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Year in POAP: Looking back on 2024

By POAP in Week in POAP —

This year has been massive for POAP, Ethereum, and the broader blockchain community. Look back on 2024 with us to remember the good times that were had by all, and get some sneak peaks at what lies ahead.

Year in POAP: Looking back on 2024

From India, with Love

Our salmanneedsajob.eth visited ETHIndia to show support for the Ethereum India community. During his time there, he created the India Blockchain Week POAP Collection. It now has 515 collectors and 76 Moments that help us remember all the fun.

There were three questions we wanted to ask Salman.

Can you tell us about a happy surprise from ETHIndia?

Meeting Kashvi. Kashvi is an OG VeeFriend and former World of Women core team member, and I have been following her online for a while. I even remember listening to a few podcasts she was on back in the day!

It was really cool to finally meet her in person at ETHIndia, and now I have a POAP to remember the occasion.

This POAP deserved a selfie moment - next time!

What was the greatest Moment you remember?

These ones, from Boxingbay 3. The fight between Tony (founder, CatOff) and Abhishek (founder, Asset Mantle) was incredibly entertaining, and I'm stoked to have a record of this.

Is there a Moment you wish someone else had captured?

A marketer from Blockbeats (Jayanand) visiting the Palau booth at IBW. He spontaneously picked up his guitar and sang an impromptu song inviting everyone to visit Palau. It turns out Jayanand is also a musician! I really wish the video of that performance had been captured. Maybe I'll track Jayanand down and see if he can share it.

This Year at POAP

This year, we worked hard to build better tools and stronger connections within the POAP world. We improved how we tag artists and groups in POAP Collections, made POAP Moments better, and released POAP Home, our new mobile app, so collectors can stay close to their communities. POAP is now easier and more fun for everyone.

This year, POAP creators got even more ways to share POAP joy with their communities:

  • POAP Dispenser: Now inside POAP Home! This tool makes it super easy to hand out POAPs to small groups. It’s simple to set up and use.
There's even a nice cat who will dance if you get the distribution done well.
  • GPS Minting: Started in Tokyo during the first POAP Rally and has been used at events like EthSophia, and others in Colombia and Miami. If you’d like to try GPS minting, reply to this newsletter, and a POAP team member will be happy to set you up.
  • POAP Airship: Lets you give POAPs for onchain tips. It works on Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Ethereum Mainnet. The EthStaker community has already used it for 8 community calls this year, to great success.

POAP Studio has been busy too, with cool things like the POAP Passport and tests for giving out POAPs on web2 platforms (like Lu.ma, a favorite in web3). 

POAP Moments is a fun new way to connect with other POAP holders. Add your pictures, videos, and tweets to the POAPs you’ve collected. Tag your friends and remember all the good times you shared. POAP Home will tell you when new Moments are created for POAPs you own.

We are also testing minting POAPs on new networks. We’ve welcomed early adopters from Base, Arbitrum, and Ape Chain, with more on the way. 

Remarkable POAP memories from 2024

POAP in the World

It makes us happy and proud to see traditional companies, venues, and communities embrace POAP as a way to bring people together. This year, we saw many of them put aside blockchain thinking and focus on human connection, with POAP as the glue that connects their community across space and time.

  • Bayer gave out two POAPs at their event in Vienna. One gave access to a special virtual experience, and the other let guests remember their time there. Over 200 guests found their POAPs right in their event app, making everyone feel more connected.
  • Sibos, the global financial services networking event by SWIFT, put on Innotribe Quest, a collecting experience that used NFC totems and QR codes to help guests chart their Sibos experience along 3 separate tracks. With over 10,000 attendees, more than 1,000 collectors minted 4,000 POAPs! It turned a big event into a fun game of collecting memories.
  • Sofar Sounds, an organisation that curates experiences with the hottest emerging artists, used POAP so music fans could keep special memories from their shows in Berlin. We saw 20, 30, and even 40 people reserve POAPs at small, intimate shows. Some day, these fans will mint their POAPs, and remember when they first came close to experiencing blockchains.

All these projects were led by POAP Studio, our commercial team that helps big brands create gentle, friendly POAP experiences. This year, POAP Studio was trusted by companies like Skoda, Porsche, Shell, Ubisoft, and many web3 teams like 1inch, OpenSea, and Harpie to provide customers with experiences they love. 

POAP in Ethereum

While it’s nice to see POAPs in the mainstream, our true home is the Ethereum ecosystem. This year, many communities used POAP for all kinds of gatherings—NFT groups, DeFi projects, clubs focused on learning, and more. POAPs helped communities record their stories, and prepare for a bright future.

Tight knit, established communities like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), World of Women (WoW), and VeeFriends used POAPs to connect online members in real life.

  • BAYC: Gave out POAPs for events like Dookey Dash at NFT Paris (POAP #168805), ApeFest’s fourth edition (POAP #178872), and their 3rd anniversary (POAP #172755).
  • World of Women (WoW): Used POAPs for community calls, team meetings, quests, and both online and real-life events. At the Paris Gala, 900 collectors each got at least one of six POAPs, creating lasting memories.
  • VeeFriends: Gave out POAPs for their “5 at 5:55” drops (POAP #183014 is number 84 in the series), VeeCon (where 125 Moments were created), and for meeting fellow attendees. This made web3 technology more welcoming for everyone.

Web3’s favorite media outlets and clubs also grew with POAP, without losing their personal touch.

  • Bankless: Held meetups in Buenos Aires, at EthDenver, EthCC, and Blockworks’ Permissionless. They gave out the 2024 Bankless Member Badge (POAP #167501), following a tradition that started in 2020 – check out the POAPs for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. This year ended with the first Bankless Summit in Bangkok—a big success by all accounts.
  • SheFi: Held summits in Denver, Brussels, Singapore, and Bangkok. The last two events were mostly run by the community, showing SheFi’s growth. SheFi has long used POAPs to honor speakers and show proof of attendance, keeping that standard even as the group evolved.

Beloved technical communities used POAP to bring members together, raise funds, and mark important events:

  • EthGlobal minted 26 POAPs throughout the year for Hackers, Finalists, Speakers, Volunteers, and Partners. This lets builders show they were part of a world-class hackathon series, and gives them a way to remember the good times well after the judging is done.
  • ENS celebrated frENS Day with POAP. At EthDenver, EthCC, and Devcon, they gave out POAPs to help people remember new friends made along the way.
  • EthStaker held a community call for the Dencun upgrade (POAP #170862), raising over $100,000 for Smoothly and other important causes in the Ethereum.
  • Farcaster gave POAPs at community meetups, and at events like Farcon and Farcon Asia, to help keep people place themselves in a global network.

We also remember…

And of course, we remember your events: if you are reading this, you are part of the POAP community too. It has been a privilege to share another year with you. We look forward to many more years of making memories together!

If you enjoyed this year end recap, send it to a friend who might share some of these memories – or come pop by Telegram to reminisce with other POAP people on this year in Ethereum. We wish you a Happy New Year, and look forward to minting more memories in 2025.