NBA Topshot's 'secret sauce' to Web3 onboarding.
This is bigger than it seems...
Not the fact that NBA Top Shot has racked up $1B worth of NFT sales - and not the shiny new mobile app either...
The giant leap forward here is as big as it is boring:
Payments.
Specifically: the NBA Top Shot app will allow users to buy NFTs, using in-app payments on Apple and Android.
Until now, Web3 marketplaces have had to restrict the ability to buy/sell/trade NFT assets on their mobile apps, because of Apple and Google's terms.
(They each expect a cut of sales, and neither of them accept crypto payments).
Ok, so a lone company figured out how to play nice with a couple of tech giants...
How is this a big deal for Web3?
We're going to switch to 'dad mode' and repeat some of our favorite talking points for a minute:
The easier something is to use, the more people will use it.
Small changes that reduce friction in the user experience can often have massive ripple effects in adoption.
(E.g. Uber won out over taxis by streamlining the user experience via its mobile app).
Here's the change visualized for NBA Top Shot:
The old way:
Go to nbatopshot.com → log in → select an NFT → go to checkout → enter credit card details / billing address → complete purchase.
The new way:
Open NBA Top Shot app → select an NFT → click the Apple Pay button.
(Much smoother, no?)
Web3 needs more proven roadmaps.
Because once something is proven, it gets copied (and the more Web3 roadmaps there are to copy, the faster the space will grow).
NBA Top Shot has (so far) put on a masterclass of 'how to create Web3 products for Web2 native audiences.'
Much of the Top Shot purchasing process looks and feels like your typical Web2 e-commerce experience - you log in with an email (not a crypto wallet) and check out in U.S. dollars (not ETH).
And this new mobile app will only add to the list of examples for others to follow.
To sum up: very cool!