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The Solana-based golfing loyalty app GolfN has gone live on the App Store, Lightspeed has learned exclusively.
The mobile app combines collectibles with digital caddie features and a native GOLF token for an experience that CEO Jared Phillips described to me as “Chase rewards meets Strava meets Pokémon Go.” The app’s self-reported waitlist of over 47,000 golfers will now gain access to the latest shot at crypto consumer rewards.
Upon downloading GolfN, I was directed to create a free account. I then received three digital golf clubs, which enable rewards, but logging a round with my free account will only earn me non-financialized “tickets.”
To gain access to points, which will soon become convertible to Solana-based GOLF tokens, users have to get a paid GolfN membership that runs between $50 to $1,000 per month. These memberships come with a slew of perks and will also let users accrue points that can become GOLF, which can be redeemed for things like golf gear or traded on the open market. GolfN will also circulate partly via “rentals” of virtual golf club collectibles.
When I asked Phillips how the economics of such a scheme can work, he said he expects golfers to be willing to shell out a monthly fee to be rewarded for the money they put into golf, similarly to how membership-based credit cards work. For GolfN’s golf industry partners, the app can offer more finely-tuned customer data, Phillips said.
As for the users themselves, Phillips estimated GolfN will have a 10:1 ratio of non-crypto to crypto people since the app is built for golfers more than for crypto-natives. Nevertheless, Phillips argued that “not everyone in crypto golfs, but everyone in crypto is golf-adjacent.”
“The average person in crypto is more highly educated than not — usually bachelor’s degree — generally makes more money, and has more disposable income,” Phillips said, noting that a number of crypto people have “come out of the woodwork” as golfers while he’s been building the app.
Golf and crypto’s demographic overlap has made the sport a target for crypto experimentation in the past, particularly with LinksDAO — a group that raised $10 million in a 2022 NFT sale with the promise of buying a golf course. It actually went on to do so, acquiring Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland in 2023 and gating club membership with the NFTs. LinksDAO has become part owner of a second course in Kansas City.
GolfN boasts a lot of potential demand. But if the app has an Achilles’ heel, it may be its complexity. Even as someone who writes about crypto full-time, my head spun for a few minutes trying to grok the distinctions between GOLF, points, tickets, digital clubs and digital golf balls. We’ll see if the golfers fare better.
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