![Ideas to hack on](/images/blog/hackathon-ideas/hero.jpg)

We’re going to be at ETHWaterloo over the first November weekend and we thought it would be fun to give participants some inspiration into what they could do with Unlock. Obviously we’re open to all ideas and we’d love to hear about them – the ones below feel free to steal, borrow, change or just be inspired about what's possible. If you need any design help, to mockup complex flow, icons, logos or have UX challenges feel free to find me (Sascha) – I’m happy to help.

- **Play with the Pros** 
 If you’re a pro gamer you have lots of fans that want to access to the game that you’re in. Working with Fortnite’s Custom Matchmaking capabilities create a way that will only allow fans who have bought a key join the game that you’re in.

- **GitHub Supporters** 
 Automatically create an images of everyones profile pic/name/etc that is a supporter (and has a key) to show on Github README pages! [More on that here](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-donations/).

- **Ad Free Podcast** 
 Create a tool that lets members and key owners listen to podcasts without the ads by defining start and duration points of the ad in the audio file (and omitting it for members). Non-members can still listen but get the ads.

- **Lock Leaderboard** 
 List locks with the most keys sold, most revenue, newest, etc. Could this be done thru Graph Protocol queries? Could become a great way to discover new content.

- **Lock Bundling Idea** 
 Lock bundling is a powerful tool to give key holders access to multiple publications or content types. Creating a permissionless multi publication revenue distribution would be very powerful. Or a simple way for creators to use each others locks so that members of one publication can get access to another publication.

- **Member Share** 
 Find a way to allow members to share one article thats behind a lock/paywall with a non-member.

- **Member Only Chat** 
 Create an [app for rocket.chat](https://rocket.chat/docs/developer-guides/developing-apps/#what-is-a-rocketchat-app) (or telegram, slack, discord) that only allows paying members access to the chat or specific rooms. This could also be a bot that checks whether someone owns a key in a channel/room/group before allowing them to post or attend.

- **Gaming Prize Pools** 
 Locks are created for each gaming event, with users staking ETH, DAI, etc. to get a key in order to join the game. The winner of the game gets all the funds on the lock.

- **WordPress** 
 Extend the functionality of our [WordPress plugin](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock-wordpress-plugin,). More on [our blog](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/wordpress-plugin/) and in the [GitHub repo](https://wordpress.org/plugins/unlock-protocol/).

- **Video Subscription** 
 Create a way to lock individual videos or playlists from youtube or vimeo. Videos could play a preview of a few seconds or only start after unlocking.

- **Shopify Discounts** 
 Give people who have keys to a certain lock access to discounts in your shop.

- **Early Access** 
 A service that lets members get early access to certain perks, like limited edition sneakers or concert tickets. For example fans could have a key for first dibs or ETHWaterloo participants get to buy tickets first for the next hackathon.

We've put together a bunch of ideas for cool and fun projects that could be hacked on. Take the ideas, run with them, be inspired or do something completely different.

Fun and useful ideas using the Unlock protocol.

Unlock Hackathon Ideas

<img src="/images/blog/hackathon-ideas/hero.jpg" alt="Ideas to hack on">
We’re going to be at ETHWaterloo over the first November weekend and we thought it would be fun to give participants some inspiration into what they could do with Unlock. Obviously we’re open to all ideas and we’d love to hear about them – the ones below feel free to steal, borrow, change or just be inspired about what's possible. If you need any design help, to mockup complex flow, icons, logos or have UX challenges feel free to find me (Sascha) – I’m happy to help.
<ul>
<li>
Play with the Pros 
If you’re a pro gamer you have lots of fans that want to access to the game that you’re in. Working with Fortnite’s Custom Matchmaking capabilities create a way that will only allow fans who have bought a key join the game that you’re in.
</li>
<li>
GitHub Supporters 
Automatically create an images of everyones profile pic/name/etc that is a supporter (and has a key) to show on Github README pages! <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-donations/">More on that here</a>.
</li>
<li>
Ad Free Podcast 
Create a tool that lets members and key owners listen to podcasts without the ads by defining start and duration points of the ad in the audio file (and omitting it for members). Non-members can still listen but get the ads.
</li>
<li>
Lock Leaderboard 
List locks with the most keys sold, most revenue, newest, etc. Could this be done thru Graph Protocol queries? Could become a great way to discover new content.
</li>
<li>
Lock Bundling Idea 
Lock bundling is a powerful tool to give key holders access to multiple publications or content types. Creating a permissionless multi publication revenue distribution would be very powerful. Or a simple way for creators to use each others locks so that members of one publication can get access to another publication.
</li>
<li>
Member Share 
Find a way to allow members to share one article thats behind a lock/paywall with a non-member.
</li>
<li>
Member Only Chat 
Create an <a href="https://rocket.chat/docs/developer-guides/developing-apps/#what-is-a-rocketchat-app">app for rocket.chat</a> (or telegram, slack, discord) that only allows paying members access to the chat or specific rooms. This could also be a bot that checks whether someone owns a key in a channel/room/group before allowing them to post or attend.
</li>
<li>
Gaming Prize Pools 
Locks are created for each gaming event, with users staking ETH, DAI, etc. to get a key in order to join the game. The winner of the game gets all the funds on the lock.
</li>
<li>
WordPress 
Extend the functionality of our <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock-wordpress-plugin,">WordPress plugin</a>. More on <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/wordpress-plugin/">our blog</a> and in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/unlock-protocol/">GitHub repo</a>.
</li>
<li>
Video Subscription 
Create a way to lock individual videos or playlists from youtube or vimeo. Videos could play a preview of a few seconds or only start after unlocking.
</li>
<li>
Shopify Discounts 
Give people who have keys to a certain lock access to discounts in your shop.
</li>
<li>
Early Access 
A service that lets members get early access to certain perks, like limited edition sneakers or concert tickets. For example fans could have a key for first dibs or ETHWaterloo participants get to buy tickets first for the next hackathon.
</li>
</ul>

Smart contract developers can integrate with Unlock Protocol on-chain, allowing you to monetize features by selling Keys.

Let’s clear up a little terminology first. ‘Unlock Protocol’ allows you to create ‘Locks’ for specific content or features. Users can then purchase a ‘Key’ to gain access to that content. Keys may expire, allowing you to offer a monthly subscription option, and they are NFTs enabling a second hand market if you choose. We’re adding new features all the time.


	<img src="/images/blog/unlocking-smart-contracts/code.jpeg" width="400px" alt="Smart contracts">


From your smart contract, you simply call `getHasValidKey` on the Lock to see if the user should gain access.

A simple example is unlocking a paid-only feature in your contract. Let me show you how…

```
pragma solidity ^0.5.0;

import 'hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts/contracts/interfaces/IPublicLock.sol';

contract PaidOnlyFeature
{
 IPublicLock public lock;

 constructor(IPublicLock _lockAddress) public
 {
 lock = _lockAddress;
 }

 function paidOnlyFeature() public
 {
 require(lock.getHasValidKey(msg.sender), 'Purchase a key first!');
 // ...and then implement your feature as normal
 }

 // You can also have free features of course
}
```

Pretty straight forward, right? Let’s step through it.

First we need to install an NPM package with this command:

```
npm i hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts
```

Now we can review the code...

```
import 'hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts/contracts/interfaces/IPublicLock.sol';
```

Importing the interface allows us to make calls to the Lock contract, given its address.

```
IPublicLock public lock;
```

To gain access, users must purchase a key to the Lock for this content. This stores the address for the Lock contract. By using `IPublicLock` instead of `address` we simplify making calls within the contract. `public` allows end-users to read the Lock’s address, confirming they are purchasing the correct Key.

```
constructor(IPublicLock _lockAddress) public
{
 lock = _lockAddress;
}
```

We have to set the address for the Lock to use at some point. If you know it when this contract is deployed you can simply assign it in the constructor. However you might also consider a privileged call instead, allowing you to update the Lock in the future if needed. Here’s an example of a [MutableLock](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/blob/master/smart-contract-extensions/contracts/unlock-examples/MutableLock.sol).

```
require(lock.getHasValidKey(msg.sender), 'Purchase a key first!');
```

`getHasValidKey` checks if the given address owns a valid (unexpired) key and returns true or false. We place this in a `require` statement so that the entire transaction fails if they do not. If you prefer, this could be moved to a `modifier` instead. Alternatively you could use an `if` condition instead to modify behavior for Key owners somehow (we have a few ideas about that below).

That’s the contract implementation! The hardest part can be testing though. We need a way to run your contract locally, and to make calls with and without owning a Key. For this we have a script to get you started:

```javascript
const { protocols } = require('hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts')
const PaidOnlyFeature = artifacts.require('PaidOnlyFeature')

contract('PaidOnlyFeature', (accounts) => {
 let lock
 let featureContract
 const keyOwner = accounts[3]

 beforeEach(async () => {
 lock = await protocols.unlock.createTestLock(
 web3,
 accounts[9], // Unlock Protocol owner
 accounts[1], // Lock owner
 {
 keyPrice: web3.utils.toWei('0.01', 'ether'),
 }
 )

 featureContract = await PaidOnlyFeature.new(lock.address)

 await lock.purchaseFor(keyOwner, {
 from: keyOwner,
 value: await lock.keyPrice(),
 })
 })

 it('Key owner can call the function', async () => {
 await featureContract.paidOnlyFeature({
 from: keyOwner,
 })
 })
})
```

This line does all the heavy lifting for you:

```javascript
lock = await protocols.unlock.createTestLock(
 web3,
 accounts[9], // Unlock Protocol owner
 accounts[1], // Lock owner
 {
 keyPrice: web3.utils.toWei('0.01', 'ether'),
 }
)
```

It deploys the Unlock Protocol, creates a Lock to use for testing, and returns a contract instance for interacting with the Lock… as shown with the `purchaseFor` line. With this you can now test as you normally would.

If you want to step it up a notch here are a few mays you might monetize your contracts with Unlock:

- Unlock a discount on future transactions (or maybe make it free for key owners).
- Unlock usage limits, such as defaulting to a free trial which enables 1 tx per day per account. Key owners unlock unlimited calls.
- Unlock better odds, e.g. when rolling a DnD die key owners get +2 bonus on the roll.

Here's a few [example-contracts](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/tree/master/smart-contract-extensions/contracts/unlock-examples) with both contracts and sample tests to help you get started.

Want to do this for your smart contract? Get in touch we’d love to help you set it up: hello@unlock-protocol.com

Unlock value-added features directly in your smart contract. Trivial to implement with endless opportunities. We show you how and discuss some reasons why this might be interesting to you.

Integrating Unlock-Protocol into your Smart Contracts

Unlocking Smart Contracts

Smart contract developers can integrate with Unlock Protocol on-chain, allowing you to monetize features by selling Keys.
Let’s clear up a little terminology first. ‘Unlock Protocol’ allows you to create ‘Locks’ for specific content or features. Users can then purchase a ‘Key’ to gain access to that content. Keys may expire, allowing you to offer a monthly subscription option, and they are NFTs enabling a second hand market if you choose. We’re adding new features all the time.

	<img src="/images/blog/unlocking-smart-contracts/code.jpeg" width="400px" alt="Smart contracts">

From your smart contract, you simply call <code>getHasValidKey</code> on the Lock to see if the user should gain access.
A simple example is unlocking a paid-only feature in your contract. Let me show you how…
<pre><code>pragma solidity ^0.5.0;

import 'hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts/contracts/interfaces/IPublicLock.sol';

contract PaidOnlyFeature
{
 IPublicLock public lock;

 constructor(IPublicLock _lockAddress) public
 {
 lock = _lockAddress;
 }

 function paidOnlyFeature() public
 {
 require(lock.getHasValidKey(msg.sender), 'Purchase a key first!');
 // ...and then implement your feature as normal
 }

 // You can also have free features of course
}
</code></pre>
Pretty straight forward, right? Let’s step through it.
First we need to install an NPM package with this command:
<pre><code>npm i hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts
</code></pre>
Now we can review the code...
<pre><code>import 'hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts/contracts/interfaces/IPublicLock.sol';
</code></pre>
Importing the interface allows us to make calls to the Lock contract, given its address.
<pre><code>IPublicLock public lock;
</code></pre>
To gain access, users must purchase a key to the Lock for this content. This stores the address for the Lock contract. By using <code>IPublicLock</code> instead of <code>address</code> we simplify making calls within the contract. <code>public</code> allows end-users to read the Lock’s address, confirming they are purchasing the correct Key.
<pre><code>constructor(IPublicLock _lockAddress) public
{
 lock = _lockAddress;
}
</code></pre>
We have to set the address for the Lock to use at some point. If you know it when this contract is deployed you can simply assign it in the constructor. However you might also consider a privileged call instead, allowing you to update the Lock in the future if needed. Here’s an example of a <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/blob/master/smart-contract-extensions/contracts/unlock-examples/MutableLock.sol">MutableLock</a>.
<pre><code>require(lock.getHasValidKey(msg.sender), 'Purchase a key first!');
</code></pre>
<code>getHasValidKey</code> checks if the given address owns a valid (unexpired) key and returns true or false. We place this in a <code>require</code> statement so that the entire transaction fails if they do not. If you prefer, this could be moved to a <code>modifier</code> instead. Alternatively you could use an <code>if</code> condition instead to modify behavior for Key owners somehow (we have a few ideas about that below).
That’s the contract implementation! The hardest part can be testing though. We need a way to run your contract locally, and to make calls with and without owning a Key. For this we have a script to get you started:
<pre><code class="language-javascript">const { protocols } = require('hardlydifficult-ethereum-contracts')
const PaidOnlyFeature = artifacts.require('PaidOnlyFeature')

contract('PaidOnlyFeature', (accounts) => {
 let lock
 let featureContract
 const keyOwner = accounts[3]

 beforeEach(async () => {
 lock = await protocols.unlock.createTestLock(
 web3,
 accounts[9], // Unlock Protocol owner
 accounts[1], // Lock owner
 {
 keyPrice: web3.utils.toWei('0.01', 'ether'),
 }
 )

 featureContract = await PaidOnlyFeature.new(lock.address)

 await lock.purchaseFor(keyOwner, {
 from: keyOwner,
 value: await lock.keyPrice(),
 })
 })

 it('Key owner can call the function', async () => {
 await featureContract.paidOnlyFeature({
 from: keyOwner,
 })
 })
})
</code></pre>
This line does all the heavy lifting for you:
<pre><code class="language-javascript">lock = await protocols.unlock.createTestLock(
 web3,
 accounts[9], // Unlock Protocol owner
 accounts[1], // Lock owner
 {
 keyPrice: web3.utils.toWei('0.01', 'ether'),
 }
)
</code></pre>
It deploys the Unlock Protocol, creates a Lock to use for testing, and returns a contract instance for interacting with the Lock… as shown with the <code>purchaseFor</code> line. With this you can now test as you normally would.
If you want to step it up a notch here are a few mays you might monetize your contracts with Unlock:
<ul>
<li>Unlock a discount on future transactions (or maybe make it free for key owners).</li>
<li>Unlock usage limits, such as defaulting to a free trial which enables 1 tx per day per account. Key owners unlock unlimited calls.</li>
<li>Unlock better odds, e.g. when rolling a DnD die key owners get +2 bonus on the roll.</li>
</ul>
Here's a few <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/tree/master/smart-contract-extensions/contracts/unlock-examples">example-contracts</a> with both contracts and sample tests to help you get started.
Want to do this for your smart contract? Get in touch we’d love to help you set it up: hello@unlock-protocol.com


In the Ethereum ecosystem, accounts are identified by addresses. These addresses are public keys which all start with `0x` followed by 42 hexadecimal 'digits'. It's a great unique identifier for machines, but, for most people, it is impossible to read, remember, recognize or even just type!

Wallets provide tools like copy and paste, or QR codes to simplify the process of sharing an address. They also often add the ability to record an "alias" for addresses which should make it easier to identify previously recorded addresses.

Another approach is to use the [Ethereum Name Service](https://ens.domains/). This system, akin to the Domain Name System, lets people register names for their addresses, on chain. This allows other application and people to identify these addresses and show a human-friendly name instead of the long hexadecimal string.

At Unlock, we registered the `unlock-protocol.eth` name!

Our Dashboard shows addresses in several places: to tell the user their current address (useful for people with multiple addresses), to show creators the addresses of their locks, as well as to list the key owners.

We're proud to announce that we now fully support the Ethereum Name Service! For every address displayed in the UI, if a reverse look up resolves to an existing ENS domain, we will show the ENS domain as you can see on the screenshot below!

![Dashboard Lock](/images/blog/ethereum-name-service/ens-enabled.png)

If you have not done so already, think about [registering your own ENS domain today](https://app.ens.domains/)!


Humans are not equiped to make sense of Ethereum addresses, the Ethereum Name Service makes it easy to recognize, remember and type addresses, in a fully decentralized way!

We added support for Ethereum Name Service in the Unlock Dashboard

Ethereum Name Service Support

In the Ethereum ecosystem, accounts are identified by addresses. These addresses are public keys which all start with <code>0x</code> followed by 42 hexadecimal 'digits'. It's a great unique identifier for machines, but, for most people, it is impossible to read, remember, recognize or even just type!
Wallets provide tools like copy and paste, or QR codes to simplify the process of sharing an address. They also often add the ability to record an "alias" for addresses which should make it easier to identify previously recorded addresses.
Another approach is to use the <a href="https://ens.domains/">Ethereum Name Service</a>. This system, akin to the Domain Name System, lets people register names for their addresses, on chain. This allows other application and people to identify these addresses and show a human-friendly name instead of the long hexadecimal string.
At Unlock, we registered the <code>unlock-protocol.eth</code> name!
Our Dashboard shows addresses in several places: to tell the user their current address (useful for people with multiple addresses), to show creators the addresses of their locks, as well as to list the key owners.
We're proud to announce that we now fully support the Ethereum Name Service! For every address displayed in the UI, if a reverse look up resolves to an existing ENS domain, we will show the ENS domain as you can see on the screenshot below!
<img src="/images/blog/ethereum-name-service/ens-enabled.png" alt="Dashboard Lock">
If you have not done so already, think about <a href="https://app.ens.domains/">registering your own ENS domain today</a>!


The web needs a [new business model](https://medium.com/unlock-protocol/its-time-to-unlock-the-web-b98e9b94add1) — one which doesn’t erode people’s privacy or centralize control into the hands of a few powerful entities.

Luckily, the web is resilient, reliable, and really, really good at lots of things. Here’s one example: it’s great at creating communities.

Today we’re all members of dozens of communities online, from the obvious ones like our own social circles or neighborhood groups, to the less obvious ones like the people we follow and the apps we use. For example, I read [Macbidouille](https://macbidouille.com) in my [feed reader](https://feedbin.com/) and use [Medium](https://medium.com/) on my phone as I commute: I’m an implicit member of those communities, even if I don’t wear a badge that says so.

I’m even the creator of a few communities too. Admittedly they are small, but they are communities nonetheless. There are the people who follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/julien51), for example, or the readers of [my blog](https://ouvre-boite.com), or those who watch [our work on Github](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/).

At Unlock, we want to help your participation in those communities — your memberships — mean something. We want to give you more control over them.

> At Unlock, we want to help memberships materialize.

![locks](/images/blog/tokenized-memberships.jpg)

# What does that really mean?

Today a lot of these memberships are locked inside proprietary databases: my Medium membership, my Twitter graph, or the Github stars on our repository.

In some cases, the membership is portable—my RSS feed reader allows me to export these subscriptions to another reader, for example. But often the membership is abstract or invisible: there is no easy way to represent “people reading my blog.” It’s very hard to turn these memberships into something anyone can see, let alone use.

And that’s what it means to make them materialize.

> We think that Unlock can make these memberships real. It can turn them into something reusable, programmable, and monetizable.

# Membership as a token

How do you manage that? Well, you could build a service that keeps track in a huge database. That’s kind of what we have today across many of the large social media services. But it would have problems—it does have problems. There is a single point of failure, it’s not interoperable by default, and whoever manages it can arbitrarily change how it works. It’s not very web-like, and it’s not acceptable.

Fortunately it doesn’t need to work that way any more. We now have fully permission-less, distributed, and unstoppable databases: blockchains. The most famous one, Bitcoin, provides a secure ledger for its own currency. But there are many others out there too, storing data—what we call tokens—for everything from money, like [DAI](https://makerdao.com/en/dai/), to gaming items like [CryptoKitties](https://www.cryptokitties.co/). (These are what we call [Non Fungible Tokens](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/non-fungible-tokens-betaworks/).)

> We think tokens can be used to represent memberships.

# What happens then?

Once a membership is a token, you can do lots of interesting things with it. For example, the fact that I’m a paying member of Medium could be re-used by another application to grant me access to some kind of exclusive preview. Medium doesn’t need to give permission for that to happen.

If you push that a bit further, when several creators put the same lock on their work, they have created a bundle: a single key can unlock content or features in a lot of different places, and they can then split revenues in any way they want.

The keys themselves can have multiple purposes: the fact that you follow Unlock’s Github account could mean you automatically get invited to our launch party. And, if it’s a token, it doesn’t matter whether Github decides to suddenly remove its ⭐️ feature: tokens mean you would still be a member of our loyal developer community.

You could also use these tokens to transfer memberships to somebody else, or even to burn the membership itself.

# It’s not (just) about the money

Memberships are powerful things. They can be about social status, showing support, or just belonging. And they can include financial elements too. Many people proudly show their love for a brand by showing the logos on their clothes, their cars, their laptop. Non-profits realized a long time ago that getting somebody to wear a colored ribbon 🎗 was sometimes as powerful as getting a donation from them. And sports teams are already experts at monetizing their relationships with members by selling hats, jerseys, and gear with the club colors.

Because Unlock is underpinned with the Ethereum blockchain, it means that payment is already built into the infrastructure: the currencies, the wallets, and the exchanges already exist to make it easy for members to purchase or sell their memberships.

Monetizing through Membership is a much better alternative than monetizing through attention. By becoming a paid member, the consumer makes an explicit choice about what kind of community they want to be part of, what kind of work they want to promote, rather than being passively pulled away from things that matter.


What if there was a new way to interact with the communities you are part of?

Tokenizing Memberships

The web needs a <a href="https://medium.com/unlock-protocol/its-time-to-unlock-the-web-b98e9b94add1">new business model</a> — one which doesn’t erode people’s privacy or centralize control into the hands of a few powerful entities.
Luckily, the web is resilient, reliable, and really, really good at lots of things. Here’s one example: it’s great at creating communities.
Today we’re all members of dozens of communities online, from the obvious ones like our own social circles or neighborhood groups, to the less obvious ones like the people we follow and the apps we use. For example, I read <a href="https://macbidouille.com">Macbidouille</a> in my <a href="https://feedbin.com/">feed reader</a> and use <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a> on my phone as I commute: I’m an implicit member of those communities, even if I don’t wear a badge that says so.
I’m even the creator of a few communities too. Admittedly they are small, but they are communities nonetheless. There are the people who follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/julien51">Twitter</a>, for example, or the readers of <a href="https://ouvre-boite.com">my blog</a>, or those who watch <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/">our work on Github</a>.
At Unlock, we want to help your participation in those communities — your memberships — mean something. We want to give you more control over them.
<blockquote>
At Unlock, we want to help memberships materialize.
</blockquote>
<img src="/images/blog/tokenized-memberships.jpg" alt="locks">
<h1>What does that really mean?</h1>
Today a lot of these memberships are locked inside proprietary databases: my Medium membership, my Twitter graph, or the Github stars on our repository.
In some cases, the membership is portable—my RSS feed reader allows me to export these subscriptions to another reader, for example. But often the membership is abstract or invisible: there is no easy way to represent “people reading my blog.” It’s very hard to turn these memberships into something anyone can see, let alone use.
And that’s what it means to make them materialize.
<blockquote>
We think that Unlock can make these memberships real. It can turn them into something reusable, programmable, and monetizable.
</blockquote>
<h1>Membership as a token</h1>
How do you manage that? Well, you could build a service that keeps track in a huge database. That’s kind of what we have today across many of the large social media services. But it would have problems—it does have problems. There is a single point of failure, it’s not interoperable by default, and whoever manages it can arbitrarily change how it works. It’s not very web-like, and it’s not acceptable.
Fortunately it doesn’t need to work that way any more. We now have fully permission-less, distributed, and unstoppable databases: blockchains. The most famous one, Bitcoin, provides a secure ledger for its own currency. But there are many others out there too, storing data—what we call tokens—for everything from money, like <a href="https://makerdao.com/en/dai/">DAI</a>, to gaming items like <a href="https://www.cryptokitties.co/">CryptoKitties</a>. (These are what we call <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/non-fungible-tokens-betaworks/">Non Fungible Tokens</a>.)
<blockquote>
We think tokens can be used to represent memberships.
</blockquote>
<h1>What happens then?</h1>
Once a membership is a token, you can do lots of interesting things with it. For example, the fact that I’m a paying member of Medium could be re-used by another application to grant me access to some kind of exclusive preview. Medium doesn’t need to give permission for that to happen.
If you push that a bit further, when several creators put the same lock on their work, they have created a bundle: a single key can unlock content or features in a lot of different places, and they can then split revenues in any way they want.
The keys themselves can have multiple purposes: the fact that you follow Unlock’s Github account could mean you automatically get invited to our launch party. And, if it’s a token, it doesn’t matter whether Github decides to suddenly remove its ⭐️ feature: tokens mean you would still be a member of our loyal developer community.
You could also use these tokens to transfer memberships to somebody else, or even to burn the membership itself.
<h1>It’s not (just) about the money</h1>
Memberships are powerful things. They can be about social status, showing support, or just belonging. And they can include financial elements too. Many people proudly show their love for a brand by showing the logos on their clothes, their cars, their laptop. Non-profits realized a long time ago that getting somebody to wear a colored ribbon 🎗 was sometimes as powerful as getting a donation from them. And sports teams are already experts at monetizing their relationships with members by selling hats, jerseys, and gear with the club colors.
Because Unlock is underpinned with the Ethereum blockchain, it means that payment is already built into the infrastructure: the currencies, the wallets, and the exchanges already exist to make it easy for members to purchase or sell their memberships.
Monetizing through Membership is a much better alternative than monetizing through attention. By becoming a paid member, the consumer makes an explicit choice about what kind of community they want to be part of, what kind of work they want to promote, rather than being passively pulled away from things that matter.


In the blockchain world, one of the most potent distribution mechanisms is called **an airdrop**. It is a way for token creators to send their tokens to a large set of people, without requiring these recipients to perform transactions and pay fees themselves. Unfortunately it is often used as a vector for spam even though it is a very useful tool to bootstrap a fairly wide adoption.

At Unlock, [we believe](/blog/mission-vision/) that all creators should make a sustainable living from their work, while respecting the time, privacy and health of their community... and spam does not really fit in this vision!

Additionally, when talking with creators, they often mention that they want to give away some access keys to their most loyal fans or others members of their community as a way to thank them for their contributions. Of course, our smart contract already includes a `purchaseFor` method which anyone can invoke in order to purchase a new key and assign it to someone else. In the Ethereum world, this is akin to a "meta transaction", a transaction whose beneficiary is not its sender.

Unfortunately, this function, `purchaseFor` requires the purchaser to know the recipient's Ethereum address in advance which is not always practical. Luckily, the team at [LinkDrop](https://linkdrop.io/) found a very good way to solve this: they created a system which lets anyone _create links_ with attached keys. The first user who clicks on a link can then claim a unique key for it. This way, someone who wants to give away keys to a lock can easily do so by creating droplinks which they would then send to users by email, social networking, or even for promotional events.

For which lock would you want to generate links? You can easily [use Linkdrop's tutorial](https://github.com/LinkdropHQ/linkdrop-unlock)!


Linkdrop provides a simple mechanism which lets anyone create links to "claim" keys for free!

Linkdrop: granting keys through links!

In the blockchain world, one of the most potent distribution mechanisms is called an airdrop. It is a way for token creators to send their tokens to a large set of people, without requiring these recipients to perform transactions and pay fees themselves. Unfortunately it is often used as a vector for spam even though it is a very useful tool to bootstrap a fairly wide adoption.
At Unlock, <a href="/blog/mission-vision/">we believe</a> that all creators should make a sustainable living from their work, while respecting the time, privacy and health of their community... and spam does not really fit in this vision!
Additionally, when talking with creators, they often mention that they want to give away some access keys to their most loyal fans or others members of their community as a way to thank them for their contributions. Of course, our smart contract already includes a <code>purchaseFor</code> method which anyone can invoke in order to purchase a new key and assign it to someone else. In the Ethereum world, this is akin to a "meta transaction", a transaction whose beneficiary is not its sender.
Unfortunately, this function, <code>purchaseFor</code> requires the purchaser to know the recipient's Ethereum address in advance which is not always practical. Luckily, the team at <a href="https://linkdrop.io/">LinkDrop</a> found a very good way to solve this: they created a system which lets anyone create links with attached keys. The first user who clicks on a link can then claim a unique key for it. This way, someone who wants to give away keys to a lock can easily do so by creating droplinks which they would then send to users by email, social networking, or even for promotional events.
For which lock would you want to generate links? You can easily <a href="https://github.com/LinkdropHQ/linkdrop-unlock">use Linkdrop's tutorial</a>!


[ETHGlobal](https://ethglobal.co/) runs Ethereum hackathons all around the world for people to learn and practice their Ethereum coding skills. One of their goals is to "onboard" hackers and engineers who are not yet familiar with Ethereum and don't already have a wallet or Ether. Yet, they rightfully live by their words and insist on using [Ethereum powered tickets](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/introducing-tickets/)! By adding [user accounts](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-user-accounts/) to our tickets app, Unlock is excited to deliver a great on-boarding experience! Here is how it works:

1. A hacker who's never used Ethereum before applied and was accepted for [ETHWaterloo](https://ethwaterloo.com/)!
2. They're sent to our [registration page](https://bit.ly/2ozn9iI). **Note: do NOT purchase a ticket if you have not been previously approved. Your funds will be lost and you will not be able to attend.**

![Event Page](/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/event-page.png)

3. When clicking on the registration button, they're asked to pay 20 DAI which they does not have because they does not have a wallet. But, when clicking on the Purchase button, they're asked to login or sign up.

![Sign in](/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/sign-in.png)

4. After they created their account with email, password and credit card information, they're asked to pay with their credit card! Unlock will keep track of their unique Ethereum address.

![Credit card](/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/credit-card.png)

Once they confirm their credit card payment, Unlock will then perform a meta-transaction and pay the 20 DAI on their behalf so that the NFT is then assigned to their address.

# Refunding attendees

When attending an ETHGlobal hackathon, all participants are refunded: the payment is an incentive for people to show up! It's also very useful for these new-to-Ethereum users because the refund actually happens in crypto: each participants who checks in at the venue (more details soon!) will receive a 20DAI refund to their address.

Additionally, Unlock accounts can be "ejected": during that process, the user can take control of their private key, and import it in the wallet of their choice: **they are now full Ethereum users**!

# Frequently Asked Questions

### Why is Unlock charging me $21.40?

When paying with a credit card, our payment processor takes a fee (30cts + 2.9%) which is used to pay the credit card networks, banks and more; this accounts for $0.90. Additionally, when sending an Ethereum transaction, the sender pays a gas fee to miners in order to mine the transaction.

### Can I purchase with my own Ethereum wallet?

Yes! If you go down that route, you will not pay a credit card fee, and you will have the ability to decide the gas fee you pay to miners. But, in order to do that, you need your own web3 wallet (Metamask or Opera are great choices!), you need some Ether (at least to pay gas fees) and some DAI (a USD stable coin).

### Where is my ticket?

On the Ethereum blockchain! Each ticket is a Non Fungible Token linked to your unique Ethereum address and to the ETHWaterloo event lock. You can inspect them all using Etherscan. Additionally your ETHWaterloo tickets contains some unique metadata. If your crypto wallet supports the ERC721 specification (like Opera), you can even see the ticket in your wallet once it's been purchased! Otherwise you can see them all on Opensea. ([Here is mine!](https://opensea.io/assets/0xB0ad425cA5792DD4C4Af9177c636e5b0e6c317BF/4))

### How can I get a refund when I attend?

At check-in, you will be asked to show the QR code you were provided by Unlock when you staked. You can always find your QR code by logging back in to your Unlock Protocol account. Simply have your email confirmation from Unlock handy and show event organizers your QR code. Once scanned at check-in, your refund will be processed. Please note that the exact timing of when your funds will appear back in your wallet depends on the transaction speeds of the Ethereum mainnet at the time. **Bottom line: if you check-in to the event prior to 10PM Friday November 8th, you'll receive your 20 DAI refund!**

### Can I transfer my ticket?

No. Actually, all Unlock keys (your ticket is a kind of Unlock key) are transferable, but each lock owner can set terms on how keys can be transferred. ETHGlobal charges a prohibitively expensive fee for transfers, making them economically improbable ;) Bonus point if you write the actual amount of that fee in the comments!

We're very excited to meet you in Waterloo, as our team will be there! If you've never hacked on Ethereum before, [please consider applying now](https://airtable.com/shrrUrSEzT4xrYuyC)!


We're proud to announce that ETHGlobal is using Unlock's ticket application for its ETHWaterloo hackathon, for crypto and non crypto users alike!

ETHWaterloo Tickets

<a href="https://ethglobal.co/">ETHGlobal</a> runs Ethereum hackathons all around the world for people to learn and practice their Ethereum coding skills. One of their goals is to "onboard" hackers and engineers who are not yet familiar with Ethereum and don't already have a wallet or Ether. Yet, they rightfully live by their words and insist on using <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/introducing-tickets/">Ethereum powered tickets</a>! By adding <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-user-accounts/">user accounts</a> to our tickets app, Unlock is excited to deliver a great on-boarding experience! Here is how it works:
<ol>
<li>A hacker who's never used Ethereum before applied and was accepted for <a href="https://ethwaterloo.com/">ETHWaterloo</a>!</li>
<li>They're sent to our <a href="https://bit.ly/2ozn9iI">registration page</a>. Note: do NOT purchase a ticket if you have not been previously approved. Your funds will be lost and you will not be able to attend.</li>
</ol>
<img src="/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/event-page.png" alt="Event Page">
<ol start="3">
<li>When clicking on the registration button, they're asked to pay 20 DAI which they does not have because they does not have a wallet. But, when clicking on the Purchase button, they're asked to login or sign up.</li>
</ol>
<img src="/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/sign-in.png" alt="Sign in">
<ol start="4">
<li>After they created their account with email, password and credit card information, they're asked to pay with their credit card! Unlock will keep track of their unique Ethereum address.</li>
</ol>
<img src="/images/blog/ethwaterloo-tickets/credit-card.png" alt="Credit card">
Once they confirm their credit card payment, Unlock will then perform a meta-transaction and pay the 20 DAI on their behalf so that the NFT is then assigned to their address.
<h1>Refunding attendees</h1>
When attending an ETHGlobal hackathon, all participants are refunded: the payment is an incentive for people to show up! It's also very useful for these new-to-Ethereum users because the refund actually happens in crypto: each participants who checks in at the venue (more details soon!) will receive a 20DAI refund to their address.
Additionally, Unlock accounts can be "ejected": during that process, the user can take control of their private key, and import it in the wallet of their choice: they are now full Ethereum users!
<h1>Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<h3>Why is Unlock charging me $21.40?</h3>
When paying with a credit card, our payment processor takes a fee (30cts + 2.9%) which is used to pay the credit card networks, banks and more; this accounts for $0.90. Additionally, when sending an Ethereum transaction, the sender pays a gas fee to miners in order to mine the transaction.
<h3>Can I purchase with my own Ethereum wallet?</h3>
Yes! If you go down that route, you will not pay a credit card fee, and you will have the ability to decide the gas fee you pay to miners. But, in order to do that, you need your own web3 wallet (Metamask or Opera are great choices!), you need some Ether (at least to pay gas fees) and some DAI (a USD stable coin).
<h3>Where is my ticket?</h3>
On the Ethereum blockchain! Each ticket is a Non Fungible Token linked to your unique Ethereum address and to the ETHWaterloo event lock. You can inspect them all using Etherscan. Additionally your ETHWaterloo tickets contains some unique metadata. If your crypto wallet supports the ERC721 specification (like Opera), you can even see the ticket in your wallet once it's been purchased! Otherwise you can see them all on Opensea. (<a href="https://opensea.io/assets/0xB0ad425cA5792DD4C4Af9177c636e5b0e6c317BF/4">Here is mine!</a>)
<h3>How can I get a refund when I attend?</h3>
At check-in, you will be asked to show the QR code you were provided by Unlock when you staked. You can always find your QR code by logging back in to your Unlock Protocol account. Simply have your email confirmation from Unlock handy and show event organizers your QR code. Once scanned at check-in, your refund will be processed. Please note that the exact timing of when your funds will appear back in your wallet depends on the transaction speeds of the Ethereum mainnet at the time. Bottom line: if you check-in to the event prior to 10PM Friday November 8th, you'll receive your 20 DAI refund!
<h3>Can I transfer my ticket?</h3>
No. Actually, all Unlock keys (your ticket is a kind of Unlock key) are transferable, but each lock owner can set terms on how keys can be transferred. ETHGlobal charges a prohibitively expensive fee for transfers, making them economically improbable ;) Bonus point if you write the actual amount of that fee in the comments!
We're very excited to meet you in Waterloo, as our team will be there! If you've never hacked on Ethereum before, <a href="https://airtable.com/shrrUrSEzT4xrYuyC">please consider applying now</a>!


We've started using [The Graph](https://thegraph.com/) to provide us with a faster way of iterating on user facing ideas; leveraging the ability to utilize aggregated on chain data.

Earlier this month while hacking on a proof of concept, we realized that we couldn't reasonably bring the feature to market without an aggregation layer.

Enter Graph Protocol, while being released last year(2018) we really hadn't had a chance to give it a go. When their team announced a [hackathon](https://thegraph.com/hackathon) we decided to dive in and were not disappointed.

Being an extremely small team, ingestion solutions under consideration needed to be robust enough to handle our immediate needs, easily extensible, and not an immediate liability in terms of reliability.

Unlock Protocol is essentially a factory smart contract that allows entities to create their own contracts; supporting the monetization of their work via issued tokens.

Around these core contracts we have built a suit of components to test hypothesis regarding interest and usability. Ethereum's test and main nets are publicly readable, and depending on the given use case it may be worthwhile to request data from the node directly. However it may be more prudent to read from a much faster cache. So we created a subgraph allowing us to quickly provide the most relevant data to our proof of concept and ultimately update some of our other components to leverage the subgraph as well.

## Our entities: Locks, Keys, and Key Holders

Leveraging these entities and your knowledge of [GraphQL](https://graphql.org/) you can start answering questions like

- what keys does a key holder have?
- For a given lock, what keys will expire after a given time?

Here is a few to get started:
[The Unlock Protocol Subgraph](https://docs.unlock-protocol.com/tools/subgraph)

Real talk, so what was the proof of concept and what did we build? We built a keychain, a centralized place where people can manage their Unlock KEYS (Nonfungible Tokens ): review, request refunds, etc.

![keychain screenshot](/images/blog/the-graph-blog-post/screenshot.png)

Without a caching layer, requesting this data would have been a bit I/O intensive as it would require the traversal either events or transactions between the user and all of the locks in the wild.

All in all, we love what the Graph Protocol team is working on. We look forward to contributing to the project and leveraging it more in the future.

What other use cases do you imagine, what would you build?


Using the Graph Protocol for faster iteration on Ethereum based products

Leveraging the Graph Protocol to improve user experience and rapidly iterate on ideas

The Graph

We've started using <a href="https://thegraph.com/">The Graph</a> to provide us with a faster way of iterating on user facing ideas; leveraging the ability to utilize aggregated on chain data.
Earlier this month while hacking on a proof of concept, we realized that we couldn't reasonably bring the feature to market without an aggregation layer.
Enter Graph Protocol, while being released last year(2018) we really hadn't had a chance to give it a go. When their team announced a <a href="https://thegraph.com/hackathon">hackathon</a> we decided to dive in and were not disappointed.
Being an extremely small team, ingestion solutions under consideration needed to be robust enough to handle our immediate needs, easily extensible, and not an immediate liability in terms of reliability.
Unlock Protocol is essentially a factory smart contract that allows entities to create their own contracts; supporting the monetization of their work via issued tokens.
Around these core contracts we have built a suit of components to test hypothesis regarding interest and usability. Ethereum's test and main nets are publicly readable, and depending on the given use case it may be worthwhile to request data from the node directly. However it may be more prudent to read from a much faster cache. So we created a subgraph allowing us to quickly provide the most relevant data to our proof of concept and ultimately update some of our other components to leverage the subgraph as well.
<h2>Our entities: Locks, Keys, and Key Holders</h2>
Leveraging these entities and your knowledge of <a href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a> you can start answering questions like
<ul>
<li>what keys does a key holder have?</li>
<li>For a given lock, what keys will expire after a given time?</li>
</ul>
Here is a few to get started:
<a href="https://docs.unlock-protocol.com/tools/subgraph">The Unlock Protocol Subgraph</a>
Real talk, so what was the proof of concept and what did we build? We built a keychain, a centralized place where people can manage their Unlock KEYS (Nonfungible Tokens ): review, request refunds, etc.
<img src="/images/blog/the-graph-blog-post/screenshot.png" alt="keychain screenshot">
Without a caching layer, requesting this data would have been a bit I/O intensive as it would require the traversal either events or transactions between the user and all of the locks in the wild.
All in all, we love what the Graph Protocol team is working on. We look forward to contributing to the project and leveraging it more in the future.
What other use cases do you imagine, what would you build?

![User accounts let you easily pay with crypto.](/images/blog/unlock-user-accounts/user-accounts.jpg)

The decentralized web is great, but we want it to be available for those who aren't early adopters. Currently interacting with Dapps like Unlock requires the use of a Web3 wallet (like [MetaMask](https://metamask.io/) on desktop web browsers or the use of a browser with an integrated wallet like [Opera](https://www.opera.com/crypto)). At Unlock we want to provide an on-ramp for everyone, not just those already interested in crypto. Thus, we are pleased to introduce Unlock User Accounts, which allow people with no knowledge of crypto to use our services on selected locks. Once they're ready, they can "eject" their accounts and import them into the wallet of their choice.

## A Managed Crypto Wallet

We didn't want to create parallel ecosystems of "haves" and "have-nots" on our protocol, so one of our key challenges was to host Web3 wallets for our users without compromising their privacy or control of their keys. To that end, we store an encrypted wallet with the user's password. We never see the keys, all decryption and wallet interaction is done client-side, and their transactions are carried out on the chain. When a user purchases a key, they pay with their credit card, and our backend purchaser buys the key and transfers it to their account seamlessly.

## Signing Up and Logging In

The signup process is quite simple. You can sign up from a supported checkout page, or on our main site. After entering your email, you will receive a confirmation email from us with a link to finish setting up the account with a password. After that, you can set up a payment method through Stripe so that you can make your key purchases!

## In The Longer Term

We're not fans of lock-in, so don't think that this is an attempt to get hooks into naive users. When a user account is ready to "graduate," the account holder can eject the account and take control of it themselves, retaining all their keys and transaction history.

## Availability

We're enabling user accounts for our partners on select locks (reach out to us using the little widget in the lower right corner if you're interested!), keys for which are denominated in DAI (a USD stable coin). We charge a small fee to facilitate the transaction, which is added to the price at checkout and clearly broken down so people know what we're charging and why. The final price in dollars is computed as the amount of DAI, credit card fees, and our service fee (which we use to pay for gas!)

For example, consider a 10 DAI lock. The fee structure will be approximately as follows:

| Fee | Amount Charged |
| :-------------------------- | --------------: |
| Base lock price (DAI) | `$10.00` |
| Credit card processing fee | `$0.61` |
| Unlock service fee (gas...) | `$0.50` |
| | Total: `$11.11` |

You may (rightfully) consider that this is a fairly high cost for using credit cards... but that price is usually hidden for you, as the merchants are the ones paying for it.

# Next!

We believe we're now providing a way for non crypto users to purchase Non Fungible Tokens to access their favorite content or software, without requiring them to go through the hassle of purchasing crypto currencies first.

Let us know what you think!

Unlock Inc. provides a way for users without crypto wallets to buy keys to locks on the Unlock protocol. For this we introduce managed user accounts as well as payment via Credit Card.

Providing an on-ramp for those who are new to crypto

Unlock User Accounts

<img src="/images/blog/unlock-user-accounts/user-accounts.jpg" alt="User accounts let you easily pay with crypto.">
The decentralized web is great, but we want it to be available for those who aren't early adopters. Currently interacting with Dapps like Unlock requires the use of a Web3 wallet (like <a href="https://metamask.io/">MetaMask</a> on desktop web browsers or the use of a browser with an integrated wallet like <a href="https://www.opera.com/crypto">Opera</a>). At Unlock we want to provide an on-ramp for everyone, not just those already interested in crypto. Thus, we are pleased to introduce Unlock User Accounts, which allow people with no knowledge of crypto to use our services on selected locks. Once they're ready, they can "eject" their accounts and import them into the wallet of their choice.
<h2>A Managed Crypto Wallet</h2>
We didn't want to create parallel ecosystems of "haves" and "have-nots" on our protocol, so one of our key challenges was to host Web3 wallets for our users without compromising their privacy or control of their keys. To that end, we store an encrypted wallet with the user's password. We never see the keys, all decryption and wallet interaction is done client-side, and their transactions are carried out on the chain. When a user purchases a key, they pay with their credit card, and our backend purchaser buys the key and transfers it to their account seamlessly.
<h2>Signing Up and Logging In</h2>
The signup process is quite simple. You can sign up from a supported checkout page, or on our main site. After entering your email, you will receive a confirmation email from us with a link to finish setting up the account with a password. After that, you can set up a payment method through Stripe so that you can make your key purchases!
<h2>In The Longer Term</h2>
We're not fans of lock-in, so don't think that this is an attempt to get hooks into naive users. When a user account is ready to "graduate," the account holder can eject the account and take control of it themselves, retaining all their keys and transaction history.
<h2>Availability</h2>
We're enabling user accounts for our partners on select locks (reach out to us using the little widget in the lower right corner if you're interested!), keys for which are denominated in DAI (a USD stable coin). We charge a small fee to facilitate the transaction, which is added to the price at checkout and clearly broken down so people know what we're charging and why. The final price in dollars is computed as the amount of DAI, credit card fees, and our service fee (which we use to pay for gas!)
For example, consider a 10 DAI lock. The fee structure will be approximately as follows:
| Fee | Amount Charged |
| :-------------------------- | --------------: |
| Base lock price (DAI) | <code>$10.00</code> |
| Credit card processing fee | <code>$0.61</code> |
| Unlock service fee (gas...) | <code>$0.50</code> |
| | Total: <code>$11.11</code> |
You may (rightfully) consider that this is a fairly high cost for using credit cards... but that price is usually hidden for you, as the merchants are the ones paying for it.
<h1>Next!</h1>
We believe we're now providing a way for non crypto users to purchase Non Fungible Tokens to access their favorite content or software, without requiring them to go through the hassle of purchasing crypto currencies first.
Let us know what you think!


**UPDATE DECEMBER 2021:** This plugin has been updated. [Learn about v3 of this plugin here](https://www.unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-protocol-wordpress-plugin).

The world of publishing is [moving away from ads](https://medium.com/unlock-protocol/the-end-of-the-ad-supported-web-d4d093fb462f) as the single way to monetize content. In the last 18 months, most of the largest and most influential publications in the US and Europe have been moving to what they call "direct consumer revenue." This is a great thing because it changes incentives from trying steal their users' attention (click bait, fake news, endless slideshows... etc) to creating value for their members.

Unfortunately though, unless you're a very large publisher with your own engineering team to build and maintain your own paywall, it's nearly impossible to move to that model.

At Unlock, we believe that everyone one the web should be treated equally with the same capabilities. What is the point of democratizing publishing if only the biggest corporations can actually be paid for their work?

Today, we're introducing a [WordPress plugin for Unlock](https://wordpress.org/plugins/unlock-protocol/) which lets you add a lock to your Wordpress.org site in minutes!

# Demo

First thing first: you can try it today on our [demo wordpress.org website](https://wordpress-demo.unlock-protocol.com/). This blog only has a single story, and some of the content on this page has been put behind a [lock](https://etherscan.io/address/0xCE62D71c768aeD7EA034c72a1bc4CF58830D9894): you will see a different version of it based on whether you are already a member or if you're not one.

![become member](/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/become-member-wordpress.png)
_If you're not a member you're invited to become one by clicking on a button_

# Installing on your own Wordpress

## Getting started

If you'd like to add a lock to your site, start by [deploying your first lock](https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/create-first-lock/).

While the lock is deploying you should install this plugin. From the administration of your Wordpress.org website, in the `Plugins` section, click on the `Add New` button and search for `Unlock Protocol` in the search bar.

![search plugin](/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/search-plugin.png)

Once installed, check the plugin's settings to add the address of the lock that you have deployed.

![plugin settings](/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/plugin-settings.png)

## Writing locked stories

The plugin provides you with "Blocks" which can be used in the [Gutenberg Editor](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/) (WordPress 5.0 and later), for both posts and pages. We provide 3 different blocks:

- The _locked_ block: a block whose content (rich text) is visible to non-members.
- The _unlocked_ block: a block whose content (rich text) is visible only to members.
- The _checkout button_ block: a block with a button to let you add a button for people to become members. This button will not be visible for members.

Once your story includes the content you need, you can preview its content like any other WordPress post or page. We recommend the use of a web3 wallet (such as [MetaMask](https://metamask.io/)) which supports multiple accounts so that you can easily toggle between accounts which are already members and accounts which are not members yet!

PS: like [all of our code](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/), this plugin is fully open source, you can find it on Github: [Unlock Wordpress Plugin](https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock-wordpress-plugin)

If you're using the WordPress plugin, we'd love to get your feedback and learn from you about ways it could be better! We're also working on several new additions for which we'd love to find early adopters, please get in touch!


WordPress is the most popular Content Management System. Adding a lock to your site lets you monetize the words you write without asking anyone's permission!

Adding a lock to your WordPress.org website has never been easier!

WordPress Plugin

UPDATE DECEMBER 2021: This plugin has been updated. <a href="https://www.unlock-protocol.com/blog/unlock-protocol-wordpress-plugin">Learn about v3 of this plugin here</a>.
The world of publishing is <a href="https://medium.com/unlock-protocol/the-end-of-the-ad-supported-web-d4d093fb462f">moving away from ads</a> as the single way to monetize content. In the last 18 months, most of the largest and most influential publications in the US and Europe have been moving to what they call "direct consumer revenue." This is a great thing because it changes incentives from trying steal their users' attention (click bait, fake news, endless slideshows... etc) to creating value for their members.
Unfortunately though, unless you're a very large publisher with your own engineering team to build and maintain your own paywall, it's nearly impossible to move to that model.
At Unlock, we believe that everyone one the web should be treated equally with the same capabilities. What is the point of democratizing publishing if only the biggest corporations can actually be paid for their work?
Today, we're introducing a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/unlock-protocol/">WordPress plugin for Unlock</a> which lets you add a lock to your Wordpress.org site in minutes!
<h1>Demo</h1>
First thing first: you can try it today on our <a href="https://wordpress-demo.unlock-protocol.com/">demo wordpress.org website</a>. This blog only has a single story, and some of the content on this page has been put behind a <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0xCE62D71c768aeD7EA034c72a1bc4CF58830D9894">lock</a>: you will see a different version of it based on whether you are already a member or if you're not one.
<img src="/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/become-member-wordpress.png" alt="become member">
If you're not a member you're invited to become one by clicking on a button
<h1>Installing on your own Wordpress</h1>
<h2>Getting started</h2>
If you'd like to add a lock to your site, start by <a href="https://unlock-protocol.com/blog/create-first-lock/">deploying your first lock</a>.
While the lock is deploying you should install this plugin. From the administration of your Wordpress.org website, in the <code>Plugins</code> section, click on the <code>Add New</code> button and search for <code>Unlock Protocol</code> in the search bar.
<img src="/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/search-plugin.png" alt="search plugin">
Once installed, check the plugin's settings to add the address of the lock that you have deployed.
<img src="/images/blog/wordpress-plugin/plugin-settings.png" alt="plugin settings">
<h2>Writing locked stories</h2>
The plugin provides you with "Blocks" which can be used in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/">Gutenberg Editor</a> (WordPress 5.0 and later), for both posts and pages. We provide 3 different blocks:
<ul>
<li>The locked block: a block whose content (rich text) is visible to non-members.</li>
<li>The unlocked block: a block whose content (rich text) is visible only to members.</li>
<li>The checkout button block: a block with a button to let you add a button for people to become members. This button will not be visible for members.</li>
</ul>
Once your story includes the content you need, you can preview its content like any other WordPress post or page. We recommend the use of a web3 wallet (such as <a href="https://metamask.io/">MetaMask</a>) which supports multiple accounts so that you can easily toggle between accounts which are already members and accounts which are not members yet!
PS: like <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock/">all of our code</a>, this plugin is fully open source, you can find it on Github: <a href="https://github.com/unlock-protocol/unlock-wordpress-plugin">Unlock Wordpress Plugin</a>
If you're using the WordPress plugin, we'd love to get your feedback and learn from you about ways it could be better! We're also working on several new additions for which we'd love to find early adopters, please get in touch!


Last month, we introduced [Unlock for tickets](/blog/introducing-tickets): a unique ethereum based ticketing application.
It lets anyone sell tickets to their events as keys to an Unlock lock. Attendees receive a unique Non Fungible Token and [the application](https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/) even lets the organizers verify if the tickets are valid at check-in. Like any other lock, keys can be priced [using an ERC20 token](/blog/erc20-locks) like DAI for organizers whose costs are in US Dollars, or a specific utility token for organizers who want to leverage their own coins!

Today, we're excited to announce a broad sponsorship effort for anyone who uses tickets to organize an Ethereum or Bitcoin related event for any event until December 31st 2019.

Our sponsorship package is simple:

- Use a lock to sell tickets, using Ether or DAI,
- We will match ticket sales up to 3 DAI per key sold, for up to 1,000 tickets sold.

We will also help you by _promoting your event_, guide you through the set-up of your event page as well as _design a custom NFT image_ that all of your participants will receive in their web3 wallet (check this one from the [Berlin Open Source Salon](https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/event/0x98c0cbf0e9525f1a6975a51c9d5e8e063c034d6d), or the [NFT Dev Meetup](https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/event/0x5865Ff2CBd045Ef1cfE19739df19E83B32b783b4)).

If you're running an ethereum meetup, a DeFi group, a hackathon, reach out to us via email hello@unlock-protocol.com and tell us more about the event you're organizing: we'd love to help!


Today, we're excited to announce a broad sponsorship effort for anyone who uses tickets to organize an Ethereum or Bitcoin related event for any event until December 31st 2019.

Use our tickets application and receive up to $3,000 in sponsorships!

Event Sponsorship!

Last month, we introduced <a href="/blog/introducing-tickets">Unlock for tickets</a>: a unique ethereum based ticketing application.
It lets anyone sell tickets to their events as keys to an Unlock lock. Attendees receive a unique Non Fungible Token and <a href="https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/">the application</a> even lets the organizers verify if the tickets are valid at check-in. Like any other lock, keys can be priced <a href="/blog/erc20-locks">using an ERC20 token</a> like DAI for organizers whose costs are in US Dollars, or a specific utility token for organizers who want to leverage their own coins!
Today, we're excited to announce a broad sponsorship effort for anyone who uses tickets to organize an Ethereum or Bitcoin related event for any event until December 31st 2019.
Our sponsorship package is simple:
<ul>
<li>Use a lock to sell tickets, using Ether or DAI,</li>
<li>We will match ticket sales up to 3 DAI per key sold, for up to 1,000 tickets sold.</li>
</ul>
We will also help you by promoting your event, guide you through the set-up of your event page as well as design a custom NFT image that all of your participants will receive in their web3 wallet (check this one from the <a href="https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/event/0x98c0cbf0e9525f1a6975a51c9d5e8e063c034d6d">Berlin Open Source Salon</a>, or the <a href="https://tickets.unlock-protocol.com/event/0x5865Ff2CBd045Ef1cfE19739df19E83B32b783b4">NFT Dev Meetup</a>).
If you're running an ethereum meetup, a DeFi group, a hackathon, reach out to us via email hello@unlock-protocol.com and tell us more about the event you're organizing: we'd love to help!