American news organization, the Associated Press (AP) will be selling its first non-fungible token (NFT), a digital artwork commemorating the first time the results of a US election were called on a blockchain.
“The Associated Press calls the 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space,” is an NFT collaboration between AP, Everipedia, and digital artist Marko Stanojevic.
The artwork depicts astronauts in orbit gazing down at the United States. Each state is highlighted according to its Electoral College results in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
First Results Called on the Blockchain
In addition to being the first NFT released by a major news organization, the artwork commemorates another significant event in blockchain history.
During the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, AP committed the electoral results of each state to Ethereum using Everipedia. This way, it was able to declare the winner of a U.S. election on a blockchain for the first time. AP used the same Ethereum address to create and publish the NFT.
“AP has a long history of capturing important moments throughout history,” said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP’s Director of Data Licensing. “Digital historical artifacts like this innovative NFT artwork represent the next step in the evolution of marking historical events digitally,” he added.
Marking History
Naturally, the NFT contains a host of metadata, in addition to the artwork itself.
These include the results the artwork is commemorating, such as “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.” Additionally, AP’s unique Ethereum address acts as a cryptographic signature ensuring authenticity.
AP says the artwork is historically and culturally significant. This is because the NFT is coming at a time when “we are witnessing the digital transformation of media and the emergence of cryptographically verified data.”
“This digital artwork represents a glimpse of how organizations like The Associated Press are going to be marking important historical events in the future,” said Everipedia co-founder and CEO Theodor Forselius.
The NFT exchange OpenSea is hosting the auction for the piece. The auction began on March 3 and will run for seven days. It currently has a top bid of 11.21 ETH worth approximately $16,333 at today’s prices.
NFT Time
AP said that this would be the first in a series of one-off NFTs to mark historical events. Although on a much smaller scale, there have been other recent instances of NFTs capturing “moments.”
Last week, YouTuber Logan Paul sold highlights of himself unboxing first-generation Pokémon cards for auction. Additionally, the NBA has launched Top Shot, a platform where it sells “Moments,” in this instance basketball highlights, as NFTs.
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