It all started with an invitation to a Nigerian blockchain event held in Lagos City. Usually, events like this would come with the headache of lost tickets, long queues, and endless verification checks. But this time, it was different. The organizers were experimenting with NFT-based ticketing powered by the Unlock Protocol, and I was curious to see how it would be in the real world. From the moment I clicked the ticket link, I knew this experience would be unlike any other. No PDF downloads. No email confirmations. No waiting. I simply connected my wallet and received my ticket - a unique onchain “key” that I truly owned.

This moment made me realize something profound: why isn't every membership, subscription, and ticket built like this?

Immediately, I noticed the difference I could no longer ignore. I started thinking about other places where access still feels fragile, temporary, and out of the user's control. I said to myself, this is a huge limitation. Isn't it?

In today’s digital world, we subscribe to almost everything: streaming platforms, online courses, newsletters, fitness programs, creator communities, apps, events, and more. Yet despite all these subscriptions, we own absolutely nothing! Our access can be revoked anytime. Our data is controlled by platforms. Our loyalty doesn’t translate to ownership. And creators still struggle to build sustainable direct relationships with their audience.

And the truth is that, this is the unspoken crisis of the current digital membership economy where: Users are renters, not owners, and creators are tenants in platforms they don’t control.

The more time I spent at the event, and the more I paid attention to how Unlock worked, the more I felt like something bigger was happening. Not loudly, not all at once, but quietly. It wasn’t just about using NFTs or new tech. It was about a different way of thinking about access. One where people actually own what they pay for, creators aren’t trapped by platforms, and everything feels more open and transparent.

What Unlock made clear to me is that this shift isn’t just a technical upgrade. It’s a change in mindset away from renting access from platforms, and toward owning it, carrying it with you, and building real communities around it.

After the event, I found myself asking a simple question: why does this stuff always feel so messy? The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that most traditional membership and ticketing systems were built for an older version of the internet. They weren’t made for creators, global communities, or the way we actually show up online today. Because of that, users and creators end up putting up with flaws that really shouldn’t exist. Here are a few I have noticed over time:

1. Creators Don't Own Their Audience
   It always bothered me that creators work so hard to build their communities, yet they don’t really own them. Subscribers are tied to platforms, not to the people running the community. That means a platform shutting down, changing its rules, or even censoring content can instantly wipe out everything a creator has built. Watching this happen is frustrating, and it feels unfair to both the creator and the audience.

2. Users Don't Own Their Memberships
   Most of the time, a ticket or subscription is just temporary permission. You pay, and you get access, but it can be taken away at any moment. Basically, you can get locked out at any time.

3. Middlemen Take Too Much
   It often feels like everyone between the creator and the user is taking a slice. By the time access reaches the person who actually wants it, much of its value has disappeared. It never feels like a win for either side.

4. No Transparency For Anyone
   Most of the time, it's hard to know if what you're paying for is even real. Tickets can be fake, subscriptions confusing, and you're left guessing whether your access will actually work when you need it. You start double-checking emails, logging in and out, and asking yourself, did I even get what I paid for? This is actually frustrating, and it slowly builds this quiet anxiety every time you buy a ticket or sign up for a membership.

At the end of the day, the issue isn't subscriptions themselves. It's the fact that we don’t really own them, and we're rarely sure how much control we actually have. What makes the difference is having a system where creators can run their communities on their own terms, and people can truly own the access they pay for. That's what Unlock Protocol does. It removes the middlemen and the guesswork, giving you clear, verifiable access that's genuinely yours. With Unlock, access stops feeling rented and starts feeling like something you actually own.

What I discovered when I started using Unlock more fully, after experiencing it at the event, was that it goes far beyond event registration. Unlock can also be used to create access systems, memberships, recurring payments, and attendance credentials.

With Unlock, I began to see how flexible access could really be. The same system can handle memberships that renew automatically, learning spaces where every participant holds a verifiable digital key, and event access that feels intentional rather than improvised. Another thing that stood out to me wasn’t just these features, but how seamlessly everything is connected. It all runs on a shared, open foundation that isn't locked to any one platform.

Why all of this matters is simple. As a creator, you can truly own your audience. You no longer have to worry that what you’ve built could be wiped out overnight; you can finally build with confidence. For users like me, tickets and subscriptions are no longer temporary permissions. You don’t have to live with the fear that your access can be revoked at any moment. And for communities looking to grow without being locked into platforms, what I experienced at the Lagos event wasn’t an exception; it was an invitation to build differently.

I use Unlock every day, and honestly, it makes everything feel simpler. Every membership, every course, every event feels easier and more reliable because of it. If you’ve been wondering what it’s like, I’d say give it a try. You might be surprised by how much it changes your thinking about owning access and being part of a community.

Robert ✨
Unlock Protocol DAO Guest Writer

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It all started with an invitation to a Nigerian blockchain event held in Lagos City. Usually, events like this would come with the headache of lost tickets, long queues, and endless verification checks. But this time, it was different. The organizers were experimenting with NFT-based ticketing powered by the Unlock Protocol, and I was curious to see how it would be in the real world. From the moment I clicked the ticket link, I knew this experience would be unlike any other. No PDF downloads. No email confirmations. No waiting. I simply connected my wallet and received my ticket - a unique onchain “key” that I truly owned.

This moment made me realize something profound: why isn't every membership, subscription, and ticket built like this?

Immediately, I noticed the difference I could no longer ignore. I started thinking about other places where access still feels fragile, temporary, and out of the user's control. I said to myself, this is a huge limitation. Isn't it?

In today’s digital world, we subscribe to almost everything: streaming platforms, online courses, newsletters, fitness programs, creator communities, apps, events, and more. Yet despite all these subscriptions, we own absolutely nothing! Our access can be revoked anytime. Our data is controlled by platforms. Our loyalty doesn’t translate to ownership. And creators still struggle to build sustainable direct relationships with their audience.

And the truth is that, this is the unspoken crisis of the current digital membership economy where: Users are renters, not owners, and creators are tenants in platforms they don’t control.

The more time I spent at the event, and the more I paid attention to how Unlock worked, the more I felt like something bigger was happening. Not loudly, not all at once, but quietly. It wasn’t just about using NFTs or new tech. It was about a different way of thinking about access. One where people actually own what they pay for, creators aren’t trapped by platforms, and everything feels more open and transparent.

What Unlock made clear to me is that this shift isn’t just a technical upgrade. It’s a change in mindset away from renting access from platforms, and toward owning it, carrying it with you, and building real communities around it.

After the event, I found myself asking a simple question: why does this stuff always feel so messy? The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that most traditional membership and ticketing systems were built for an older version of the internet. They weren’t made for creators, global communities, or the way we actually show up online today. Because of that, users and creators end up putting up with flaws that really shouldn’t exist. Here are a few I have noticed over time:

1. Creators Don't Own Their Audience
   It always bothered me that creators work so hard to build their communities, yet they don’t really own them. Subscribers are tied to platforms, not to the people running the community. That means a platform shutting down, changing its rules, or even censoring content can instantly wipe out everything a creator has built. Watching this happen is frustrating, and it feels unfair to both the creator and the audience.

2. Users Don't Own Their Memberships
   Most of the time, a ticket or subscription is just temporary permission. You pay, and you get access, but it can be taken away at any moment. Basically, you can get locked out at any time.

3. Middlemen Take Too Much
   It often feels like everyone between the creator and the user is taking a slice. By the time access reaches the person who actually wants it, much of its value has disappeared. It never feels like a win for either side.

4. No Transparency For Anyone
   Most of the time, it's hard to know if what you're paying for is even real. Tickets can be fake, subscriptions confusing, and you're left guessing whether your access will actually work when you need it. You start double-checking emails, logging in and out, and asking yourself, did I even get what I paid for? This is actually frustrating, and it slowly builds this quiet anxiety every time you buy a ticket or sign up for a membership.

At the end of the day, the issue isn't subscriptions themselves. It's the fact that we don’t really own them, and we're rarely sure how much control we actually have. What makes the difference is having a system where creators can run their communities on their own terms, and people can truly own the access they pay for. That's what Unlock Protocol does. It removes the middlemen and the guesswork, giving you clear, verifiable access that's genuinely yours. With Unlock, access stops feeling rented and starts feeling like something you actually own.

What I discovered when I started using Unlock more fully, after experiencing it at the event, was that it goes far beyond event registration. Unlock can also be used to create access systems, memberships, recurring payments, and attendance credentials.

With Unlock, I began to see how flexible access could really be. The same system can handle memberships that renew automatically, learning spaces where every participant holds a verifiable digital key, and event access that feels intentional rather than improvised. Another thing that stood out to me wasn’t just these features, but how seamlessly everything is connected. It all runs on a shared, open foundation that isn't locked to any one platform.

Why all of this matters is simple. As a creator, you can truly own your audience. You no longer have to worry that what you’ve built could be wiped out overnight; you can finally build with confidence. For users like me, tickets and subscriptions are no longer temporary permissions. You don’t have to live with the fear that your access can be revoked at any moment. And for communities looking to grow without being locked into platforms, what I experienced at the Lagos event wasn’t an exception; it was an invitation to build differently.

I use Unlock every day, and honestly, it makes everything feel simpler. Every membership, every course, every event feels easier and more reliable because of it. If you’ve been wondering what it’s like, I’d say give it a try. You might be surprised by how much it changes your thinking about owning access and being part of a community.

Robert ✨
Unlock Protocol DAO Guest Writer

• X

• Tik Tok

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• Farcaster