Discussion on the Application of Coupons in the NFT Field

1. Basic Concept of Coupons

Major e-commerce platforms widely use coupons, and their main purpose is to stimulate consumption and increase user engagement. Compared to directly issuing cash, coupons have the following advantages:

1. Scope of use limitations: Coupons usually have specific usage conditions, such as applicable platforms, product categories, etc., which can more precisely guide users to purchase target products.

2. Limited liquidity: Coupons are generally non-transferable and have almost no liquidity due to differences in consumer demand, with value only realized at the time of purchase.

3. Cost Delay: The cost of the coupon occurs when the user uses it, not when it is issued.

In the NFT environment, the effectiveness of coupons also depends on whether the NFT is a consumer product or an investment product. Investment-type NFTs have high liquidity, and the associated coupons will also indirectly gain a certain level of liquidity.

Coupons can be divided into two types: those issued by the platform and those issued by sellers. When issued by the platform, sellers are not affected and still collect payments at the original price, with the price difference subsidized by the platform. When issued by sellers, the cost is borne by the sellers themselves.

2. Application of Coupons in the NFT Field

The NFT lifecycle mainly includes two phases:

1. Project Launch Phase (i.e., Minting Phase)
2. Secondary Market Trading Phase

Introducing coupons during the minting phase, NFT issuers can promote project publicity or encourage user participation in minting through coupon rewards. This method does not increase additional expenses, it simply reduces revenue.

In the secondary market trading phase, the application of coupons is relatively complex and can be issued by three parties:

• NFT issuer: a dedicated wallet needs to be established to subsidize the price difference, which will incur additional expenses.
• NFT holders: The trading platform needs to support setting coupon contract information, which is currently rare.
• NFT trading platform: similar to NFT issuers, but can cover all NFTs on the platform.

In the secondary market stage, whether it is the NFT issuers or the trading platforms issuing coupons, they need to weigh costs and benefits.

For NFT issuers, costs are the total amount of coupons multiplied by the usage rate, and revenues include task completion rates and the enhancement of NFT liquidity.

For trading platforms, the cost is similarly the total amount of coupons multiplied by the usage rate, while the revenue comes from the task completion rate and the increase in transaction volume. However, unlike traditional e-commerce, NFT trading platforms find it difficult to generate advertising revenue by attracting users to browse, as users typically have clear purchasing goals.

3. Summary

In summary, issuing coupons during the NFT minting phase is a relatively feasible strategy for project parties. Compared to traditional social platform lotteries and whitelist methods, introducing coupons can enrich marketing gameplay.

In the secondary market trading phase, NFT issuers need to carefully assess the cost-effectiveness of distributing coupons. It currently seems that issuing coupons by NFT holders and trading platforms is not very suitable.

In the future, if this product idea proves feasible, we can further explore the implementation of coupon contracts and how to modify existing NFT contracts to support coupon functionalities.