From the famous Yuga Labs monkeys, the very first tweet in history put up for auction, the NBA selling digital trading cards, the artist 3LAU producing the first music album in NFT format, to “The merge”, the participative work gathering more than 266,445 NFT units… we don’t know anymore how far it is possible to go. However, the “non-fungible tokens” have not finished surprising us, since they now get into the world of mobility … How about consuming transportation and being rewarded in NFT? Well, Ryde did it…
A new concept of customer relationship
The Singaporean company Ryde, founded in 2014 by Terence ZOU, has aimed to become the first on-demand transportation services app in Singapore. Also present in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur, the latter already provides carpooling, VTC services, and very soon delivery options.
But in order to increase and strengthen the bond with its community of users, Ryde wants to go even further, by surfing on the global wave of NFT. This is why Ryde has announced the official launch of its very first collection of personalized NFTs, destined for nearly 3,350 users, NFTs affectionately nicknamed “RydePals“. This famous sesame will only be granted to the first 3,350 users with an active Ryde+ subscription by May 31, 2022; a subscription launched last December.
A successful “ride-to-earn” gamification system
With the goal of fortifying the user’s loyalty, this new concept allows users to unlock exclusive in-app rewards and perks. RydePal NFTs can only be earned through in-app activities, such as accumulating rides or pledging RydeCoins in the Ryde wallet. As a company spokesperson states, the goal is to “make every ride a recreational, fun and exciting activity.”
Each NFT will be created randomly thanks to an algorithm gathering a combination of multiple design elements, such as age, gender, colors and accessories… Moreover, each user will have the possibility to get some cashback or exchange their RydePal on secondary NFT exchanges like OpenSea.
Despite the promise of the technology, few NFT projects today have real-world utility. We want to deploy NFTs in a way that generates more real-world value, especially for the fast-growing market segments of Singaporeans who hold cryptocurrencies.
Terence Zou, CEO & founder of Ryde
Hosted on Polygon’s Blockchain network, RydePals will be easily monetized by users. And at a lower cost. According to a TechnoGlobal article, “In keeping with the ethics of Web 3.0, NFT metadata will be addressed by the content and stored on the decentralized Filecoin file storage platform using NFT. Storage.”
A multitude of payments methods in cryptocurrencies
In order to offer a wide range of payment methods, the Malaysian giant wants to go even further… Indeed, in 2020, Ryde became the first ride-sharing company in Singapore to accept bitcoin payments. From August 2022, Ryde users will have the option to choose from a growing list of more than 70 different cryptocurrencies and more than 10 blockchain networks or to top up their e-wallet. A large collection of NFTs was made possible by the integration with the web 3.0 startup, named Request Finance.
Ryde will join many notable names in the web 3.0 space such as The Sandbox, AAVE and MarkerDAO who use Request Finance to manage over $190 million in enterprise cryptocurrency payments.
Ludovic Gilbert, Head of Business Development at Request Finance
No doubt that this campaign will be a success because even if the NFTs market seems to stagnate a bit at the moment, this original project is likely to be talked about for a while. Hotel and fast food giants like Marriott and Burger King have already jumped on the bandwagon. More than a simple “object” of collection, the brands propose today NFT as a real new experience. What if in the future, other transport applications, or even insurance or payment applications would also offer to obtain a personalized “non-fungible token”?
