Moongate runs Taipei Blockchain Week with NFT gated tickets

Despite the recent fallout in the crypto industry and some of the negative connotations derived from speculation about non-fungible tokens (NFT), founders and developers of the new technology gathered last week at Taipei Blockchain Week to share some of the practical use cases and what Web3 and blockchain can bring to the table for the future.

For Web3 technology to really penetrate the Web2 space or generate mass adoption among users who don’t even know what blockchain is, it is important to make products more Web2 friendly, and in some cases companies may have to consider giving up certain elements of Web3 to provide a better user experience, said Jonathan Mui, CEO of Moongate.

Moongate is the Web3 startup responsible for Taipei Blockchain Week’s ticket sales. Mui said the team was burning the midnight oil to remove the complex process for participants to access their NFT-gated ticket to the event. The NFT ticket was a simple QR code sent to the participant’s inbox.

NFT-based ticketing and membership is the core business of Moongate. Mui said his team has been in talks with brands and businesses to help them build NFT-based membership without telling customers it’s NFT. Mui said, “the underlying technology of NFT is so strong and powerful that in the future people will just use it without knowing it.”

The NFT-based membership is a paradigm-changing tool that enables customers to actually own the membership. It is a transferable token that is open for transaction when customers decide to sell their membership and the rewards stored in their membership to someone else. That way, the membership becomes an asset, and customers spend money in the store to grow the tradable asset. Ultimately, NFT-based membership can not only increase user engagement, but also drive customer value, according to Mui.

For Web2 users to be able to board Web3, the necessary infrastructure has already been in place: email and phone numbers. With these personal identifications already integrated into people’s lives, people will soon be using Web3 technology in their everyday lives without even realizing it.

Going forward, it’s important for Moongate to iterate on the product-building process while figuring out how to integrate the new technology with legacy systems so it will require fewer steps and create less friction for Web2 users to get on board.

For example, Mui said when dealing with retail customers who still use the POS system, Moongate has to find a more realistic way to build the product, and sometimes they have to go back and adopt some of the Web2 approaches to make the product scalable and viable.

“As long as we’re able to reap the benefits that matter by using Web3, it doesn’t always have to be completely decentralized,” Mui said. Between Web2 and Web3 is a spectrum and Moongate works towards from one end to the other end of the spectrum.

Being in the NFT industry and grouped under the moniker “NFT”, startups like Moongate inevitably face skepticism from customers and outside the industry, overshadowed by the speculation and scandals surrounding NFTs and cryptos. Mui said that most of Moongate’s clients actually require them not to put NFT texts on their product.

But Mui and other Web3 founders remain optimistic. “It’s exciting to build a sustainable business on the technology,” Mui said, “We’re on the cusp of something very close to massive adoption of NFTs, and this is the real use of NFTs and blockchain, so I think we are fortunate to be able to generate revenue without having to rely on speculation.”