Memory Dividends

The human experience is truly amazing, yet all too fleeting. During our limited time on Earth, it’s essential that we embrace life's precious moments and, if possible, preserve them for the future.

With POAP, we now have a new technology that allows us to easily recall past precious moments in life. This magical ability provides a host of emotional benefits, which I am coining as memory dividends.

In order to understand a memory dividend, we must first understand financial dividends. Financial dividends are recurring financial payments that you receive when you are invested in a profitable company. Similar to holding an investment and receiving financial benefits, memory dividends are recurring emotional payments that you receive when you hold on to and remember a wonderful memory.

Human Experience

Life is made up of moments, which live on a scale from the horrible and heartbreaking to the positively breathtaking. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on positive and precious life moments.

Every human brain forms and recalls memories differently. There are people who have photographic memories, and there are others whose memory fails them even at a young age. Regardless of genetic gifts, as humans age, our memory systems slowly degrade. This means that recalling memories is harder. We want to fight against this. Just as selling an investment prematurely can lead to missing out on potential gains, failing to remember a cherished memory can result in losing its future value, which could be even more significant.

When you recall a memorable life moment, you get fulfillment from reflecting on that precious time. These are memory dividends; emotions such as joy, gratitude, serenity, inspiration, and awe that nourish the human psyche. There are strong links between these types of positive emotions and increased mental and physical health, including lower blood pressure, reduced risk for heart disease, healthier weight, better blood sugar levels, and overall longer life.

Activating Memories

Now the question can be asked, what is the best way to activate a memory?

Throughout history, humans have used different methods to capture our memories. In modern history, this has typically been done through photographs, films, letters, diaries, and physical mementos (collectibles).

Photographs and films are very common visual cues for activating memories. They capture the image of the person, event, or item and distill it for easy viewing. The downside of photographs and films is that they don’t provide written context, which can leave out much of the experience.

Diaries, letters, and newspapers are wonderful written items for helping to recall memories. They can capture life achievements, love affairs, and important news events. Writing allows us to express our feelings deeply and provide lots of context, which can help with activating memory dividends. The downside is that they don’t often provide visual stimulus, which is important for memory recall, as 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual.

Physical mementos and collectibles can be anything that has sentimental value, such as your grandfather's old pocket watch, a childhood teddy bear, a favorite trophy, a ticket to Burning Man, or even a creepy old Furby. Mementos can serve as a treasure trove of emotions and are great for bringing back old memories and powerful nostalgia. The downside is that physical collectibles often take up a lot of physical space and the memory may fade over time without additional context.

Precious Digital Collectibles

Fortunately, we now have The Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP), a technology that allows anyone to create digital collectibles (POAPs) to commemorate their precious moments of life. POAPs provide many of the same benefits as photographs, letters, and physical mementos, as the issuer has the ability to attach both beautiful imagery and detailed written descriptions.

In addition, POAPs remove many of the drawbacks associated with other analog memory activation tools. They require no physical storage and can’t be destroyed since they are digitally native and secured by blockchain technology.

POAPs are the perfect way to receive the memory dividends we deserve and to pass these dividends on to future generations. They are all in a single location with easy access and free permanent storage while avoiding the cumbersome and corruptible nature of collectibles from history's past.

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to invest in your future self.