One of the trends we are seeing is the NFT Café and NFT Restaurants in 2022. I want to discuss the NFT cafe in this article and try to provide a clear vision of the business model and how it should be done. Some of the American NFT experiential things I’m seeing like the Gary Vee upcoming Flyfish Club in Manhattan or Bored & Hungry Café out in Los Angeles appear to be novel and not on solid footing. One of the best markets I saw the NFT model really shaping up is in Thailand, I know – Thailand. 

By the way, Thailand is coming a hot market like Dubai for crypto nomads, who are similar to digital nomads who have multiple residences around the world in crypto markets like El Salvador, Dubai, and Portugal with multiple passports. Crypto nomads are living a life where they consider themselves free from the monetary system and government systems. I don’t want to sell you a rosy picture about these crypto nomads but there are risks with that living in a country where a dictator or military coup leader decide to repatriate land and assets from rich outsiders and give it back to the local people as a scapegoat and appeasement. But again, your strategy as a modern nomad is to have multiple passports, have crypto assets so you can go anywhere and escape anywhere if you have to. 

Being a crypto nomad with multiple passports, multiple residences, and crypto on a decentralized blockchain ledger as your assets and wealth is attainable. The problem is we are looking at these weak Black men in America, old as hell being in their 40s and 50s following nonsense like Tariq Nasheed or listening to Dr. Boyce Watkins and his blockchain certificates instead of putting in real work. These brothas are typing LOL to another grown Black man in a Jason Black live feed chat. But there are other brothas and sistas who know all about these opportunities in the crypto space and the latest trends and out there chasing it and I salute them for going for theirs. I’m not feeling sorry for any more broke Black folks when I see the opportunity all out in front of us, free open-source code downloads to just learn and network with folks willing to share the right information over the Internet with others. 

I want to quickly talk about some of the NFT models that I don’t care for. The Gary Vee Flyfish club model is kinda stupid and it is basically a transferrable membership model using NFT as a membership card. This is what we call in the industry a solution looking for a problem. There is no need to use a unique token on a blockchain for a membership access solution. We already have membership built in our Kossier platform by performing a check-in and allowing merchants and people to have API access to assign membership so there is no need for crypto-minting or mining which is a waste of energy and effort. 

The Bored & Hungry in Los Angeles is probably the best-fitting name for what I consider the lamest implementation of the NFT restaurant model to date. They serve burgers and fries and use the Bored Ape as cutouts standees as branded mascots like the Ronald McDonald clown or Wendy’s girl – that is also very stupid and makes no damn sense. Couldn’t just go with a logo design, why brand everything after an expensive purchased NFT? This is just a gimmick and thinks about how premium burger brands had to shut down due to inflation and even McDonald’s had to raise their prices so that NFT branded burger joint has nothing to do with a real NFT restaurant model. 

With that said, let’s talk about a better implementation which is an NFT café in Thailand. What I want you to take away is what they did over in Thailand and implement and I want you to consider some things that can you can improvise with adoption and tweaking small improvements. 

We are going to talk about Moon crypto and NFT Café in Thailand. I have used the following screenshots from the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8v8xWIvHvY and want to credit the YouTube vlogger Jamrell for her coverage. Now, this spot in Thailand is a real crypto and NFT café because it is promoting the NFT and crypto culture and is designed to attract real participants of the crypto nomad and crypto trading culture. 

One thing I saw was a cube shop implementation with crypto-based books for sale. Also, there is another glass display case with cold storage wallets for sale. These two retail touchpoints help communicate to the customer that this café is promoting a crypto-culture. 

The shops are kinda like how Starbucks was not only selling refillable branded containers but selling CDs to promote independent music artists in their coffee shops in their early days promoting a Seattle coffeehouse culture where independent artists would show up and perform an acoustic version of their songs. This is something you definitely set up and it could be possible you can run a book library instead of selling the books where you rent the books or have a premium membership for this service. 

Most shops I’m seeing around the world are taking non-alcoholic specialty drinks seriously on their menu and I understand why. The reason is alcoholic clubs are prone to intoxicated fools and violence and the cost of maintaining a liquor license. But more important – the culture is now more intellectual instead of folks coming in looking to drink some liquor and get a buzz. I agree with this model – throw out the alcohol and focus on creating an experience where people can talk sober and straight about the crypto culture. 

I didn’t take a picture of the crypto-cookies and desserts that were being sold because it reminded me of the Japanese anime theme cafes too much – too playful for serious crypto nomads. I think a better idea is to contract a good chef who can cook and package their signature meals from a commercial food kitchen and fill up the food display, like the Starbuck food display. 

I noticed the screens advertise both NFT arts and the café's upcoming events. One thing I liked is how clean the NFT display was and how the QR code was big enough to scan. Also, the color tones are really eye-catching and not too loud but loud enough to notice. If you look at one of the NFT displays you will see they offer an image as either an NFT or a print. I wonder about the possibilities here – what if 500 people buy the print and not the NFT? Does the NFT price go up because it is now a proven resalable asset that generated sales? I never thought about this hybrid art sales model. 

Here is what I would do – I wouldn’t just sell art. I would sell NFT music, NFT books, and other digital assets like software downloads, mostly from the local community. They would pay a listing fee but the fee will be recouped from sales like a traditional music label or publishing label. I would allow people to download a chapter or listen to a sample of the music with a QR scan as well. 

An information radiator is a huge display of information for multiple people to view. The best ones are the trade halls in China where people can sit and look at stock prices going up and down. You see pictures of trade halls in China and it's usually seniors who sit there all day looking at stock prices and talking to neighbors and meeting up with others in the community talking up shop.  

Crypto radiators that show charts and the latest prices should actually be open-source to find a way to get the latest trade price. That latest trade price is tricky because it would have to come from a crypto exchange feed and I doubt those feeds are free to get unlimited access. There is probably a way to aggregate data to quote the exchange rate for crypto-based on sampling crypto exchanges but I have not done enough research at this juncture but likely will.  

I saw another video of this same café and notice they changed up the screens and this brought new ideas and possibilities. If you look at the other version of the screens they are showing e-sports gameplay and it also looks like they showing someone doing instructional video and there is something cool that can be done. 

First, I would pay the school kids or professional gamers to create feeds of them doing something awesome with video games to stream for those who want to watch it. The video can show footage from a skateboard video where they do stunts and tricks, a car racing game in replay mode, a sports game, or an open-world game like Grand Theft Auto running successfully from a 5-star wanted level. Or even EA games like Madden or UFC. That would be more interesting and cheaper to stream to a crowd than a licensed sports game. 

Second, I would stream good instructional videos on crypto and NFT and rent silent disco headphones out to customers to listen to the video without disturbing other customers. This can be another money-making opportunity to share seminars and instructional videos with content creators. I would even show cooking shows and travel videos that were exclusively made for the café by popular YouTube and social media personalities. 

Let’s summarize what can be done next to create a real crypto and NFT café. One of the things I had a problem with this café is the furniture. The café furniture was rigid and utilitarian – I think it should be more of a comfortable lounge area like the Marriott Marquis sitting area outside of check-in or an airport lounge area for laptop users because those are the type of customers you want to sit in the shop and network with each other or just drop in and engage with the information radiator screens. 

I would not set this shop up in the hood and if I was going to be honest – I would set this up in Mexico City, Tokyo, Dubai, San Salvador, Lisbon, Kuala Lumpur, and so on if you understand where I’m going. This would be set up in real crypto markets around the world and attract the real up-and-coming crypto nomads. If you set this up in America, you going to attract a lot of fools and wannabes that will turn off the real ones with the real money. They come to your spot with a Dr. Boyce Watkins blockchain certificate running their mouth like they can teach you a thing or two and you got to walk them out of your establishment. 

What is amazing to me is most of the setup can be done with open source and already documented techniques because the blueprint is out there if you do your homework. You are not really setting up a café, you are setting up a digital hub to encourage a high-quality clientele. I would make it a really upscale spot for gamer culture, digital content creators, and the crypto culture and scale this out worldwide.