Hong Kong newspaper SCMP partners with museums for historic NFTs with Flow blockchain
The South China Morning Post is joining Dapper Labs, the creator of the popular non-fungible token (NFT) series NBA Top Shot, to release a number of NFT trading cards commemorating the history of Hong Kong, with the first drop expected to cover 1997 during the end of British colonial rule in the city.
Founded in Hong Kong in 1903, the Post has been the paper of record for the city with a 118-year-old media archive. The news organisation released its full whitepaper on its NFT project ARTIFACT on Tuesday with details of the NFTs based on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain.
More specifically, the company is looking to release in the coming months a series of NFT trading cards based on many iconic moments in Hong Kong’s history. The inaugural drop of the 1997 Series will cover many historical moments in 1997, including the July 1 ceremony commemorating Hong Kong’s handover to the Chinese government, the passing of Deng Xiaoping on February 19 that year and the death of Princess Diana in August.
“We are delighted to join the Flow ecosystem and partner with a major global blockchain innovator in Dapper Labs. This partnership is essential for creating world-class NFT experiences of our historical archives,” said the company’s CEO Gary Liu, “Through our ARTIFACT whitepaper, we look forward to inspiring other ‘guardians of history’ to share our vision of making history more discoverable, connected, and collectable.”
Different ARTIFACT trading cards will be assigned to various rarity levels.
Tuesday’s whitepaper also announced the establishment of a Council of Experts to guide the forming of the ARTIFACT standard, including Alibaba Group Holding’s co-founder Joe Tsai, President of Christie’s Asia Pacific Francis Belin, Dapper Labs’ co-founder Mikhael Naayem and Animoca Brands’ chairman Yat Siu. Alibaba is the sole owner of the SCMP, and Tsai is the chairman of the publisher.
The Post first announced its ARTIFACT project in July, joining other media organizations around the world that see NFT as part of the future for the digital publishing industry. In June, CNN launched “Vault by CNN” to tokenise its history of news coverage. In August, Fortune raised 429 ether, valued at about US$1.3 million at the time, in its first-ever NFT sale.
The Post’s inaugural 1997 Series collectible cards will be divided into four rarity levels which correspond to the varying degrees of significance of the events these cards are based on.
The card based on the Post’s front-page coverage of the 1997 handover ceremony will be classified as “Super Rare,” while another commemorating the outbreak of the bird flu will be of the “Rare” grade. Other events such as the arrest of Hong Kong’s jockeys and horse racing trainers will be of the “Common” grade.
(source of news: https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3157065/scmp-and-nba-top-shot-series-creator-launch-their-1997-series-nft-trading?module=perpetual_scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3157065)
Givenchy Enters the Digital Fashion Landscape With New NFT Collection
Under the direction of creative director Matthew M. Williams, Givenchy is entering the digital fashion landscape with its new NFT collection in collaboration with graphic artist Chito.
The new endeavor is the second time the duo has worked together following their initial collaboration for Givenchy’s Spring 2022 pre-collection. Developed by Williams and Chito, the series includes 15 NFTs featuring eye-catching airbrushed characters and symbols, which were also utilized for Givenchy’s Spring 2022 pre-collection.
“I’ve been wanting to explore this new and exciting space of NFTs,” said Matthew M. Williams. “The fact that Chito is already active in the ecosystem made it feel even more natural for us to collaborate on this limited series and bring our collective vision for Givenchy even further.”
The Chito x Givenchy NFT collection will go on sale on November 23 on the NFT platform, OpenSea.
(source of news: https://hypebeast.com/2021/11/givenchy-matthew-williams-chito-nft-collection-info)
Hollywood is rebuilding “The Matrix” film franchise as NFTs
More than two decades ago, the Matrix film franchise pioneered the idea of virtual worlds in the minds of mainstream audiences. Now ahead of the December release of The Matrix: Resurrections sequel, the studio behind the films is allowing fans to own a piece of that tech-infused sci-fi fantasy.
Warner Bros. has teamed up with startup Nifty’s to offer 100,000 unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing characters “living” in the Matrix for sale Nov. 30. Each NFT will cost $50 and be embedded, via blockchain smart contracts, with the ability to let the owner of the NFT choose the red pill or blue pill, in keeping with the franchise’s central premise, a couple of weeks later. The same dynamic will also allow owners of the NFTs to participate in other, unannounced functions related to their virtual asset in the following months.
NFT interactivity as a lifelong ticket to fan engagement and revenue for Hollywood
So far, most of the biggest releases in the NFT space have revolved around digital artists and, increasingly, traditional artists creating new work expressly to be distributed as NFTs. But Hollywood has begun to recognize the additional profit and engagement opportunity inherent in NFTs. Some other recent Hollywood projects harnessing the power of iconic films in the NFT space include Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, whose NFTs will also include bonus content, and Marvel, which launched a set of Spider-Man NFTs a few months ago.
The Matrix NFTs not only create content from an existing franchise, but use that content to keep dedicated fans engaged in ways not possible through traditional fan memorabilia like posters, t-shirts, and hats. Fans who purchase NFTs are literally invested in the franchise’s success. The evergreen interactivity in these smart contract-based NFTs also means fans could continue experiencing updates and value-added features for decades to come.
The Matrix NFT drop follows Warner Bros.’ previous foray into the NFT space with Nifty’s earlier this year via its Space Jam franchise. That offering also allowed fans to buy their way into the blockchain version of the franchise but started with an initial free promotion that gave away a batch of NFTs related to the movie series.
“As NFTs continue to grow in popularity, projects like this will usher in a new era of fandom, empowering those who love film and art to not only engage in a new way, but to also own a piece of these franchises they love,” Jeff Marsilio, CEO and co-founder of Nifty’s, said in an email.
Get ready for your favorite TV and film franchise to drop its own NFT series
The key feature in the Matrix NFT series is that the characters from the films will not be included. Like the spin-off Animatrix animated series in 2003, released as a complement to the live-action films, the Matrix NFTs will stand on their own as separate original content from the same universe.
For the Matrix NFTs, if the work sells out, the studio only stands to generate $5 million from the sale, but for fans holding the unique digital assets, the value could increase over time. And for Hollywood studios, this new stream of profit and engagement could become as important as franchise-based games and toys as the concept of the metaverse, which includes NFTs and blockchain technology, continues to gain traction with mainstream movie lovers.
(source of news: https://qz.com/2083755/the-matrix-is-using-nfts-to-merge-the-fictional-metaverse-with-the-real-one/)
Famous Chinese Celebrities Enters NFT World to Increase Fans Engagement
Nowadays, the world was filled with technologies and new ideas. In this trendy world majority of the people are aware of the term cryptocurrency. And now non-fungible tokens (NFT) also becoming popular among celebrities, actors.
Accordingly, many Chinese movie stars, directors, singers, pop stars, and celebrities are entering the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) world. NFT can store on a digital ledger, to engage better with their fans and to tap a new idea of making money.
More so, this month, some of the famous personalities in Hong Kong’s entertainment world such as Wong Kar Wai, Gigi Yim, and Hins Cheung have been disclosed their respective NFT projects.
Hong Kong Celebrities NFT Projects
On October 6, Hong Kong’s famous film director Wong Kar-wai sold a non-fungible token (NFT) based on behind-the-scenes footage from his movie namely In the Mood For Love, fetching HK$4.3 million through a Sotheby’s auction.
Eventually, after a few days, the famous Hong Kong singer Gigi Yim, revealed that her first music video will enter into an NFT, which fans can own. The single music video-based NFT is currently worth over HK$4,095. Yim also declared that the proceeds of the NFT sales will go towards charity.
And this week, a veteran singer Hins Cheung joined the NFT frenzy as he disclosed his recent concert on Tuesday. Hins Cheung has recorded a mystery video in the lead-up to the December concert. The NFT related to the video will auction at a starting price of HK$100,000. As Yim, Cheung also declared proceeds from NFT sales will go towards charity.
Currently, Hong Kong has emerged as a popular and famous destination for NFT launches by Chinese celebrities, as regulators in mainland China remain wary of blockchain-enabled digital tokens, which have gained the attention of speculators. Many mainland-based celebrities, including singers A Duo and Gao Jiafeng, also joined the trend and issues NFTs.
Henceforth, Hong Kong is a top place for art auctions, and Shawn Yue Man Lok, a Hong Kong Movie star who starred in Infernal Affairs II. Shocked the city in September when he sold his collections of 14 NFTs. They compromised the famous art pieces such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club and fetched about HK$120 million at an auction organized by Christie’s, marking a new Asia record. Even Yue mentioned the part of the proceeds will go towards charity.
(source of news: https://thenewscrypto.com/famous-chinese-celebrities-enters-nft-world-to-increase-fans-engagement/)
Time magazine unveils ‘TIMEPieces’ NFT collection
Time magazine President Keith A Grossman has unveiled the landmark ‘TIMEPieces’ NFT collection – a community initiative that features original artwork from more than 40 artists.
The collection of TIMEPieces will consist of 4,676 unique NFTs curated from 37 pieces of original artwork. The prestige collection is part of the Build a Better Future series.
The artists for the genesis collection of TIMEPieces were organised by Time Creative Director DW Pine, who originally invited 19 artists to participate in the collection.
From Thursday, September 23 at 12pm ET, collectors will be able to purchase TIMEPieces via a randomised, blind drop on nft.time.com. Each TIMEPiece is priced at 0.1 ETH to attract a broad spectrum of potential collectors and enable long-time readers of the magazine to participate.
Collectors of the TIMEPieces will be eligible for invites to future events and access to a variety of ‘exclusive digital experiences’.
Additionally, the collection will be turned into a commemorative hardcover edition over the holiday season and be displayed at Dreamverse – the World’s First NFT Art and Music Festival, in NYC on November 4.
Time magazine has worked to deliver cryptocurrencies to its audience, including introducing crypto payments in leading assets such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin via crypto.com and auctioning limited-edition front covers as NFTs.
Time also included Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin in its ‘100 Most Influential People of 2021’ list.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian spoke of Buterin’s importance to the internet and Web3 technologies for Time, saying: “I’ve never been more excited about the potential of the Internet, and that’s largely thanks to Vitalik Buterin.”
The magazine additionally included Digital Currency Group – the parent company of Grayscale – and leading exchange Coinbase in its 2021 Top 100 Most Influential Companies list.
(source of news: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/time-magazine-unveils-timepieces-nft-120250872.html)