Experience-to-earn is the gateway for NFT mainstream adoption

Published at: Feb. 12, 2022

An experience-to-earn (E2E) nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystem rewards people on-chain for doing everyday activities, bringing new forms of value creation to everyone. This was previously reserved for invested gamers in play-to-earn (P2E) worlds.

While P2E has experienced a record-breaking year ($4.5 billion in-game NFT sales, according to the recent DappRadar report), most blockchain games still rely on some level of skill such as battling, breeding or collecting strategy that attracts gamers with the downtime, temerity and sometimes some starting funds to invest — prerequisites that can put off any non-gamer from entering NFTs to earn.

In contrast, experience-to-earn aims to reward more achievable investment people put in themselves, others and the good into the world, expanding the potential for anyone to jump in and get rewarded on-chain.

Where experience is value

By definition, The Experience Economy, or the concept and title of the bestselling book by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine — is one where “experience creates economic value.” The E2E model is developing extends this beyond economic value to create value in social, self-care and self-development experiences.

Imagine an ecosystem that rewards you for daily behaviors that bring value to your life, others or the world. Everyday activities like exploring a national park or a new country, going for a surf, playing tennis with a mate, seeing a band or your favorite team play, taking care of your physical and mental health or supporting your preferred charity.

Currently, you may already be doing these activities and even tracking some of them on your watches, phones, apps and calendars — even for tax returns. In one place, E2E will track and provide behavioral nudges to encourage more frequent, consistent or better behaviors. Meanwhile, E2E sees you get rewarded for these actions with even more everyday activities you love through to more coveted or exclusive experiences.

Think of E2E as offering the breadth of your favorite airline loyalty program without the walled-garden aspects and spending associated.

The power of experience-to-earn

An experience-to-earn model will create significant and sustainable benefits for members, businesses and nonprofits alike.

Living a storied life: The human element is the differentiator in the E2E ecosystem where activity, engagement, personalization, self-development and empathy drive the rewards structure compared with P2E’s virtual activities of gamer skill and strategy. In E2E, time is the currency of value, and people see value in time well spent on the range of everyday experiences through to more coveted and exclusive experiences that contribute to a storied life that people can’t wait to tell others about.

Fuelling holistic growth: E2E encourages a growth mindset, one of development where learning governs across many facets in the journey to become their best selves. Akin to how Pokémon GO added more than one dimension (interactivity, moving and exploring), E2E model plans to earn members, small businesses and nonprofits more holistic growth: personally, mentally, physically, socially, professionally and economically.

Improving emotional well-being: The more immersive, shared and memorable the E2E reward, the more dopamine created leading to a better psyche, especially after years of COVID-19 limiting IRL events, travel and sport.

Creating conscious communities: While Gen Z is proving to be the most self-aware generation, the pandemic has also deepened people’s understanding and compassion. An E2E model enables connection in more meaningful ways with one another, with their communities and with their world. This way experience rewards can reflect who they are and inspire them to become who they want to be. For example, rewarding eco-tourism activities.

Metaverse elevates IRL experiences: Rather than seeing metaverse events as cannibalizing IRL events, E2E will see them as complementary, fuelling people’s passion for existing interests and exposing them to new, unique and intimate experiences. For example, creating metaverse street parties could scale more intimate VIP experiences with artists.

Rewarding contribution to the community: Central to any NFT earning DNA are its economic benefits in the form of tokens, NFTs, annual percentage yields (APYs) or other ecosystem perks. A successful and sustainable E2E universe will reward members financially for holding, contributing, supporting and building the project.

Sustainable revenue and funding streams: An E2E NFT ecosystem will supercharge loyalty and traceability on-chain. For businesses, this opens up new revenue streams and new global audiences. For charities, nonprofits and NGOs, this opens up sustainable funding streams and enthusiasts of global causes to renew their positive change initiatives.

Experience is the catalyst for normies

Offering experiences that move people forward in their own way presents an exciting opportunity to bring normies into NFTs and keep them there with a range of E2E experiences.

Key to its longevity will be welcoming different groups (beyond just crypto Twitter) for different experiences and deriving different kinds of value that ultimately builds your best life, however unique to you. For me, that means thinking community-first to avoid a gatekeeper-first mentality of centralized experience brands.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Bianca Musico has a background in advertising and she is a co-founder at AM8, covering the creative developments of the project including creative production, community relations, product and communications strategy. She’s passionate about NFT technology and the power it has to evolve industries. She co-founded AussieMates with her brother after seeing the gap in projects successfully merging physical and digital experiences. She enjoys music, sport and performance art outside of work.