Mint - Flow Ecosystem Vol. 5

NFTs as the ultimate tool for customer engagement

Introduction:

NFTs are the hottest technology in the crypto market right now. The current bull market has created a massive demand for NFTs. It’s attracted a different demographic focused on art, collectables, and brands compared to other waves of adoption like defi. So far this year the volume of NFTs surged to an all-time high from $13.7 million in sales in Q1 to a whopping $2.5 billion in Q2. This has left many brands and investors excited about getting involved in the NFT market.

But what exactly is an NFT? In short, an NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital collectible that cannot be replicated. Brands can use these collectibles to engage with their audience in a unique consumer experience. NFT 1.0 was the 1-of-1 editions sold mainly to crypto enthusiasts via auctions. NFT 2.0 are accessible tokens sold at a lower fixed price that allow brands to engage with their audience at scale. The latter are the higher/more abundant editions.

And how exactly does a brand create and sell an NFT? The answer is by using an NFT platform; and here arrives Mint, a fully integrated suite of blockchain tools for brands to design and build their NFT experience.

We are big fans of this project and here is why. The team at Mint believes that the future of NFTs is higher editions sold at a lower price in an easier manner to purchase. They believe this will result in larger audiences. The future of NFTs includes dozens of applications in the rapidly growing sports and arts sectors. Mint is building strong partnerships in these sectors and exciting companies such as the NBA and Konig Gallery are leveraging Mint’s ecosystem to create NFTs and engage with their fans. Let’s take a look at Mint NFT.

Executive Summary:

• Team

  • Joseph Djenandji is Mint’s CEO. Joseph founded LOST iN City Guides and has advised luxury brands such as Schumacher, Diptyque and Byredo. He also has deep expertise in product development and technology and has extensive experience working with Shopify and Stripe. Djenandji holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and a Masters from HEC.

  • Matthew Balazsi is Mint’s CTO and he previously founded Medical Parachute, a company providing machine learning, analysis, and data storage services to medical researchers. Balazsi has built dApps in the blockchain space and he studied Computer Vision (MENG) at McGill University in Montreal.

• Financials

  • Revenue = undisclosed % of NFT sales

  • Revenue model is similar to a payment provider

  • They may be looking to raise a round of financing  

• Strategic Partnerships

  • NBA

  • Chicago Bulls

  • Charlotte Hornets

  • Konig Gallery

  • MISA Art Fair

  • Flow Blockchain

  • Shopify

  • Stripe

  • Paypal

  • Blocto

Product Overview:

Inspired by CryptoKitties, Mint launched in 2019 and initially provided a way for art galleries to sell visual art, which at the time was still sold in USB sticks. Mint was originally built on the Ethereum blockchain and the founders made the strategic decision to move the project and continue building their platform on the Flow blockchain. Today, Mint is a fully integrated suite of blockchain tools where sports teams such as the Chicago Bulls engage with their audience in an immersive experience as fans interact with NFTs.

Mint solves an important problem. Commercializing NFTs directly to consumers is hard. Available solutions in the market are either too expensive or surrender most of the value to third parties. For example, creating an end-to-end NFT experience requires technical know-how, takes at least a year to develop, resulting in high costs. There is also the problem of using third party platforms, which capture most of the value and deprive brands from owning the customer relationship and these platforms don’t target mainstream consumers, which are the largest share of the target market.  

Mint is different from other NFT platform offerings in that it provides total control of the NFT experience. It enables merchants to easily create store fronts in Shopify where customers can purchase NFTs with traditional payment methods. Mint hosts a merchant branded wallet where customers can access their NFTs with their emails. Mint also enables customers to sell their NFTs directly from their wallets by providing access to a secondary market.

Other benefits of Mint include giving companies the opportunity to create NFTs in a brand safe environment. Mint doesn’t aggregate NFTs from different sellers and does not cross-reference brands through an aggregated marketplace. The merchant controls their storefront and their merchandising. Another benefit is that companies also own the customer relationship throughout the entire process. Merchants get to own and develop a direct relationship with their customers. This allows brands to engage with their audience on a recurring basis.

Conclusion:

Overall, Mint is a platform where brands can create a fully branded environment to sell NFTs and launch branded marketplaces. This gives collectors an immersive experience as they interact with drops, buy and sell in the marketplace, and deepen their relationships with the brand. Mint is a solid NFT platform built by a talented team of tech entrepreneurs experienced in building products. Already with high profile partners in sports and in the arts sectors, we expect to see big things coming from Mint. Stay tuned.