MoonPay and Universal Studios are collaborating for an NFT scavenger hunt during the theme park’s long-running Halloween Horror Nights program.
MoonPay’s CEO Ivan Soto-Wright couldn’t hide his excitement as he discussed his company’s upcoming collaboration with Universal Parks & Resorts. The two companies are partnering for Universal Studio’s long-standing Halloween event, Halloween Horror Nights.
MoonPay’s Role in Halloween Horror Nights
This partnership will see the collaborators dropping up to seven million NFTs for a scavenger hunt during the Halloween Horror Nights event. MoonPay’s involvement with Universal Parks & Resorts for the theme park’s event might be the biggest mass in real life Web3 onboarding event in history. The kicker? Park attendees will not know what is happening while they’re in the theme park.
“The foot traffic [inside] the theme parks is huge in scale. Millions of people go to these Universal theme parks—and so our mission at MoonPay is to onboard the world to Web3. We want to bring billions of people into the ecosystem, and so we think this is a really good pilot,” Soto-Wright said.
The idea behind the collaboration is to make onboarding new people into the Web3 space much more effortless. To bring people into Web3 means going where the people are at. MoonPay is aware that collaborating with Universal Parks & Resorts will speed up the process, so the partnership’s scavenger hunt aspect came into play.
Since September 15, MoonPay has left QR codes hidden near Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort park attractions. When park attendees scan the QR codes with a smartphone, they will instantly receive unique NFTs of character art related to the theme park’s Halloween Horror Nights program. On the off-chance that one attendee finds all QR codes scattered around the park, he’ll be given a special gold medal NFT.
MoonPay’s initiative will run for a month and a half, and in that runtime, MoonPay believes millions of people will finally make their initial steps into the Web3 space, whether they know it or not.
“This is probably the largest ever POAP—proof of attendance [protocol NFT drop] in history. Up to seven million NFTs are going to be created through the HyperMint platform,” Soto-Wright said.
MoonPay’s Hypermint platform, “a simple self-service platform that enables anyone to create and deploy smart contracts,” will play a critical role in the success of this initiative. Hypermint will facilitate the quick minting of what could become millions of POAP NFTs.
According to Soto-Wright, someone running around Universal Studios scanning all of the QR codes would pique other park-goers’ curiosity.
“You probably want to know who that person is because that person is obviously super-engaged with the experience. And so, you have a new touch point to reach that person when you never have that data before, right? You’re getting a new data point. This is a new tool at their disposal, and it also makes it more exciting to identify who are the super fans—[…] the guys and girls that are super excited about your brand.” he said.
Seamless NFT Experience
MoonPay and Hypermint have done away with tedious learning curves by ensuring their platforms are easy to use, which Soto-Wright believes is critical to the seamlessness of the NFT minting experience.
“A grandma can scan this QR code,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. You can scan this QR code if you’re waiting in line without having to download an app or anything like that, […] without any of the technical challenges around getting started in Web3.”
He also believes that ease-of-use shouldn’t be something only Web3 newbies will enjoy. According to Soto-Wright, ensuring that Web3 technologies and platforms are easy to use will be a significant motivating factor in the future growth of Web3, whether one is a Web3 newbie or a veteran.
Soto-Wright believes his company, MoonPay, will be a vital cog in the future of Web3 and views its collaboration with Universal Parks & Resorts as the first of many directional steps.
“We’re going to keep raising the bar. We’re going to keep doing these experiments with brands, and I think we’re going to show the world, rather than just say it,” he said. “You have to have a long-term mindset or outlook when you look at what’s going to happen. This is a transformational amount of change. It’s like anyone that has accessed the internet can participate. It really levels the playing field and a lot of industries where it was really just a very small set of people that were able to participate.”
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