GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™ On The Blockchain
Produced By: Jonas Hudson
“From Beanie Babies to Baseball Cards and Stamps, Consumers Have Always Loved to Collect”
The Mona Lisa, Ancient Roman coins, X-Men #1 in Mint condition — people have invested in just about everything they felt reflected their identity, and it’s become more prevalent with the socialization/democratization of knowledge and the rise in social media and online identity.
GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™ (“crypto-collectibles”) is a new way for IP holders, content providers, musicians, artists, and filmmakers to generate revenue and/or drive promotions that deliver meaningful consumer value.
GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™ are typically based on real-life objects such as unique posters, photographs, album cover art, movie stills, film/music ticket stubs, etc. Each object is created as a “token” on the blockchain, with variations in specific attributes and limits to the number of tokens that can be generated.
In technical terms, a GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™ is a cryptographically unique, non-fungible (can’t be divided) digital asset. Unlike cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, which requires all tokens to be identical, each crypto-collectible token is unique and often limited in quantity. The blockchain is, essentially, the secure delivery system for both these kind of assets.
Why The Blockchain?
Blockchain technology allows a true Digital Rights Management platform controlled by a decentralized group of servers. Should someone attempt to hack, steal or change information about an authentic digital collectible or token like a Bitcoin, that person would have to hack all the computers located around the world at the exact same time. It’s highly unlikely, if not impossible, which enables the digital asset to have value that is public, trusted and includes a clear chain of title.
Before the blockchain and the Bitcoin application, it was impossible to know if a digital asset was scarce, particularly as they could be easily copied. While many online games and sites attempted to offer an in-house currency (often in the form of a digital weapon or special clothing for a avatar,etc.), the supply and control of these digital assets were at the whim of the company issuing them. They had the ability to remove or modify your ownership at any point in time.
From Bitcoin to GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™
The concept of fungibility applies to collectibles: all new baseballs are fungible (effectively interchangeable) until one is signed by Babe Ruth, at which point it becomes a unique collectible. A fungible, scarce, digital token that you can share with other people has high utility as currency (Bitcoin). However, in the collectible context, by tagging tokens (assets) with unique identifiers/Metadata, one can differentiate between two seemingly identical tokens (assets). They are no longer fungible because they are tied (tagged)to a unique set of data.
The fungible tokens are the equivalent of identical blank canvases, where non-fungible tokens are the Picassos, Van Goghs, and Rembrandts.
Non-fungible token (aka NFT) is the technical term some people use to describe authentic digital collectibles.
Why are Authentic Digital Collectibles on the blockchain different than a digital currency?
- Digital Original Photos (aka Authentic Digital Collectibles)have combinations of several properties (date, artist, venue, photographer, royalties, etc.) that make each token unique (and sometimes valuable!). This makes them non-fungible, as any one original “Grateful Dead” token wouldn’t be equivalent to another.
- Digital Original Photos are by definition, indivisible. While you can divide Bitcoin by infinite amounts, mobile collectible photos are only valuable as a whole.
In the early stages of the mobile collectible platform, users spent millions of dollars acquiring content, ranging from digital concert tickets to virtual kitties (with some particularly special kittens going for hundreds of thousands of dollars).
While many digitally-native tokens (hello, kitty) may be fads, brand focused, easily consumable, pop culture items will create a new revenue stream in the digital space.
Four Traits Found in A Mobile Collectible to Enable Value:
- Scarcity — Short Supply
- Non-Fungibility — Uniqueness
- Velocity — Distribution and Followers
- Trust — Verifiable trust in its origin
A scarce mobile collectible that is unique, in high demand, and has a trusted history, has intrinsic value. That value can be monetized or used to incentivize desired consumer behavior.
Examples:
- A photographer shoots a major event and wants to sell his/her image through a mobile collectible marketplace. The photographer introduces the photo to the blockchain and is the “creator” of the mobile collectible. Details about the image such as the rights holder, photographer, location, date, etc. (known as a “smart contract”), is layered on the blockchain and permanently follows the collectible as it’s traded, sold or transferred. Rights, re-sale revenue and/or not-for-sale language can be applied for all assets.
- A studio, working with a distribution partner, can drive movie ticket sales by attaching tickets to the blockchain and distributing a select number of mobile collectible assets unique to each ticket.
Generation 0: Photographer or Movie Studio
Generation 1: Mobile collectible purchaser
Data: Rights, Revenue/Pricing, Information layered on a smart contract
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Recent GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectibles™ Programs
The collectible market presents a fantastic, cost-efficient promotional marketing opportunity using the blockchain. On May 29, 2018, Deadpool 2, Fox, Marvel and Atom Tickets delivered the first GFT™ Authentic Digital Collectible™ on the blockchain for a major studio, under the GFT™ brand.
https://deadline.com/2018/08/deadpool-2-jumps-digital-collectibles-blockchain-1202439356/
About GFT™
GFT™ is the premiere mark for Authentic Digital Collectibles™, launched by Greenfence Consumer, a division of Greenfence. GFT™ focusses on content partnerships with premium IPs, and was developed to provide a consistent consumer experience and a trusted brand when trading/buying assets featuring third-party intellectual properties.
© 2018 greenfence LLC, and affiliates. All rights reserved.
Special Thanks to Alex Hardy. I shamelessly borrowed some information and verbiage from his medium post. https://medium.com/crypto-simplified/a-simple-explanation-of-crypto-collectibles-8674c4527bd1
