I attended The Merge and all I got was this lousy POAP

You tuned in on YouTube, trolled Twitter and loved the launch party. Now, you can commemorate the fact that you went all-in on The Merge with a Proof of Attendance Protocol.

For a mere $10, you can be the proud owner of a POAP, NFTs that are often used as collectables or memorabilia given at in-person events, or in this case, one of the most significant virtual worldwide events and upgrades in Ethereum’s history. 

The POAPs were the brainchild of ETHStaker, a Reddit community formed around Ethereum proof of stake discussion.

More than 6,000 POAPs have been purchased, according to The Block Research analyst Simon Cousaert, who built a Dune Analytics dashboard to track activity.

The POAP collection process details were livestreamed during the Merge viewing party in the U.S. overnight hours. Purchase activity initially spiked when The Merge occurred and has leveled off significantly since then.

Should you be itching to get your own POAP, they can be had for a donation of $10 dollars minimum in USDC, RAI, DAI, ETH, or MATIC to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) address “Stateful.eth.” Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism are all supported networks for the POAP purchase. The funds collected from the POAP will be donated to core developers at Protocol Guild which was decided by EthStaker, The Daily Gwei, and Bankless.

The POAP purchase window will officially close on Sept. 18, 00:00 UTC.

Correction: The story was corrected throughout to reflect the POAPs are being issued by ETHStaker, not the Ethereum Foundation.