POAP meaning is “Proof of Attendance Protocol”. POAP is a protocol that creates digital badges that proves a user’s attendance in a particular event. POAPs are minted through smart contracts as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the ETHereum blockchain. They are ERC-721 tokens created to celebrate and record the attendance of an event. These tokens are verifiable and secured by blockchain technology, hence they are unique and one-of-a-kind.
POAPs were initially minted and distributed on the ETHereum mainnet. It was originally created at the ETHDenver Convention in 2019 to reward hackers who attended and participated in the hackathon event. In October 2020, POAP migrated to the Ethereum sidechain xDai due to its higher speed and lower transaction costs. This allows issuers to mint POAPs for minimal fees.
Now, POAP NFTs can be minted through the official POAP platform. These NFTs can also be traded on multiple NFT marketplaces as well. However, POAPs are basically proof of holders’ personal attendance at an event, so it does not come with a lot of intrinsic monetary value.
POAP offers a new way for event organisers to engage and interact with their community, as well as attract users to the event. Usually, event attendees can collect these unique NFT badges via QR codes at the event and join additional activities on the POAP platform, such as community polls, raffles, and the POAP leaderboard. For example, SushiSwap airdropped POAPs to their AMA attendees and those who voted for its governance proposals, and Decentraland gave out POAPs for virtual event attendees inside its metaverse.
While POAPs currently serve a singular purpose of proving someone’s attendance at an event, POAPs can potentially be expanded and upgraded to entail other uses. For example, POAPs can be used to prove someone’s educational background and work experience in the future.
In conclusion, POAP meaning is “Proof of Attendance Protocol”, and POAP NFTs are basically digital badges that proved one was in attendance for a particular event.
