NFT Gating, Easy Decentralised Alternative OnlyFans
Episode by Peter Bui on March 12th, 2023
We will explore NFT gating and the possibility of creating a decentralized membership website using blockchain and NFTs by implementing NFT gating. We will delve into the benefits of using such a platform and show you how you can create your own membership & NFT gated website where you have complete control over the content and revenue.
OnlyFans is a massive platform where content creators can build up their brand and membership while making a significant profit off their content on the platform. However, the downside is that the platform has full control over your revenue stream. Additionally, in 2021, the banking sector became a regulator in the adult entertainment space and announced they would not process transactions for the platform, which could have killed off a massive amount of the creator community.
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Decentralized NFT Gating Websites
Creating a decentralized powered website would solve this issue. With a decentralized powered by Web3, you would have full control of the platform, and there would be no restrictions from third-party payment processors. This method of creating a platform can be used to replace other membership sites such as Patreon, Buy Me A Coffee and many more. Using a simple paywall method with NFTs, you can create an NFT gated website where you can restrict content on your website and only give access to those that are holding a particular NFT access to the members area.
Other websites that provide memberships for content creators:
Benefits of Creating a NFT Gated Membership Website
Payment Method
You can accept crypto payments via the sale of the NFT itself. Many platforms can do credit card processing as well as accepting various cryptocurrencies. Paying with cryptocurrencies means that transactions are anonymous, and you do not have to explain these weird credit card transactions that appear on a monthly basis.
Privacy in Payments
Since payments can be done in crypto for the various NFTs that will allow access to the website, this will not appear on credit card statements and provide a level of anonymity for the user making the payment. It is important to note that crypto payments are stored publicly on the blockchain and can be traced with a bit of work and effort and possibly be identified if traces are left online but it isn’t as obvious as a credit card statement.
Exclusive Community
You can create an exclusive community around your content. Most NFT collections have a limited number of NFTs that are minted as a part of that collection.
Secondary Market & Royalty Payments
Some people might actually mint more than one, and then trade these on a secondary marketplace. These marketplaces can also pay you royalties each time one of these NFTs sells. This creates additional revenue, so not only are you getting revenue from the initial sale of the NFT to gain access to the website, but you are also gaining extra revenue as these NFTs are traded, and memberships trade between different people.
Downsides to Your Own NFT Gating Website
The major downside to setting up your own membership website on the blockchain is that it does take more technical knowledge and maintenance to keep it going. Where other third party platforms will manage the website and pay out creators, the self-hosted and self-managed approach, although a lot more profitable, will usually require the skills of someone that can manage and update the WordPress website along with implement the cool and unique features for CardanoPress and what NFT gating can offer.
How to Create a Decentralized Web3 NFT Gating Version of OnlyFans
We will use a platform called WordPress to create the website. WordPress powers over 40% of the internet, and many WordPress developers and designers worldwide make it easy to hire one to build a website for you.
WordPress is so easy you can drag and drop elements around it and create a website quickly.
We will also use another plugin called CardanoPress and a couple of other utilities such as BlockFrost, which allows CardanoPress to talk to the blockchain, and NMKR to mint the NFTs, and JPG.store to buy, sell and trade the NFTs itself.
This is a recommended setup that we have been using for many of the NFT Gating websites we have built for other clients:
- WordPress, self-hosted (Core content management system)
- CardanoPress (Allows for NFT gating and blockchain connection)
- UAM (Manages access groups)
- User Roles (Create & manage users types)
- Elementor (Drag and Drop page builder)
- Elementor Pro (Extensive features)
- WordFence (Security)
- Hello Elementor (Base Theme)
We’re using a simple shared hosting environment with our provider SiteGround which is available to many locations around the world.
To demonstrate how to create a decentralized membership website, we created a website called Only Friends. It’s a collection of various AI-generated Mecha pilots, and you can see that we have access to this particular gallery. When you log out of the site, you are presented with a connect button to connect your web 3 blockchain wallet to the website.
You can buy one of the passes, and if you click on one of the posts, you’ll see that you don’t have access at the moment because you’re not connected to the website with your wallet.
Connected a wallet with the right assets will give you access to all of the content that is assigned to that particular policy and role.
Our demo site is live and maintained for any references needed from this video and tutorial. The example NFTs can be purchased on the secondary markets for testing purposes. We ask that they are sold again on the secondary market to allow others to get access to the demo site when needed. More will be created manually over time to try and keep the floor price at around 10 ADA per piece.
Live Demo, Alternative OnlyFans NFT Gating Website
Secondary Markets, Assets for NFT Gating
Conclusion
Creating a decentralized membership website using blockchain and NFTs is a viable option for content creators who want complete control over their content and revenue. It is easy to create an NFT gated website where you can restrict content on your website and only give access to those that are holding a particular NFT.
You can accept crypto payments via the sale of the NFTs and receive all the payments and royalties as membership pass NFTs are traded.
It is so easy to create one of these websites its well work investigating and seeing where it can all fit within your business model.
Be sure to check out our other podcast episodes, all about Cardano.
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