#87 | Priceless Indonesian Artifacts Get Preserved on the Blockchain

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Hey friends,

Great to have you with us on today’s Morning NFTea, we have a quick one today covering some recent stories of NFT’s ability to preserve real-world assets on the blockchain from Indonesian culture to Japanese swords and a metaverse relic from Gucci. Let’s jump into it!

One of our favorite things to cover in this newsletter is stories that push the boundaries for people’s perception of NFTs. As a technology of the future, we are only just now getting started with its applications, and the Deputy of Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism shares a similar sentiment with a recent partnership that explores NFTs solving social and economic challenges within Indonesia.

Diving into this further, the benefits of blockchain technology through its ability to record and capture information in a permanent, tamper-proof record is an ideal scenario for historic preservation and one we had seen before when in 2022 the Meta History Museum preserved records of the Ukraine war through the blockchain. And so, with respect to Indonesia, these tokenized records could include “traditional ceremonies, craftsmanship, and knowledge of nature and our universe, but also musical and oral expressions, dances and pilgrimages”.

To facilitate this, Muhammad recently partnered with Quantum Temple which develops a multichain NFT marketplace that brings cultural heritage and tourism to the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains. Linda Adami, the CEO of Quantum Temple, says “Authenticity and quality are fundamental to cultural heritage’s tangible and intangible value… By tokenizing cultural heritage, three critical areas of value are created: immutable archives of culture, transparent alternative income streams through royalties, verified provenance and recognition for cultural creators”.

Indonesia’s experimentation with Quantum Temple exemplifies the new technology for its fundamental benefits in all types of digital preservation, and the incorporation of this into heritage is an intriguing use case that shows there is so much more to this technology than just “screenshott-able JPEGs”.

On the theme of Non-Fungible-Tokens also revolutionizing our real world, there is a unique group of crafters bringing new eyes into Web3 with historical artifact preservation. Through photo scanning 3D-rendered digital recreations of artifacts and using NFTs as a means of digital verification, the Knights Who Say Nah have made it their mission to take artifact preservation to the next frontier by permanently recording the story and history on the blockchain while offering a happy ending for the physical piece.

Co-founder of the initiative Nick Richey has a background in preservation and filmmaking, and he says “My love of storytelling really solidified my love of preservation, because when you look at any of these artifacts, they have a story… When I’m restoring an artifact, preserving an artifact, and trying to keep that story alive, I was starting to clue into Web3 and the NFT space”.

The latest example of this merge between storytelling and preservation comes from a Japanese samurai tanto (short sword) that is currently being scanned and minted as an Ethereum NFT before being donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tanto was gifted to an American general after World War II marks the first traditionally crafted blade post U.S occupation, Richey says “The authorities in Japan said this would be a great piece that belongs in a U.S.-based museum because it was a gift to the U.S”.

This recent samurai tanto acts as an important Web3 example not only for artifact preservation in the digital world but also in the real world too, saying “What if you could convince a few [private collectors] by saying we’ll come, do a 3D scan of the artifact, sell that [scan] and all the proceeds will go to you, the private collector to make you whole, to refund you… But you give us the real artifact so that we can give it back to the people where it belongs”.

The Knights of Nah help show the multitude of ways people are being onboarded into Web3, whether that’s preserving history through artifact NFTs or supporting a holiday destination by buying cultural NFTs, it’s getting easier every day to see a Web3 future embraced by all.

It’s an interesting market these days for sure — one where OpenSea has hit back at BLUR with the launch of OpenSea Pro and a new free claim collection called Gemesis which has already seen a 100 WETH sale… even if by accident.

Speaking of BLUR farming… The recently migrated DeGods community has had its first taste of BLUR farming, with the collection starting from roughly an 8 ETH floor, hitting highs of 10.5 ETH and coming right back down to earth from a farmer dump.

The DeGods holders were not amused, with multiple holders expressing how they “miss Solana”.

In other news, we saw a huge relic discovered in Yuga Labs’ version of the metaverse, Otherside. This partnership with Gucci will see 3,333 limited-edition pendants offered for 450 $APE… which at the current market price is close to $2000. That’s a helluva necklace.

In the description of some experienced crypto investors — the market is eating itself out of boredom.

Stay safe out there, everyone.

Thanks for tuning in on today’s newsletter, take care!

Be honest! Your feedback helps us improve!

Connect with us on socials for a more personal experience!

Twitter: @MorningNFTea
Our Team: @BuckyGang | @Wickyy.eth | @subvert
Discord: Morning NFTea

DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.