Allowlist

An allowlist is a list of wallet addresses that a project lets do something before or instead of the general public, such as minting an NFT before a public sale. OpenSea's explainer of 17 August 2023 defines an NFT allowlist as wallet addresses given the chance to mint before a collection opens to a general audience, likens it to presale concert tickets for a musician's biggest fans, and says the main way onto one is being an active member of the project's community. On OpenSea drops, mint stages are enforced on-chain, a drop can have up to five presale stages each with its own price and per-wallet limits, and an allowlist cannot be edited once minting begins.

An allowlist entry is tied to a wallet address, so being added never requires handing over a seed phrase or private key; ethereum.org says no legitimate service asks for them. Quest platforms work with lists too: Galxe lets a project import its own CSV or spreadsheet list of users to decide who can complete a task.