The latest cutting-edge technology with digital work, memes, and ephemera has attracted investors and collectors to a non-fungible token or NFT marketplaces where they have been spending loads of amounts on digital works like Beeple's The First 5000 Days.
Now, postage stamps are getting NFT for added security.
Postage stamps with NFT
Publicly listed Coinsilium, a UK-based blockchain venture operator, has unveiled its plans this week for Gibraltar's new stamp series, which will be issued together with NFT collectibles on May 17, with each having its own cryptographic value.
Coinsilium CEO Eddy Travia told Decrypt in an email that the company aims to tap into the growing demand from both the philatelic and NFT community and give enthusiasts a meaningful collectible that can bring stamp collecting into the digital world.
The company stated that the artwork designs for the NFTs are a selection of exclusively commissioned images of Gibraltar and had been approved. Its design partner RedFOX is now preparing them for listing on a digital marketplace in the future.
A total of 50,000 stamps will then be issued and represented by 100,000 NFTs. It is still not clear how the two NFTs representing each stamp will be differentiated as Coinsilium has not clarified it yet.
The NFTs will then be minted with different levels of scarcity as individual constituents making up a collectible set, including selecting very limited and rare NFTs made with enhanced value characteristics.
Coinsilium is now working with the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau on the said project. The startup also has plans to launch an NFT development studio in Gibraltar, called Nifty Labs, according to CryptoNews.
Nifty Labs will develop smart contract systems for NFT applications and then offer different services to enterprises who want to create NFTs, according to Coinsilium. One of these is a bridge for NFTs to the Bitcoin business.
Not the first stamp issued as an NFT
Gibraltar is not the first to target stamp collectors with NFTs. Back in June 2019, Austria had issued 150,000 crypto-collectible stamps on the Ethereum blockchain. This marked the first time that a government had launched an NFT.
Austria's NFT issue of stamps was made in a landscape format, with the postage stamp components on the left and the crypto credentials on the right, beneath a scratch, ticket-style covering.
The idea of having stamps of different designs connected when printed is not something new, and it is known as se-tenant in philately, which is the study of stamps.
Canadian Stamp News reviewed the collection. The industry publication stated that because the stamps are government-issued and tied to a postage stamp, they would enhance any complete Austrian collection.
The Gibraltar stamp series will be limited to 50,000, with 40,000 available for public sale. Around 10,000 stamps have been pre-reserved by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau for their own clients and their dealers. The pre-orders will be accepted from around Apr. 19, and a general release is slated for mid-July.
As more and more millennials get invested in stamp collecting, this may start an NFT stampede from tech-savvy philatelists.
Read also: Elon Musk Sells 'NFT Song' for 420 Million Dogecoin to Beeple: Multiple DJs Claim It's Their Song!
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sieeka Khan
