Engaging Today's Fans in Crypto and Commerce
Engaging Today's Fans in Crypto and Commerce
Engaging Today's Fans in Crypto and Commerce
1. Executive Summary
2. What is an NFT?
3. Unlocking New Commerce and Engagement Opportunities
4. How to Integrate NFTs:
1. Identify the NFT use case
2. Determine the appropriate blockchain
3. Mint the NFTs
4. Decide how to store digital assets in a long-term sustainable way
5. Store and access NFTs securely and easily
6. Distribute across an applicable marketplace
7. Identify additional opportunities to engage fans
5. Considerations Associated with Change
6. Visa - The Trusted Engine of Commerce
7. Conclusion
NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY
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on such information. The Information contained herein is not intended as investment or legal advice, and readers are encouraged to seek the advice
of a competent professional where such advice is required.
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purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 2
Executive Summary
and definitive pause on live sports and 1. Identify the NFT use case
6. Distribute across an
applicable marketplace
NFTs are unique tokenized representations of digital files
7. Identify additional
that are exchanged on public blockchains. With more than opportunities to engage fans
$1.5B in NFT transactions generated in the first quarter of
20211, NFTs are gaining momentum through collections
of digital-first memorabilia from fan-favorite athletes and
memorable moments in games.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 3
What is an NFT? To understand NFTs, it is important to first
understand cryptocurrencies.
Like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are issued on a blockchain, and are used to designate
ownership of a certain asset. Each NFT is tied to some unique data, typically a
digital content file of some kind (or reference thereto) and governed by a “smart
contract.”* The process of converting a media file into a non-fungible token is
referred to as “minting” an NFT, and, just like cryptocurrency, the NFT is written to
the applicable blockchain database.
Unlike cryptocurrency, NFTs are not fungible, meaning each NFT is unique and not
interchangeable with another NFT. In other words, while one bitcoin is equivalent
to another bitcoin, no two NFTs are the same. And, just as with bitcoins, the
ownership record of NFTs is recorded on a blockchain database.
Because NFTs are new, there is limited information on how existing laws and
regulations apply to NFTs. Despite these uncertainties, NFTs are an interesting
medium for creators. For the first time, content on the internet in the form of an
NFT can be definitively owned by a specific person independent of a centralized
intermediary, and this is unlocking exciting opportunities for digital commerce
and engagement.
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purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 4
Unlocking New Fans today yearn for digital community.
Commerce and They want to build stronger bonds with the sports teams and personalities that
Engagement they love, and they are willing to pay for it.
Opportunities Sports businesses are being challenged to find ways to harness the latest
technology and deliver an experience that meets the behaviors of their fans.
Even more so with the limitations of COVID-19, athletes are turning to technology
to engage their fans. An estimated $18B of global sports revenue has been lost
during the pandemic2, further driving the need to diversify revenue and focus on
technology to reposition businesses for growth opportunities and to capture the
attention of fans.
NFTs appeal to collectors, fans, teams, leagues, and talent, amongst others.
They have become a great way for individuals and businesses to
capitalize on unique assets, engage fans, and potentially generate
revenue, while staying ahead of the curve and keeping pace with innovations
in commerce. Because the opportunities for growth with NFTs are still evolving,
businesses should define what their end goals are around NFTs. Some of the
common ways brands are using NFTs to grow their business include:
Fan Engagement —
NFTs can be much more than a collectible or piece of art, and savvy brands are
recognizing that the most successful and long-term-relevant NFTs will be ones
that have ongoing value and utility. For example, NFTs can better connect fans to
their favorite teams or brands by offering voting rights to team decisions, access to
exclusive offers, and the ability to earn rewards.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 5
How to There are seven steps to consider for integrating NFTs
Integrate NFTs successfully into a business. Having infrastructure partners
that are flexible and able to support multiple use cases,
marketplaces, and blockchains through these seven steps is
important in considering NFTs. Many of the solutions today
are vertically integrated; in the future, the expectation is
that there will be more flexible enterprise solutions.
Collectibles:
The digital scarcity that NFTs enable is a natural fit for collectibles or assets whose
value is dependent on there being limited supply. Some of the earliest NFT use
cases include CryptoKitties3 and CryptoPunks4 (10,000 unique pixelated characters),
with individual CryptoPunk NFTs like Covid Alien selling for $11.75 million5. More
recently, popular brands are creating NFT-based collectibles, like NBA Top Shot™6
moments, which are digital basketball cards, but instead of static images, these
NFTs contain video highlight moments from NBA games.
Art:
NFTs enable artists to sell their work in its natural form factor as opposed to
having to print and sell pieces of art. Additionally, unlike with physical art, the
artist can receive revenue upon secondary sales or auctions, thereby ensuring
they are recognized for their original creations in subsequent transactions. NFT
marketplaces devoted to art-based NFTs, such as Nifty Gateway7, sold/auctioned
over $100M of digital art in March 2021 (Crypto Art, n.d.).
Gaming:
NFTs also provide significant opportunity for gaming thanks to the ownership
opportunities they introduce. While people spend billions of dollars on digital
gaming assets, like buying skins or costumes in Fortnite, the consumers do not
necessarily own these assets. NFTs would allow gamers playing crypto-based
games to own assets, earn assets in-game, port them out of the game, and sell the
assets elsewhere, such as an open marketplace.
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purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 6
2. Determine the Selecting the appropriate blockchain requires
evaluating tradeoffs across multiple dimensions
appropriate including throughput, transaction cost, existing
blockchain ecosystem of applications, and degree of
decentralization. Additionally, while a business
may start creating NFTs on one blockchain, there
are likely to be many other blockchains that
support NFTs in the future and they may want to
create NFTs on multiple blockchains. The ideal
infrastructure partner would support multiple
blockchains and enable interoperability of assets
between blockchains.
Flow9 is another blockchain that is gaining traction for NFTs. While it is smaller
than Ethereum, it has notable mainstream brands building platforms, like
NBA Top Shot™6. Flow has been built to increase throughput and reduce the
challenges of high gas costs through an energy-efficient blockchain transaction
validation approach. Given that it is still in early stages there is a more limited
developer and application ecosystem. NBA Top Shot™ is currently the primary
project on the blockchain.
One of the greatest sources of value of a blockchain comes from attracting a broad
set of users and developers. This helps to support and further decentralize the
network by running the blockchain software on various computers and add value by
building capabilities on the blockchain. Ethereum has an incredibly robust developer
ecosystem, and blockchains like Flow are getting more third-party adoption. Although
it would be possible to create proprietary blockchain software for the sole purpose of
storing NFTs, doing so would limit the ability to realize these benefits.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 7
3. Mint After determining what content to use, the NFT needs to
be created, or minted. To mint an NFT, a cryptographic key
the is used to create a token on the blockchain that represents
NFTs a piece of digital media. Important characteristics, like the
name, description, and the edition size can be included
within that token. Once an NFT is minted, it is immortalized
on the blockchain. It is important to have a minting platform
that gives flexibility and control over the features of the NFT.
There are several platforms that can help with the minting of NFTs. It is important
to note that the ecosystem for this is in its infancy – the majority of platforms like
OpenSea and Rarible are positioned for any creator, often including brand-new
creators, but there are platforms focused on supporting brands and larger creators
– Bitski has done drops with the likes of Adidas and Levi’s, while Gary Vaynerchuk’s
VeeFriends drop was on Nameless – and many more are coming into the space.
In creating NFTs, companies are well-advised to find providers who will mint NFTs
according to custom smart contracts so that companies have as much control as
possible over the parameters of the NFT, including provenance, attributes of the
NFT, and storage of the underlying media asset.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 8
4. Decide how to NFTs are either minted to contain the digital
content file itself or to contain a reference to
store digital the digital content. Accordingly, it is important
assets in a to understand how the digital content being
long-term distributed by the NFT is being stored. Many
of the existing platforms that creators can use
sustainable way to create NFTs will host the media files through
either decentralized or centralized storage
methods described below:
Decentralized Storage
When storage files are spread across a distributed network, there is no
dependence on a single entity. Developers of these peer-to-peer storage
protocols, such as Arweave, offer varying degrees of storage permanence for
different price points.
Centralized Storage
There is also the option to use storage from a central provider like many well-
known cloud storage providers today. In this model, the NFT marketplace
provides the service of storing the digital content through its relationships with
its cloud providers. There is a dependency on the provider and the NFT creator
to continue to host the asset – if the media is no longer hosted, the NFT will not
point to anything.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 9
5. Store and access Similar to cryptocurrencies, NFTs are stored
in a crypto wallet – the digital equivalent
NFTs securely to an address. There are several crypto
and easily wallets available, including wallets from
top exchanges that manage assets on
the consumer’s behalf to wallets that give
consumers direct control over their assets.
To maximize the addressable market, it is
important to be able to integrate with many
of these wallets, so that NFTs can be delivered
to a maximum number of digital addresses.
There are two primary models for wallets – ‘custodial’ or ‘non-custodial’. Consumers
that interact with crypto often prefer the ‘non-custodial’ model, as it gives them full
control over their assets. As an example, platforms like SuperRare10 and OpenSea11
integrate non-custodial wallets, which means the consumer is responsible for
securely storing the private key that allows them to access and to trade their NFTs.
Each of these platforms has connectivity to specific third-party crypto wallets that
provide encryption and security to users.
By contrast, including a custodial solution can help provide a broader audience easy
access to a business’s platform. If using custodial solutions, it is important that the
solution is from a trusted brand with strong security, as it will be responsible for
safekeeping the NFTs on behalf of the consumer.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 10
6. Distribute across Another important consideration is how to
distribute NFTs.
an applicable
marketplace Factors for evaluating NFT marketplaces
include: flexibility and control over the
branding of the user experience; whether the
marketplace allows users to purchase NFTs
with fiat currency (dollars) or requires users
to use cryptocurrency for purchases (for
mainstream appeal, it is important to accept
card payments); and the general audience of
the NFT marketplace.
Below are some common examples of NFT marketplaces in the ecosystem today
(although the NFT economy is evolving rapidly and Visa expects the landscape of
marketplaces to do so as well).
Open Marketplaces: These are broad marketplaces where anyone can create
and sell NFTs. These platforms require cryptocurrencies to buy and sell NFTs.
These platforms are ‘non-custodial’, so consumers must hold and store the
assets themselves.
Existing Closed NFT Marketplaces: These platforms use their own storefront and
branding, but will custody the NFTs on behalf of the consumers. These marketplaces
often have fiat currency on-and-off ramps and accept card payments and enable
withdrawals via ACH or Wire.
Lastly, when intellectual property concerns relating to the digital content stored
in the NFT are paramount, companies have collaborated to establish their own
marketplaces that allow them to control the initial sale of the NFT, secondary
marketplace, and unique features to incentivize keeping the NFTs on this platform.
Setting this kind of platform up requires engagement of specialized technology
vendors who can help set up and run the platform, which can be very expensive.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 11
7. Identify Today, selling art and collectibles is the
primary use cases for NFTs. While these
additional use cases can generate revenue, there are
opportunities untapped strategic opportunities that may
to engage fans be realized.
For example, one exciting aspect of NFTs is their composability. As the ecosystem
develops, NFTs can be designed in a way that spans multiple use cases. This long-
term utility enables deeper fan engagement and ultimately creates more valuable
NFTs that generate additional revenue on secondary sales or auctions. This area is
rich for potential and can span multiple phases of the customer experience:
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 12
Considerations Innovation, particularly in cutting edge areas, is not
Associated something that can be achieved on autopilot. NFTs are no
exception, with a range of strategic considerations:
with Change:
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 13
Visa - The Visa has long served as a trusted engine of global
commerce, enabling the secure and reliable movement
Trusted Engine of trillions of dollars between individuals, businesses, and
of Commerce governments in over 200 countries and territories. Now,
with the rise of crypto, Visa is committed to developing
leading-edge emerging technologies at the speed of
culture to deliver on its mission: enabling individuals,
businesses, and economies to thrive.
Credentials Everywhere
Visa is working with 50 of the leading crypto platforms to make it simple and
convenient to convert and spend crypto with a Visa card, at any of the 70 million
merchants worldwide that accept Visa.
While crypto platforms and wallets have traditionally been used to store
cryptocurrencies, now they are also storing NFT collectibles and art. Accessibility
through multiple wallets will be critical as new wallets and marketplaces pop up.
It is unlikely there will be any single ubiquitous crypto wallet, and marketplaces
will need to provide consumers multiple options when connecting their wallets.
Visa’s growing network of crypto wallets is well positioned to help enable this open
access and optionality.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 14
Crypto Value-added Services
Discover:
Uncover trends in digital currency and
explore growth opportunities
Collaborate:
Research, design, and test solution concepts
for new digital currency technologies using
human-centered design
Build:
Develop and pilot proofs of concepts with
payment engineering experts
Blockchain Research
As a leader in digital payments, Visa has the responsibility to lead and contribute to
discussions shaping commerce, including the crypto and NFT space. Visa’s research
team has been exploring the science of blockchain technology for several years and
their work has yielded several promising innovations. These include ways to enable
new forms of crypto commerce in a safe and seamless manner such as offline digital
currency transactions and new forms of privacy preserving cryptography.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 15
Conclusion
Commerce is evolving, and innovations
such as crypto and NFTs are likely to
shape sports, entertainment, and other
communities going forward. NFTs
represent a deeper and more innovative
way for fans to engage and potential
new revenue streams for organizations.
However, there are many considerations
to take into account when integrating
NFTs because it is a new space.
Visa was built on the vision of electronic enablement of
moving money. By connecting its network of thousands
of financial institutions, millions of merchants, and billions
of consumers to existing networks Visa strives to enable
connections to new crypto and blockchain networks
offering greater choice, and enabling access, working to
create a future where everyone has the opportunity to
thrive. Through this global connectivity, and the research,
partnerships, and product development Visa is driving in
the crypto space, Visa is laying the groundwork to enable
adoption of NFTs and other assets in the future.
record-1-5-billion-transaction-volume-
evaluate NFT opportunities. in-q1-2021
2
https://www.sportico.com/business/
finance/2021/sports-nft-sales-
crypto-1234629061/
3
https://www.cryptokitties.co/
4
https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks
⁵ https://www.barrons.com/articles/covid-
alien-cryptopunk-sells-for-10-million-in-
sothebys-sale-01623336573
⁶ https://nbatopshot.com/
⁷ https://niftygateway.com/
⁸ https://cointelegraph.com/news/focus-on-
nfts-and-interoperability-push-icon-icx-ark-
and-axie-infinity-higher
⁹ https://www.onflow.org/
10
https://superrare.com/
11
https://opensea.io/
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 16
Glossary of Terms
Bitcoin: NFT (Non-Fungible Token): OpenSea:
A type of digital currency that Tokens that are tied to and/ The first and largest marketplace,
is created, distributed, traded, or represent ownership of an similar to eBay for NFTs, with
and stored with the use of a underlying media asset. millions of assets organized into
decentralized ledger system, hundreds of categories for user-
known as a blockchain. Flow: owned digital goods, including
A blockchain that allows collectibles, gaming items, digital
Blockchain: developers to create and trade art, and domain names.
A system of recording information a particular type of digital asset
in a way that is decentralized and called a non-fungible token. Tokenization:
makes it difficult or impossible to The process of turning a
change or hack. Fungibility: meaningful piece of data, such
Something that is replaceable or as an account number, into a
Custodial: exchangeable. (e.g., gold or silver) random string of characters called
A trusted entity stores/ holds a token that has no meaningful
cryptographic keys that provide Blockchain Transaction Fees: value if breached.
access to assets on behalf of Forms of payment to the miners
the consumer. or stakeholders who help operate Stablecoin:
the blockchain. A new class of cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrency: that attempts to offer price stability
A form of digital currency created NBA Top Shot™: and is backed by a reserve asset.
by solving a complex series of Home to officially licensed
cryptographic equations. Once NBA digital collectibles that SuperRare:
“minted”, the crypto exists on a can be bought, displayed, and A marketplace to collect and
blockchain and is decentralized, sold or auctioned through this trade unique, single-edition
meaning it is not controlled by a new platform. NBA Top Shot™ digital artworks.
singular entity the way all traditional “moments” celebrate epic game
currencies are. highlights, and include video, Smart Contract:
(e.g., Bitcoin and Ethereum) action shots, stats, and guaranteed Computer code that executes
authenticity of ownership. simple if/then functions.
Crypto Exchange:
A marketplace to buy and sell Nifty Gateway: Metaverse:
assets/currencies. (e.g., Coinbase) Started in 2017, the self-described A virtual-reality space in
“premier marketplace for Nifties” which users can interact with a
Ethereum: is home to some of the world’s computer-generated environment
A decentralized, open source top creators. and other users.
blockchain with smart
contract functionality. Non-custodial: API:
The consumer is responsible for A set of functions and procedures
Fiat Currency: storing the cryptographic keys allowing the creation of applications
A government-issued currency that control the tokens themselves. that access the features or data of
that is not backed by a commodity an operating system, application,
such as gold. Fiat money gives Non-Fungible or other service.
central banks control over the Something that is unique
economy because they can control and irreplaceable (e.g., White Label:
how much money is in circulation. autographed item). When a product or service
removes their brand and logo
Fintechs: from the end product and instead
Refers to the integration of uses the branding requested by
technology into offerings by the purchaser.
financial services companies in
order to improve their use and
delivery to consumers.
All brand names and logos are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification
purposes only, and do not imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa. 17