Written with Clemens Wan, senior technical architect at ConsenSys.

By now you’ve probably already heard of token gating, the new Web3 primitive that allows you to gate and gain access to experiences in both the digital and physical world based on your digital assets — tokens and NFTs alike. Think of it as a Web3-native authorization or access control method. For the ins-and-outs of setting up a token gate, see our last blog post here.

Now that you know what it is, and you’re equipped with the tools to implement it, the fun part begins: time to create! And what’s truly powerful about token gating as an access control method is the ability for permissionless innovation and interoperability — ie. enabling multi-player ecommerce. Our aim here is to surface a few possibilities, from fairly straightforward use cases to ones that completely change the game through the interplay of different entities.

30 Ways to Token Gate

All the following examples are structured in the same way, starting with an asset that we own in our wallets and resulting in something we can get access to. Some are purely hypothetical, while others are very much real and accessible today!

1. If I have a subscription NFT (similar to substack), then I can read my favorite author’s newsletter. When I’ve gotten the value I want out of the membership, I can choose to resell it in a secondary market.
2. If I have a minimum threshold of social tokens, then I can join that community’s Discord, else I’m redirected to a marketplace for purchasing these social tokens.
3. If I have a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, I can get access to Apefest and early access to fungible token sales or airdrops of $APE coin.
4. If I have 5 $FWB tokens, I can get access to the Friends with Benefits Discord server.
5. If I have a community moderator role-based NFT, then I am given special speaker rights access to DAO-hosted community calls on Discord.
6. If I have a Crypto Punk, I can purchase a limited-edition Tiffany’s Punk pendant — coming with both a physical and digital version.
7. If I have a Crypto Club Global membership pass, I can get access to a private members club dedicated to crypto entrepreneurship.
8. If I have the Coachella NFT, then I own a lifetime festival pass with extra benefits of in-person events and access to additional NFTs.
9. If I have a CloneX NFT, I can forge it into a metaverse-ready avatar — with access to RTFKT’s metaverse platform, and get access to future RTFKT drops.
10. If I have an Adidas Into the Metaverse NFT, I get access to a special edition merch drop and can trade my NFT in for a new one.
11. My new Adidas NFT gets me access to Adidas’ metaverse platform, with experiences unlocking over time.
12. If I have a Steve Aoki A0K1VERSE NFT, I get access to free Steve Aoki concerts, exclusive merch, and access to members-only events.
13. If I own a RTFKT sneaker NFT, I get a physical twin in the real world.
14. If I own a Flyfish Club NFT, I get exclusive access to private dinners around the world hosted by famous chefs.
15. If I have a conference NFT pass, then I can get access to that conference in-person and also access recordings and parallel online events. This pass may look a lot like a meetup or evite scannable code.
16. If I have connected a soulbound token from a platform to my Twitter or Google account then all accounts logged in with these credentials can view promotional access to partnered service providers (e.g. a Twitter PFP from a specific collection also gives me special access)
17. If I have a membership NFT to an Investment DAO, then I can prove I’m an accredited investor and I can access exclusive investments that are properly registered.
18. If I have purchased an NFT for access to pre-sale products (e.g. kickstarter fundraising in web3) then the product can provide me with exclusive updates and distribute the specific products to users once finished.
19. If I have a time-locked NFT using Hedgey’s NFT wrapper, then I can claim fungible tokens off of the NFT after the NFT’s time-lock vesting period has been met.
20. If I have a Damien Hirst The Currency NFT, then I can choose whether to receive a physical painting of the purchased artwork while burning the digital NFT or burn the physical painting and keep the digital NFT.
21. If I have an NFT representing a deed to a section of metaverse land, then I am able to build properties on top of these designated areas
22. If I have a Crypto Barista NFT, I can access discounts at Coffee Bros as well as many other independent roasters in the US, both online and offline.
23. If I submit an NFT to a design marketplace, then a designer can build my NFT attributes into a video game or associated IP with different participating platforms.
24. If I have the previous collection’s NFT by the artist, then I get early access to this artists’ next collection drop.
25. If I have the NFT, then I can change it with a single digital paint stroke. Each new transfer to a new owner would allow for additional updates to the canvas referenced by the NFT. See: https://www.jacksonnft.xyz/
26. If I created an NFT of a blogpost or video (e.g. mirror.xyz), then I can create a provenance trail of references to my content and receive royalties or automatic credit.
27. If I have a “digital twin” NFT, I can use it for redeeming a physical item or a number of available assets (e.g. video) proving the creation of the NFT.
28. If I own the NFT, then I could also own the intellectual property rights embedded within the NFT. Depending on the IP language or overlay, this may mean I have rights to create posters, t-shirts, or show the NFT in metaverses.
29. If I have an NFT in a highly exclusive collection, then I can request someone from the collection to leverage their influence for amplifying your messages/content. These are usually organized within the structure of DAO membership, but contacting the community in the same NFT collection could also signal exclusivity.
30. If I own a TURN NFT, then I can redeem the TURN tokens for an audit package. If my dev schedule is delayed, then I can sell the TURN NFT at a higher premium for immediate usage and flip to buy another slot in line.

Ok, we couldn’t stop ourselves at 30! Bonus:

1. If I own an NFT, then I can submit it to a famous artist for a direct signature. The NFT would technically be more valuable if previously owned or reviewed by an Influencer.
2. If I own a dynamic gaming NFT, I can play a particular game.
3. And when I play this game, the NFT evolves. As it evolves, its metadata changes, updating the NFT’s traits in the game, and that gives me access to better in-game weapons, which are also NFTs.
4. Not only do I get access to better in-game assets, but those assets can unlock new parts of the map in the game (e.g. a key unlocking a portal).
5. And that’s only the parts of the map that the game developer built. But this is Web3, which means that other creators can join in on the fun and create and sell new in-game assets that unlock access to their own worlds they’ve created. The possibilities are endless.

Have any other ideas? Send them to us! And if you’re looking for the right tools to start token-gating, we have you covered.

About Clemens and Lists of 30:

Clemens Wan is a senior technical architect at ConsenSys who has been in the blockchain/crypto space since 2014. He loves writing lists of 30 as a process for analyzing different random topics: www.listsof30.com

About 3mint:

3mint is the Web3 toolkit for brands, with Enterprise-grade APIs and SDKs that enable brands to build any Web3 product or experience at scale—without any of the complexity associated with blockchains. Get in touch here!