the Metamask account;
6. Connect the Metamask wallet on Tribeca Festival’s website;
7. Make the purchase and get the NFT;
8. Transfer the NFT to a cold wallet for safekeeping.

What a consumer does instead with Tribeca Festival:

1. Provide credit card credentials through a secure card interface at Tribeca Festival’s website, approve the purchase, receive the NFT in a wallet auto-created by Tribeca Festival that holds the NFT.

Talk about reducing friction.  That is how consumers will use web3 for the foreseeable future.

To see all weekly takeaways published to one document, click here.

Key Tools Changes/Additions

• More resources, apps, extensions and hacks added to the tool AI technologies enhancing web3 for consumer brands With the release of ChaptGPT and generative AI image models, this space is innovating incredibly fast and ushering in huge productivity boosters for marketers, especially.
• Added a concept about using wallet connect to replace email subscriptions and why that might be better, to the tool Web3 Software SAAS Concepts For Consumer Brands
  • When you connect a wallet to a website, option pops up to subscribe to marketing communications via wallet (aidrops or W2W messaging) instead of email.
  • How is this better than email? Could be via W2W the communication is text based only so short, fast. Airdrops are NFTs.
  • Maybe with wallets, brands can target the messaging and airdrops based on what the wallet already owns or has done.
  • That is probably the benefit over using email because email, unless tied to a customer record and purchase history, does not provide much info, and even the purchase history does not provide as much as potentially the wallet and its contents and actions recorded via NFTs.

The above are key updates to consider.   Go to the web3 market intelligence database to see all.

Notable Market Intelligence Updates

• Sheep Inc. introduced the “Connected Dot” to their garments. Items such as beanies and sweaters now have (removable) scannable NFC chips sewn in. Customers can scan these chips to track their garments provenance (eg. CO2 footprint, farm info), and see and track the sheep their wool came from. It also has a Time Capsule feature, where owners can add images and videos related to the garment to the blockchain-based Dot. Commentary. The last feature is really interesting, not something seen before. Instead of issuing NFTs related to the garments experiences, consumers can simple add their own media, which apparently appears to be somehow encoded onto the blockchain token? Not clear on this and reached out to the company for clarification.  Further the NFC chips are being put into products that are not that expensive ($90), which is novel and opens up the ability to do this in every apparel item.
• In the second quarter of 2023, phygital startup Pillz is dropping NFTs that can be forged in exchange for a wearable phygital device (as a necklace, bracelet or keychain, for instance) for NFT-collectibles, which holders upload to the device. Commentary This is interesting…basically a hardware NFT wallet fashioned into a jewelry item that is worn. I like the concept but not practical if you lose the item, your NFTs are gone. If, however, we ever institute the NFT account proxy for proving NFT ownership and securing them at the same time, this could be interesting because you are infusing fashion into a hardware device.
• Tribeca Festival releases special access passes in the form of NFTs. This is a trend, where the brand (Tribeca) bypasses cryptocurrency completely and uses a credit card instead, and further, a wallet is automatically created for the user to hold the pass. This is what more and more brands are doing to ease entry into web3 and reduce friction to using web3.
• Loyalty program breakage is the amount of points/rewards that never get spent, with quick Google searched indicating 80% or more, which is very high.  If consumers are not using these rewards, they are not interacting with a brand.  One has to ask why rewards offer so little value if they go unspent, and how can brands reverse this?  Rather than rewards, issues benefits as an NFT that gives access to benefits, and if no longer of value to the owner, can be sold on the secondary market for someone else to use.  This is what Starbucks appears to be doing with its web3 revamp of its loyalty program.  Doing this might force a brand to issue fewer rewards so their scarcity might create value, and it lets the owner monetize those rewards by selling them to someone else who might then use them.

The above are key updates to consider.   Go to the web3 market intelligence database to see all.

Forward Guidance

• None this week.

See all forward guidance published to one document here

Questions, Feedback?