As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) become an increasingly popular way to create artificial scarcity in the digital marketplace, the Associated Press (AP) has listed its first ever NFT artwork for auction in collaboration with Everipedia and digital artist Marko Stanojevic.
Total sales across NFT marketplaces stood at $500 million (£360m) in February, compared to just $200m (£144m) for the whole of 2020, signifying their increasing popularity due to Bitcoin’s growing value alongside high profile NFT sales such as Beeple’s ‘Crossroads’ – which sold for $6.6m (£4.7m) ahead of Beeple’s Christie’s auction listing.
The piece, entitled ‘The Associated Press calls the 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space’ (above), commemorates the first time a US election was called via blockchain when AP announced the winner on a unique Ethereum address.
Having counted the vote in US elections since 1848, the news marked an important moment in history in terms of blockchain adoption. Through this artwork, which is being auctioned on OpenSea, that historic legacy is continuing.
“AP has a long history of capturing important moments throughout history. Digital historical artifacts like this innovative NFT artwork represent the next step in the evolution of marking historical events digitally,” said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP’s director of data licensing.
The artwork has verified the historic election data displayed in the piece and the metadata within the NFT. This includes the exact date and time that AP called the election, the electoral college votes won by Republicans and Democrats, the names of both candidates, and the number of votes received by each candidate.
AP believes this digital artifact ‘will be of great historical and cultural significance for future generations to come as it comes at a time where we are witnessing the digital transformation of media and the emergence of cryptographically verified data.’
Photo from PRNewsfoto/Everipedia
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