What is Discord in the world of NFTs?
Author: Joseph Angelle
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
If you’ve spent any time online gaming or diving into the world of NFTs, chances are that you would have come across Discord. However, if you haven’t spent a great deal of your time in either of these worlds, Discord may seem completely foreign.
What is Discord anyway?
Discord is an online platform that allows its users to connect in a variety of ways. Discord users can communicate live via text chat, voice and video. Similar to platforms like Slack, different groups and organizations can create separate servers to host communities about subject matters that are important to them.
What really sets Discord apart from other platforms is its multifunctionality. Besides text channels, voice channels can also be set up. This feature allows multiple groups of people to participate or discuss different topics at the same time, be it through text chat, voice or video.
Discord is also often used to host real-time interactive events. Discord’s Event feature allows users to notify their community of live event times and occurrences. Some of these events include community quiz nights, the streaming of classes or workshops, live podcasts, and even contests and giveaways.
Bots provide another level of emergence for Discord users. Bots are essentially automations that can help moderate tasks in a server. What is really cool is that Discord encourages its users to develop their own bots. The open API of the platform makes it easy for various types of integrations. Want to listen to some music or facilitate a mini game? No problem. There are tons of bots available for you to choose from.
So who uses Discord?
Similar to other social media platforms, Discord is often used by large groups to connect with like-minded members. This is because Discord has many functions that support large communities. For instance, Discord voice channels can allow up to 100 users to join calls. This is a great way to facilitate interactions, especially for community members who come from different countries and walks of life.
Another standout feature is Discord’s ability to let users smoothly stream or share their screen so that communities can consume different types of media together. By sharing your screen, you can easily host a movie night or catch the latest episode of your favorite show with your friends. Individuals in the gaming community often use this feature to stream their games, so that their audience can participate or comment in real time.
We also see businesses using Discord to connect directly with their customers and collaborators. Besides getting direct access by sharing business updates, funny memes or addressing customer concerns, Discord is also a good means for marketing. Posts can be re-shared by the business’ initial audience to other servers for increased exposure. Discord also provides businesses with the opportunity to connect with other leaders in similar or adjacent industries by joining other servers as a way to network.
How can I join a Discord community?
Now that you know pretty much all there is to know about Discord, the very next step is to join a Discord community.
You will first need to find a community that interests you. There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to visit your favorite community’s website or their other social media accounts. Typically, such communities are very proactive in publicly advertising their Discord servers. For security reasons, some of these Discord servers may require a user authentication process. Be sure to read the instructions associated with the server carefully.
Another way to find communities of interest is to search for them within the Discord application. Once you’ve visited Discord and set up your account, you will be able to explore public servers. This can be found on the left hand column of the Discord application. Here you will be able to search for servers that fit your interests about various subject matters.
How is this relevant to NFTs?
Well, with all its community-focused features, it’s no surprise that Discord has become one of the most popular platforms for Web3 fans. Discord not only allows NFT projects to be hosted by these communities, its accessibility has made it easy for folks in the Web3 space to promote projects and encourage discussions among fans. In fact, many projects have been developed based upon the wants and desires brought forth during community-led dialogues.
Some projects use Discord to reward their community. One of the ways they do this is by inviting whitelists of people to their Discord servers, providing exclusive early access and guaranteed purchase rights. This incentivizes fans of NFT collections to join relevant Discord communities to stay plugged in so that they can reap these benefits.
Before you go…
Mission Labs is growing our own Discord community. We hope to start a dialogue surrounding artists and creators, so that they can find unique ways to profit from their talents and efforts. Within our server, you can find out about new and exciting projects from amazing artists and interact with creatives who want to share their work with the world. Join our Discord community here. See you there!