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South China Morning Post to Mint Historical Records as NFTs

The SCMP introduced its ARTIFACT standard for recording historical accounts and assets on the blockchain as NFTs.

SCMP Newspapers As China Presses Alibaba to Sell Media Assets

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) standard for recording historical records on the blockchain.

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  • The newspaper introduced "ARTIFACT," a standardized model for recording accounts of history and historical assets on the blockchain as NFTs.
  • The paper, bought by Alibaba in 2016, will start with a collection of NFTs minted from historical moments drawn from the archive of its 118-year history.
  • The venture will harness "a few selected blockchains" the SCMP has yet to identify. The plan is for ARTIFACT to eventually be chain-agnostic.
  • While NFTs representing historical events have attained widespread popularity, these have been mainly for collectible purposes and often draw from the entertainment world, such as sport or music.
  • Minting records of historical interest in the form of newspaper articles could represent a compelling use case for blockchain technology.
  • "The Post believes that factual accounts of history and authentic historical assets should be immutable, and that ownership of these digitised and tokenised assets, which are part of our collective human experience, should be decentralised," the announcement said.

Read more: Alibaba’s E-Commerce Website Taobao to Include NFT Arts in Its Maker Festival

Jamie Crawley

Jamie has been part of CoinDesk's news team since February 2021, focusing on breaking news, Bitcoin tech and protocols and crypto VC. He holds BTC, ETH and DOGE.

Jamie Crawley