How do you normally exchange contact information? We are used to paper business cards – those that are discarded or lost as soon as we get them.
But what if a business card is not made from paper but is designed as an NFT? Digital business cards already exist. These digital collectibles in the form of business cards live on the Polygon, Ethereum, or any other blockchain that supports smart contracts.
While NFT visiting cards, also known as NFT name cards, offer significant advantages, they are not without their drawbacks. The primary concerns associated with these digital assets are outlined below.
First of all, they are 100% environmentally friendly. NFT business card is a virtual objects that can be compared to digital stickers, one doesn’t require any real-world resources to produce them.
Considering the current environmental problems such as deforestation, climate change, pollution, etc., this benefit alone can turn a virtual business card into a viable alternative to a traditional business card.
A digital business card can be designed in any way you want.
Do you want it to be a JPG file? No problem; design your NFC digital business card (or near field communication business card) as a JPG file.
Do you believe that an animated digital card looks better and impresses your customers and partners more? Create it as an animation for your new business card and customize it with your phone numbers and other contact info.
Have you always dreamed about having a business card in MP4 form? Do it, and enable your contacts to listen to it from a mobile device, laptop, or any other device they prefer using, all the available operating systems.
You can make your NFC business card in any form supported on the blockchain. Any ideas are welcomed as long as they satisfy the needs of your brand and business and your customers are happy with them. The number of designs and formats is limited by your imagination only.
A digital business card can be programmed with special NFC tags. Such cards can connect to mobile devices and instantly share business information.
These NFC tags provide the required connection between your NFC business card and the device where it is viewed.
Digital business cards are stored on the blockchain. All the contact details are in a smart contract and can be changed there only.
One shall consider however that by creating a digital business card, one not only creates a card with information about the company, and contact data but permits publishing all this data on the blockchain.
When you give a customer or a partner your business card, how long do you think he will keep it? We shall admit that traditional cards are lost frequently.
But with a digital business card, the situation changes. An NFC business card is kept in the customer’s wallet. This is why it is possible that in the future, it will be mandatory to know the clients’ wallet address rather than other details such as a phone number, company address, and other business information.
A digital business card is a collectible that lives on a blockchain. It means that you can use it not only for its direct application – as a digital business card but also as an investment. Over time, it may grow in value and thus bring profit.
Creating a digital business card is pretty easy even if you don’t have any deep technical expertise.
First of all, don’t forget that any operation on the blockchain is paid – you are charged a gas fee. This is the only payment you have to make for minting your digital business card. Other than that, it is free.
Now, follow these instructions to mint your NFC business card.
Pick an image or create a text for your NFC business card. Upload it as an image somewhere, some online resource from which you can later get the image address, and copy it.
The Mintable creator is a good resource to proceed. To use it, you need to download and register your Metamask wallet. You will be creating a smart contract, so you will need to pay a gas fee.
Invent a name for your business card, and provide a link that will lead your customers to your business details. You need this link because you don’t want all the details to be displayed publicly on the blockchain. And with the link, only those users who have it can check such details as your business phone number, business address, and other information intended for them.
Copy the link to the image, and create metadata. Metadata will be seen publicly, so invent something nice. It can be a short note, just whatever you like.
Note, please that to proceed, you need to have your MetaMask connected. The selected network is the Ethereum Mainnet.
Review and submit the card. Before confirming your NFC business cards in MetaMask, ensure the gas fee is reasonable. Sometimes, when the blockchain is clogged, gas fees surge and may become too high for such a transaction. You can adjust the fee manually in MetaMask, but then your transaction will take longer; you will have to wait until the network is less loaded.
When the transaction is confirmed, email the copy of the created contract to yourself to not lose it – and like this, you will have your QR code business card forever.
NFT business cards are highly beneficial, but they also have their cons. The main ones are the following.
Creating an NFC card may be expensive, especially if you do it on the Ethereum blockchain and the network is loaded. To reduce costs, try creating business cards on another blockchain, such as Polygon, where gas fees are much lower.
While coding is not needed, you still need to understand the basics of NFT and cryptocurrencies, know how to use a website where you will be creating your business card, and have MetaMask to pay for the transaction.
In other words, you cannot simply tap on some text or an image (the brand logo, for example) and create more cards. You must know how to manage an app or another resource for NFC creation and purchase the computing power needed to create cards.
To store the card, you can either save the link to the smart contract or find those links; you have to learn how to use Etherscan.
To store your NFC card, you need to learn how to use OpenSea. But for now, OpenSea lacks the functionality to enable its customers to store and sort their NFC cards conveniently. Without some experience, you will find it pretty difficult to use the resource.
What if your business needs to hide the list of clients? Or something that not any user shall see? It is sometimes done to prevent getting information from the company’s competitors. This option is less suitable for you and your team in such a case.
The information that you have provided on the website where you have created the NFT always comes in the order in which you have given it. You cannot just change the customer data, the logo, the phone number, or anything just anytime and for free.
Traditional business cards are still used, but with time, a new format of sharing information via NFC will become prevalent. NFC cards enable many more options to customize the information you are providing and to make your clients feel special.
With an NFC card, you do not just provide your client with links to the resources of your company, such as the website, probably, an app, and some contact details; you are not just sharing your logo; you are also sharing NFC as gifts.
We shall not forget that NFC cards are in the very end, non-fungible tokens, like stickers, logos, images, songs, memes, and other stuff that is available for users.
If you believe that NFC is expensive, just compare the costs of printing traditional cards and the expenses needed to create an NFC, and you will see the difference. Yes, NFC is not given for free, but you don’t have to purchase them either. You need just to pay for gas, and minting is free.
NFC is the future. Soon, every team member and your client will use NFC instead of traditional ways of sharing information. So, don’t waste your opportunity – move to the NFC creator page or app, check the accepted options, and generate as many NFT business cards as you need.
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Disclaimer. This material should not be construed as a basis for making investment decisions or as a recommendation to participate in investment transactions. Trading digital assets may involve significant risks and can result in the loss of invested capital. Therefore, you must ensure that you fully understand the risk involved, consider your level of experience, investment objectives, and seek independent financial advice if necessary.