Saying “NFTs mark a new chapter for digital commerce,” credit card firm offers 7-point guide to incorporating non-fungible tokens into business.
Visa called its newly acquired CryptoPunk a museum piece for its collection of commerce artifacts, but the $150,000 NFT was mainly used to pitch its services as a crypto consultant.
The purchase of the mohawk-sporting, green-eyed female CryptoPunk No. 7610 was accompanied by an interview in which Visa Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield said the company thinks non-fungible tokens “will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce.”
More specifically, Sheffield said, “we want to help brands and businesses better understand NFTs and how they might be harnessed for customer and fan engagement.”
NFTs are blockchain tokens that are unique and can hold a wide variety of data, including digital media.
Pointing to industries such as ticketing, gaming, music, art — anything that ships digital goods — Sheffield said Visa “can envision a future in which your crypto address becomes as important as your mailing address.”
Pitching Clients
To that end, Sheffield said, Visa today released a whitepaper, “NFTs: Engaging Today’s Fans in Crypto and Commerce.”
By offering “actionable guidance on how to evaluate and scale NFT opportunities,” Sheffield said he believes Visa can help businesses use NFTs to build their brands and create “customer and fan engagement.”
The whitepaper points to two more areas worth looking at in the short and medium term.
The second is customer relationship management. This turns the standard view of cryptocurrencies as a privacy tool that can keep users’ identities hidden on its head.
As NFTs are trackable on the blockchain, businesses will be able to track their goods to specific wallet addresses, it said.
“NFTs can open unique segmentation and engagement strategies based on trackable factors related to the NFTs owned/purchased,” Visa added.
While that would be especially true if the seller knows who the buyer is, the public nature and transparency of blockchain technology means the type of NFTs a wallet holds can be scrutinized.
This would allow companies to “paint a picture of that consumer without revealing their identity,” the whitepaper said. “This can help inform marketing strategies and how to engage with the consumer in an ongoing manner.”
Third, NFTs could open up new revenue streams, notably from exclusive and limited-edition digital goods with built-in smart contracts that allow the creator to earn a royalty from each resale. Which is already in widespread use by artists selling digital works on NFTs.
Visa unveiled a seven-part strategy for businesses looking to integrate NFTs. This starts with identifying a use case and runs through ways those NFTs are minted, stored and distributed.
“Looking ahead, we’re working on some new concepts and partnerships that support NFT buyers, sellers, and creators,” Sheffield said. “We look forward to sharing more in the months ahead.”
