On 14th March 2022, South China Morning Post (SCMP) announced the launch of ARTIFACTs by SCMP “1997 Premium Series”, releasing its first-ever collection of NFTs from one of the most important years in Hong Kong’s history. If you are a Hongkonger, a history buff, a NFT collector or NFT enthusiast, ARTIFACTs by SCMP “1997 Premium Series” would be of great interest to you.
ARTIFACTs by SCMP “1997 Premium Series”
The exclusive drop from the inaugural “1997 Premium Series” offers Hongkongers, history buffs and NFT enthusiasts the opportunity to own a piece of history. The first drop will release more than 1,300 unique mystery boxes, with each box containing five random NFTs of the Post’s front pages from 1 January to 1 July 1997.
An upcoming second drop will release a further 1,300 boxes covering 1 July to 31 December 1997. The full series covers many historically significant events including the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule, the Asian financial crisis, the deaths of Deng Xiaoping and Princess Diana, the Avian flu outbreak, and much more.
“SCMP has witnessed many historic moments as Hong Kong’s newspaper of record and the launch of the ‘1997 Premium Series’ is significant as the city marks the 25th anniversary of the handover this year,” said SCMP CEO Gary Liu. “ARTIFACTs by SCMP brings together collectors and history enthusiasts, and we’ve been delighted by the growth and enthusiasm of our community in the lead-up to the launch. We look forward to releasing more of the Post’s 118-year-old media archives as NFTs as well as partnering with other guardians of history to preserve historical assets on the blockchain.”
Blocto – Exclusive wallet partner
SCMP has named portto, the company behind Blocto as its exclusive wallet partner for the “1997 Premium Series.” Blocto is a cross-chain smart contract wallet that offers a seamless purchasing experience on an all-encompassing platform, including Dev-friendly SDK BloctoSDK, built-in DEX BloctoSwap, $BLT centric IDO platform BloctoIDO, ecosystem Governance BloctoDAO and non-custodial NFT marketplace BloctoBay.
Hsuan Lee, CEO of portto said: “Blocto has a lot of experience in the deep blockchain having cooperated with large enterprises, from Vault by CNN, MotoGP Ignition and the South China Morning Post. We have been continuously focusing on co-creating an easy-to-use experience that is intuitive to both users and the companies we work with.”
NFT
ARTIFACTs by SCMP is the first NFT collection released using the ARTIFACT metadata standard, serving as the foundation upon which history can be discovered, connected, and collected on the blockchain. The project aims to seed a community of collectors and eventually produce an ecosystem around the preservation of historical accounts and assets. Through collection challenges, thematic drops, and community-building events, collectors and guardians of history can interact with authentic archival records and form a community dedicated to exploring our shared heritage.
The rarity of NFTs in the collection is determined by the limited number of editions available, with the front-page ‘Handover cover’ from 1 July 1997 being the rarest in the series. “ARTIFACTs by SCMP” will be on the Flow blockchain and the public sale of the mystery boxes kicks off on 14th March at 9pm HKT (GMT+8) on artifact.scmp.com.
Sold Out in 2 Hours!
The public sale of “1997 Premium Series” that took place on 14th March 2022 at 9pm HKT saw all 1,300 mystery boxes containing five random NFTs of the Post’s front pages from 1 January to 1 July 1997 were sold out in 2 hours.
“We are delighted with the response to our first NFT launch, which illustrates the enthusiasm for preserving history on the blockchain. It is an encouraging start and we will build on this momentum around historical NFTs to grow and serve a global community of collectors,” said SCMP CEO Gary Liu.
If you are still keen on this “1997 Premium Series”, there is an upcoming second drop will release a further 1,300 boxes covering 1 July to 31 December 1997 – more details will be announced soon.
For more information, please visit artifact.scmp.com and join the discord channel at https://discord.com/invite/
* Information and pictures courtesy of South China Morning Post *