Membership Pass NFTs

Among the possible utilities for an NFT, one of the most useful is as an on-chain membership pass, granting you access to a community or platform, and providing benefits. Sometimes, PFPs act as membership passes, but there are also NFTs that are simply passes and nothing more. Let’s take a look at some of the membership pass NFTs available, and whether they’re worth holding.

This is one of the most famous communities in web3 and NFTs, due largely to its founders, and the fact that it’s behind the Moonbirds project. Those founders are Kevin Rose, Ryan Carson, and Justin Mezzell, meaning the project brought with it-through Rose and Carson’s entrepreneurship–proven web2 success.

However, the Proof road has not been without some significant recent bumps. First, there was the cancellation of an event called Proof of Conference, scheduled for May, due to “considerably less interest than anticipated”.

There’s also been a slow bleed in the prices of both Proof and Moonbirds, which isn’t unique (other blue chips have crashed hard), but raises questions about where the projects are headed.

With Proof, you’ll get access to a private members club, and any mints from the artists who work with the project. That has, so far, included some of the biggest names in the world of NFTs (such as Claire Silver, Tyler Hobbs, and William Mapan, among many others), meaning this is a pass that might remain beneficial to hold, but which currently trades at prices far below early all-time highs. 

If you spend time on crypto Twitter, you’ll be aware of Real Vision and its co-founder, Raoul Pal. Formerly head of European hedge fund sales for Goldman Sachs, Pal established Real Vision in 2014, as a financial media and research platform. Pal subsequently became long-term bullish on Bitcoin and crypto, and is a prominent voice in the crypto ecosystem, tying together friendly discussions around macroeconomics and web3.

In February this year, Real Vision launched The Real Vision Collective NFT, which it calls a “key to the super community of communities”. This equates to three seasons of NFT drops, each of which contains mash-up pieces bringing together the work of 27 artists well-known in the NFT space (including names such as Sartoshi, XCOPY, and Damien Hirst), and with utility including Real Vision membership, live AMAs, and IRL events.

Real Vision Collective NFTs could be worth picking up based on the legitimacy of the underlying platform, the project’s partnerships (including Ledger, Rug Radio, and Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory), and the artistic creators involved.

You might be familiar with the website NFT Now, which covers web3 and NFT culture and news. Showing full commitment to the principles of web3, NFT Now believes that “the future of media is tokenized”, and that active communities are the future of digital publishing.

Towards that end, NFT Now released its Now Pass NFTs, a collection of 2,750 items, giving holders membership of the Now Network, a developing web3 media community. Owning a Now Pass means you get access to private chats and insights, and eligibility to attend both IRL and virtual events, including NFT Now satellite events (which has meant, previously, the likes of Art Basel Miami, ETH Denver, and NFT NYC).

There are further plans, including allowlist opportunities, reward mechanisms for content engagement and feedback, and an on-chain voting system, and overall, it looks like an interesting media/web3 experiment.

The NFT world has seen a burst of excitement recently around a collection of 20,000 pixel art PFP characters called Nakamigos, which grabbed degen attention and went on an explosive price run.

A substantial chunk of the Nakamigos collection was actually minted for free by holders of the End of Sartoshi Pass (EOS), which was available cheaply, but has delivered a string of benefits.

For background, EOS started life as an open-edition NFT dropped by the creator of MFers, the stickman-drawing artist known as Sartoshi. For several months, EOS NFTs did nothing in particular, but then this year they suddenly morphed into EOS Passes, providing holders with access to raffles to win allowlist spots for ongoing free mints by respected NFT artists, and then, more recently, guaranteed Nakamigos NFTs.

Although the Nakamigos mint is now finished, EOS passes still provide access to allowlist raffles for ongoing art collaborations, and also seem like a good hold in case further utility comes along in future (although, of course, that might not happen).

The Bright Moments platform is centered on generative and AI art, and an interesting feature setting it apart is its live NFT minting events, which are being held in galleries around the world as part of a ten city roadmap. Next up on the tour is a five night stop in Tokyo, with events to feature AI art from eleven creators.

The Mint Pass Tokyo (MPTK) NFT provides the right to mint an artwork at the upcoming event, either in person if you’re in the area or, if Tokyo is a little far to travel, you can mint remotely. The different MPTK NFTs relate to different artists involved in the event, so be sure to check which artist your NFT is connected to.

Strictly, we should say this is an access pass rather than a membership pass, since it’s related to a one-off, specific event, meaning it doesn’t have indefinite benefits.

However, there are also Golden Token NFTs from Bright Moments. These allow holders to mint CryptoCitizens NFTs at Bright Moments events, again, either IRL or remotely. CryptoCitizens are Bright Moments’ pixelated PFPs, and the Golden Tokens currently on sale are for the Tokyo event, and will allow holders to mint a CryptoTokyoite.

CryptoCitizens NFTs (which you can also pick up on secondary) are PFPs, but they also act similarly to membership passes, providing entry to the Bright Moments DAO, which means you get voting rights, and access to mints and IRL events.