March 18, 2020
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has launched its non-fungible token (NFT) collection of its front pages that reported major events in 1997 as announced on their website.
Here’s everything you should know:
- The collection, called “Artifacts by SCMP”, offers its first drop of the “1997 Premium Series”, which has 1,300 unique mystery boxes, containing five random NFTs of the Post’s front pages from 1 January to 1 July 1997 and sold more than 1,000 “boxes”.
- Each box cost the equivalent of US$97 (£74), but had to be purchased using FUSD – a cryptocurrency on the Flow blockchain, but pegged to the value of the US dollar. Sales opened at 1 pm GMT.
- However, those who purchased would have to wait until 1 pm GMT on Tuesday – 9 pm in Hong Kong time – to “open” their boxes and learn which front pages they had won.
- The auction makes SCMP the latest publication to try and monetize historic content with the lucrative NFT craze.
- The second drop will have 1,300 boxes on offer, covering 1 July to 31 December 1997.
- The full series covers many historically significant events including the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule, the Asian financial crisis, the deaths of Deng Xiaoping and Princess Diana, and the Avian flu outbreak.
- Gary Liu, the chief executive officer of SCMP said, “SCMP has witnessed many historic moments as Hong Kong’s newspaper of record and the launch of the ‘1997 Premium Series’ is significant as the city marks the 25th anniversary of the handover this year,”
- SCMP forward to releasing more of the Post’s 118-year-old media archives as NFTs as well as partnering with other guardians of history to preserve historical assets on the blockchain, Liu said.
- A Discord channel set up for the SCMP Artifact community had approximately 800 individual users online during the auction.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
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