In this article, I’m going to give you a glimpse into the crazy world of the whitelists and explain how they’ve taken the NFT space by storm.
The advantage you can get from a whitelist spot is that you can probably get an NFT for the mint price.
I write ‘probably’ here because very often there are more people on the whitelist than there are mints to forgive.
Whitelists have become so popular with project creators in a short period of time that they sometimes do the weirdest things to invite people.
You do contribute to building a community and ensure a lot of likes, but it does not always benefit you.
But first, let’s take a look at what a whitelist actually is and how it usually works.
Each project has its own way of campaigning, so major differences can exist.
What is a whitelist and how does it work?
A whitelist means that a wallet address must be approved prior to the minting process of an NFT set.
This means that one has the opportunity to subscribe and obtain the specific NFT at a predetermined time.
Different projects each have their own way of setting out a whitelist process.
There are similarities, but also just as many differences as there are projects.
Why are whitelists important?
Whitelists are meaningful because they prevent so-called gas wars.
To indicate, when a project is minted, people flock to it at the same time.
This creates pressure on the blockchain, resulting in high(er) gas fees.
In a whitelist project, the chosen ones can often ‘collect’ their NFT within 24 hours, so that the gas fee can remain low.
Whitelists give collectors equal opportunities. Collectors who might have to drop out due to high gas fees now get a chance via the whitelist.
Whitelists contribute to the organic growth of a community without bots being able to hack into the system.
How do you qualify for the whitelist?
There are several ways to qualify for a whitelist, but it almost always requires active involvement.
To get on a whitelist you have to be there early.
That means you have to follow the discord of a project. It is often the case that projects give a limited number of members the chance to be whitelisted.
If you arrive late, you no longer stand a chance on the whitelist.
Some project discords use engagement as a means of rewarding members.
Those who are active in the discord have to reach a certain rank and if they succeed in this they will be whitelisted.
Some projects allow their members to earn a whitelist place by giving them the task of inviting new members.
If they have invited a certain number of new members, they are placed on the whitelist.
Other projects even hold raffles and whoever wins gets the coveted spot on the whitelist.
As mentioned, every project is different and has its own method of whitelisting.
One of the current most well-known methods is the whitelist game or game.
Voltura Labs started this in November to promote their Psychedelics Anonymous collection.
Not only has that led to active participation and excitement for the collection, but it has also seen the number of followers grow rapidly from 5K to 60K followers in a matter of weeks!
The game behind the Psychedelics Anonymous whitelist project
Voltura Labs has implemented a number of tactics to engage the public during the whitelisting.
An example of this is a Tweet was dropped containing a question. In response to that tweet, it was indicated that everyone who replied to the 1st tweet had been whitelisted.
This showed that everyone who had given direct support to the project was rewarded in the form of a whitelist spot.
This, I would almost say, guerrilla-style marketing encourages you to commit and turn on your Twitter notifications so you never miss a tweet.
The latter because every tweet can mean that you have earned a whitelist place.
Voltura Labs has often used this whitelist tactic just to make sure followers turn on their notifications so as not to miss a tweet.
This tactic has since been followed by many other projects.
Hundreds of likes are received within seconds of a tweet being posted, reflecting the sheer volume of community engagement.
Voltura also worked with riddles, and in the whitelist for game#5, the community was asked to unravel sentences where the 1st 20 people who did this right would be whitelisted.
He also made use of guessing games such as predicting the time he would be ‘on screen’.
Because of this, he managed to stimulate the feeling in the community that he is always attentive.
Since then, 13 different whitelist games have been held and they only stop when all the necessary 9000 people are on the whitelist.
The Community
Now let’s take a look at what these whitelist games have done to the community of the Voltura Labs project and ultimately the Psychedelics Anonymous?
The first tweet was sent which immediately resulted in 439K retweets, and 15K likes and they have since gained more than 41K followers after another 19 tweets.
The great attention to the project is of an unprecedented order and the result of the promotion and marketing of the whitelist game.
While previous projects ensured that collectors were well prepared, the introduction of the whitelist game ensured that collectors were constantly alert to announcements and promotions.
Not only has the project grown, but the community has become very engaged, very active, and involved in every tweet.
There are community members who have posted creative videos on Twitter, there is art created by fans and, most importantly, there is some sort of idolatry in support of the project.
This may well be regarded as special.
Since Voltura started whitelisting games, a number of projects have followed suit.
Voltura has set the bar high with its marketing of the project, its community involvement, and its leadership.
His community is clearly always prepared for upcoming projects.
The NFT space changes every day, new ideas come and go, proving how innovative and experimental the NFT world is.
And that probably also applies to the whitelists.
If you look around on YouTube you will come across quite a few critical videos about the whitelists.
Whether whitelists have just as much value going to have as is now the case is doubtful.
Make sure you always do your own research into a project and what the whitelisting program looks like.
Don’t be fooled and know that you can often do good shopping on the secondary market shortly after a project has been revealed.
