Alastria has held its first NFT Open Day, an event organized by Alastria’s Art and Digital Culture Sectoral Committee to showcase its members’ projects and use cases, share lessons learned and also reflect on the challenges arising in the world of art and digital culture with the emergence of decentralised technologies such as blockchain.
On this occasion, more than 60 attendees had the opportunity to discover three exciting projects that are already on the market, with diverse values to offer in the use of NFTs.
Jorge Ordovás presented the NFT collection developed by Telefónica Tech based on the drawings of the renowned chef Ferrán Adriá. He explained that one of the biggest challenges was designing the NFT value proposition, so that it was not simply a transaction but included other uses associated with the asset as well. Telefónica went to great lengths to ensure that the user experience was simple and accessible, making it clear that it is not a metaverse. Among the technological solutions available, they opted for Polygon’s blockchain, due to the technical features it offered for this project.
Luis Vallejo and Chaira Ventura, from Blockchain Italia, discussed the NFT platform MUSA, which aims to be a point of reference for artists and creators who want to express themselves through their digital art while exploring new sales channels. MUSA is a multi-vendor marketplace suited to the needs of art, music and fashion creators. The platform seeks to enable and facilitate the buying and selling of NFTs. It also aims to be inclusive of people who are not cryptocurrency experts, as prices can be expressed in fiat money and payments can be made in fiat or, when specified, in a cryptocurrency for some products. Thanks to a live demonstration, it became clear how easy it is to create NFTs, even for those who are not very tech savvy.
Denisa Gibovic and Xavier Tarrés, from Blue Room Innovation, presented SCENTS, a solution that combines creations’ digital identity and NFTs. It is a work-in-progress solution looking for a way to evolve the ERC-721 standard and allow a creation’s owner to certify other qualities of it that make it possible to trace the creation and increase its value, based on its exposure or the engagement it generates.
For this project they have worked conceptually with the Harddiskmuseum and are currently preparing a pilot with Art.Army. Their presentation showed how verifiable credentials for the artwork’s digital identity are created.
Under the leadership of Verónica Cebrián (Telefónica) and Pablo de Vargas (Authentication4Art), the Art and Digital Culture Sectoral Committee has been working to understand how blockchain technology can be used to develop the art and culture sector across the board, not only with the development of NFTs but also in aspects related to intellectual property, traceability and other key areas. More than 20 companies dealing in art, technology, business creation and law take part in the committee’s three working groups (NFT, legal and tax, and technology), sharing challenges, best practices and existing solutions to boost the uptake of blockchain in the sector.
Miguel Ángel Domínguez, president of Alastria, recalled some of the commitments he made when he took up his position at the head of the Management Board and which have been met over the last year, pointing out that now begins the second stage of the journey to create a market where blockchain companies can generate business opportunities. “Welcome to Alastria 3.5, which will take us through the more exciting half of the journey, where we will generate business for all those who have been driving this technology from the very beginning. Don’t miss this second half; we’re going to have a good time”, he concluded.