Frequently Asked Questions

NEARCON 2023 is bringing together 5,000+ delegates seeking to exploring the power and possibilities of the NEAR & Web3 ecosystem. NEAR Ecosystem’s flagship event is organized by NEAR Protocol, a decentralized application platform designed to make it easier for developers to build blockchain-based applications. 

Open Loyalty is a concept based on innovational, permission less and decentralized principles, an inversion of a traditional, hierarchical and centralized loyalty program. Where web2 loyalty programs may deprecate and lessen over time, Open Loyalty is continuous – allowing anyone, anywhere to offer a reward, benefit or opportunity to verified ticket holders or members of a brand. Open Loyalty also creates a triple value exchange whereby the brand, partner and user all benefit. For a brand, Open Loyalty creates a utility layer to engage and interact with partners and users. For partners, it enables them to connect with a brand direct and its users. And for users, it enables them to seamless claim perks. 

Perks Marketplaces are a subset of Open Loyalty. This particular open loyalty marketplace was setup and created for NEAR Con. It allows ticket attendees to use their ticket to do more than simply attend; it allows them claim rewards, benefits and opportunities. By using attestation technology (an off-chain token), ticket attendees can activate their attestation via a unique embedded URL which contains the attestation and directs them to this marketplace. Upon clicking the URL, the attestation will be stored and users can seamlessly begin to claim the different perks available. All of this happens without needing a web3 wallet.

An attestation is a digital record that is cryptographically signed by an individual, company, or group to verify the identity, credentials, or other information about an individual, organization, or entity. These attestations can be used for a variety of purposes, such as verifying identity, building reputation, and conducting voting processes.

Attestations are crucial because they offer a means of establishing trust and credibility online. In the absence of face-to-face interaction or physical presence, it can be challenging to determine the accuracy or reliability of information. Attestations provide third-party validation and a cryptographically signed confirmation of the authenticity of a piece of information, making it easier for others to trust and depend on that information.

Attestations work by leveraging cryptographic signatures and public key infrastructure (PKI). When an individual, company, or organization creates an attestation, they sign it with their private key. This signature can then be verified by anyone with access to the corresponding public key, ensuring the authenticity of the attestation.

A ticket attestation is a cryptographic proof issued by event organizer to ‘attest’ that you are a genuine ticket holder. Ticket attestations allows the permissionless verification of a ticket, for granting access or other privileges/rights to a genuine ticket holder. Ticket attestations can be used by any service provider to validate that you are ticket holder and integrate their services.

Attestations can be used by both web2 (websites, applications) and web3 (smart contracts, apps) services, allowing for universal integrations. One of the key benefits of attestations is that, it can allow for these universal integrations between any web services while preserving privacy of the user. The web-services only need to know that you are a genuine ticket holder, without having the knowledge about what is in your wallet or your identity.

Traditionally a ticket will only have a single-use purpose; it could be used to enter a cinema, or to attend a concert event and is almost exclusively used by the event organisers. Now with ticket attestations, tickets can be used by both the ticket issuer and 3rd party service providers creating a triple value exchange between the conference, third-party partners and the ticket attendee.

As ticket attestations can be verified permissionlessly by anyone, it can be used for a variety of different use cases. Any third-party who wants to connect with the ticket holders can use ticket attestation, extending the utility of the original ticket. The use cases can range from signing up to acceleration programs, claiming developer credits, minting a collectible, redeeming a discount and more.

No it is not an NFT. Attestations can be made on-chain or off-chain but are not NFTs. On-chain attestations are stored directly on Ethereum, while off-chain attestations are stored outside of the blockchain, often in a decentralized storage solution like IPFS or just in the browser as a URL hash. For this marketplace, all of our attestations are off-chain enhancing user privacy, do not require ‘gas’ fees and improve scalability.

The ticket attestations are sent as unique urls via email. Event organisers do not have to know your wallet address and since you don’t hold an NFT, your wallet cannot be identified as an event attendee’s wallet.

Moreover, using smart token enablement technology like TokenNegotiator to recognize attestations, one can can preserve the privacy of both a user’s wallet and email address to the web-services that validate you as a ticket holder. If NFTs are used, all the information your wallet information will have to be shared with the service provider at minimum.

Attestations are usable by both web2 (websites, applications) and web3 (smart contracts, apps) systems. Attestations are also blockchain agnostic and can be bound with web2 identity such as an email address, Twitter ID and can even be exported to Apple and Google wallets. In addition, attestations can also be converted into NFT, on any chain, at any point of time.

Anyone can permissionlessly authenticate genuine ticket holders in two different ways:

1. Fill out your company details here

2. Reach out to the event organizer or email sayhi@smarttokenlabs.com and the team will send over requirements to create your gated partner page.

3. Integrate TokenNegotiator, an NPM package and configure it to read the attestation for this marketplace. You can explore TokenNegotiator here

Smart Layer makes it easy for large Web2 companies to improve customer experience and business efficiency through tokenization, unlocking the next wave of digital transformation.

Smart Layer removes the friction from Web3 by enabling Web2 identities (Social/Email) and existing applications (Apple Wallet/Google Wallet) to hold and interact with tokens, removing friction and making it possible for Web2 business and consumers to embrace Web3.

Smart Layer enables the creation of Smart Tokens. Where traditional tokens function as assets and proof of ownership, Smart Tokens function as mini dApps carrying business logic, and a programmable interface, enabling tokens to become composable and portable applications opening up a new world of use cases.

Click here to learn more about Smart Layer