This is a guest post from the GigLabs team.

If you’re reading this, deep down you probably already know that in the next 12-18 months every consumer brand will have an NFT strategy. Every day more and more brands are jumping into the NFT space, and they’re beginning to understand how to deliver really meaningful and unique experiences to their community and followers. That’s where we come in.

At GigLabs, we provide the tools for any brand to build any NFT experience imaginable. We partner with brands and enterprises to develop strategies to enhance new or ongoing reward, loyalty, and community engagement efforts using NFTs. To date, our platform has been powering innovative experiences on Flow like Vault by CNN, Blocklete Games by Turner Sports, Athletes Unlimited and Miami Hurricanes.

GigLabs promotes the idea that brands should be leveraging NFTs to better engage with their fans, customers, and community in addition to identifying new revenue streams. GigLabs was founded in 2017 by our team of experienced blockchain developers and NFT enthusiasts. 

NFT Bridge

Our API-driven NFT Bridge platform is the backbone for all of GigLabs’ products. Our diverse group of partners required us to create a solution that’s not one size fits all, so we built NFT Bridge to accommodate their needs. Unlike the large user-driven third party marketplaces, NFT Bridge enables brands to customize their NFT experiences by utilizing one or many of our tools. Although our solution requires no blockchain experience to launch and operate a new NFT platform, we still offer developer tools and APIs for deep integrations for teams that want to dig into the development themselves. 

More Than “Drops”

GigLabs is uniquely positioned in the space because we believe in supporting the NFT collector community by powering new experiences that have not been easily accessible by the consumer audience. We are building applications that help support the flourishing NFT ecosystem and its users. The following are a few examples of how GigLabs builds utility into our partner projects:

Turner Sports utilized GigLabs’ APIs and a custom built CMS to run a Blockchain-based golf game called Blocklete Games. It’s a play to earn game with upgradable NFT golfers that’s currently being migrated to Flow to allow for enhanced gameplay and additional features.

RareRooms, a customizable 3D immersive gallery for showcasing NFTs — digital collectibles, art and more — is integrated into NFT Bridge, allowing brands and creators to develop unique experiences for their NFT holders.

RareRooms allows collectors to display their NFTs as images, movies, or 3D models in a fully immersive and VR environment. Users can create curated galleries by pulling in NFTs across multiple blockchains (Ethereum, Flow and Tezos) through connecting wallets and third party marketplaces. Join the RareRooms Discord to chat with other collectors or to hear about upcoming projects.

Brands are Embracing NFTs

We know from experience that legacy brands are jumping head first into the NFT space. There are some amazing projects and partnerships coming that we can’t talk about just yet, but some of our most notable NFT projects to-date will continue to add utility and value to their NFT holders through special access and unlockable content moving forward. So, take a look at a couple of recent projects that will continue to announce updates and launch new NFT experiences well into the future.

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Canes Vault

Miami University’s Canes Vault launched on August 16th, featuring a commemorative digital replica 1989 championship ring released in three different series. Each beautifully designed replica was crafted by one of Brazil’s premier design studios, Black Madre. 

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Miami also auctioned off a unique 1 of 1 edition ring that comes with a digital and physical replica, as well as an Infinite Objects digital frame. The university also plans on rewarding Canes fans who purchase special keys with exclusive access to events and priority presale opportunities for upcoming NFT drops. They will also be launching digital collectibles as historical game moments, mascots, tickets and other special sports memorabilia. 

The university is committed to integrating NFTs into all facets of their athletics programs, from ticket sales, to booster clubs, and donations. Miami will continue to provide substantially upgraded experiences for fans to engage with their favorite players and sports teams like never before. This was the first time any college team released a commemorative championship ring as an NFT. You can learn the full details of the NFT drop on the university's blog.

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Vault by CNN
CNN selected GigLabs to provide the primary marketplace and blockchain expertise to facilitate their platform Vault by CNN. The initial launch included drops that capture significant historical moments from the CNN archives. This gives collectors a chance to own a piece of history documented by CNN, and judging by the first three sold out drops, people are eager to get in on the action.

The first NFT drop showcased two unique moments. One video captures Ted Turner announcing the formation of CNN in 1980, and another video famously captures the moment when CNN was the only network to provide a live broadcast during the 1991 conflict in Iraq.

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The two subsequent drops, which also sold out quickly, featured video moments of contentious election results and a historic space shuttle launch. Visit Vault by CNN to view all the past and upcoming CNN Moments.
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More about GigLabs

Our leadership team brought years of product and blockchain development experience with us when we started building out the foundation for GigLabs in 2017. The team’s strengths lie in three distinct areas of expertise: blockchain, NFTs, and marketplaces. We pride ourselves on having a great breadth and depth of experience to handle any NFT project imaginable, and it is important for our brand partners to know that we are well-equipped to handle those inevitable curve balls and audacious ideas that make the NFT space so exciting to be in. 

We Know Blockchain

• Launched over 100 production smart contracts for scalable, upgradeable, and secure dapp infrastructures.
  

• Developed IP for custodial wallet & payment solutions, NFT minting engines, event listeners, enterprise web-based CMS, and NFT sales analytics integrations.
  

• Contributors on Ethereum Upgradeable Smart Contract standards ERC-1538 & ERC-2535 and Composable NFT standard ERC-998 (extension of ERC-721).
  

We’re Leaders in NFT Innovation

• Our projects were some of the first to launch 3D, upgradeable, unlockable, composable, and even playable NFTs.
  

• Developed first composable NFTs in a game and implemented upgradeable NFTs driven by player actions.
  

• Developed NFT playable games layered over artworks. Check out RareBoards.
  

We Build Scalable and Open Marketplaces

• We’ve built multiple marketplaces on both Ethereum and Flow blockchains for both primary and secondary sales.
  

• Developed sales smart contracts - individual, pack, flat price, and auction sales (dutch and english).
  

Why Build on Flow?

Fast, decentralized, and developer friendly

Our mission to empower brands to bring their IP to life on the blockchain meant that we needed to build on infrastructure that could scale to interact with millions of people. It also needed to perform functions that allowed our clients to generate engaging NFT projects that could leverage complex smart contracts to deliver engaging experiences. By developing flexible and adaptable smart contracts on top of Flow, our platform can support an almost limitless number of use cases for our partners.

It was also important for us to build on a blockchain that has a large and flourishing ecosystem of dapps. Flow will power some of the biggest brands’ NFTs and digital collectibles such as the NBA, UFC, CNN, Warner Music Group, Dr. Seuss, Ubisoft and more to come! We love that the Flowverse keeps growing!

‍Eco-friendly 

We also chose Flow because it leverages an environment-friendly design via Proof-of-Stake that consumes thousands of times less energy than Proof-of-Work (POW) blockchains like the current Ethereum network. It’s important for our team and our brand partners to address growing concerns about the environmental impacts of energy intensive POW blockchains.

Get in Touch

Reach out to GigLabs if you are a brand, business, or creator looking to customize your own NFT experiences to help build community for your fans, followers, or customers.

Thank you for reading about what GigLabs is all about, we look forward to continuing to bring premiere experiences to fans while doing everything we can to create incredible platforms for our brand partners.

Website: GigLabs.io

‍Twitter: @Gig_Labs

‍We’re hiring!: GigLabs.io/careers