Hong Kong, 23 November 2021 – The South China Morning Post released its full whitepaper today on the ARTIFACT NFT metadata standard for tokenising history, as well as announcing the Post’s inaugural NFT collection on Flow, drawn from its 118-year-old media archives, called ‘ARTIFACTs by SCMP’.
ARTIFACT’s metadata structure will be built on the Flow blockchain originally created by Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot video collectibles and the partner of choice for world-renowned digital collectibles and consumer-facing decentralised applications. Flow’s reliability, scalability, speed, and high quality UX are essential factors for establishing ARTIFACT’s global NFT marketplace and ecosystem.
The whitepaper previews the visual design and rarity levels of the new NFT collection ‘ARTIFACTs by SCMP’ that will feature the first use case of the ARTIFACT standard. Conceptually, the launch will come in the form of ‘Base Series’ and ‘Thematic Drops’, released in boxes. This will include the inaugural ‘1997 Series’ that showcases significant historical events from that year, containing a randomised bundle of ARTIFACTs presented as collectible cards (images here).
“We are delighted to join the Flow ecosystem and partner with a major global blockchain innovator in Dapper Labs. This partnership is essential for creating world-class NFT experiences of our historical archives. Through our ARTIFACT whitepaper, we look forward to inspiring other ‘guardians of history’ to share our vision of making history more discoverable, connected, and collectable,” said Gary Liu, SCMP’s CEO.
“SCMP’s innovative approach to transform its ledgers of historical journalism with blockchain technology has all the markings of being a game-changer. We’re proud for SCMP to launch this visionary project that reanimates meaningful historical moments and we’re excited they have chosen Flow to be the foundation of ARTIFACT’s launch protocol,” said Mickey Maher, SVP, Partnerships, Dapper Labs.
The ARTIFACT whitepaper comprehensively outlines a proposed governance structure and the development of a dedicated marketplace. A global council of cross-disciplinary experts will co-develop ARTIFACT’s metadata structure which imbues NFTs with the comprehensive context and provenance needed to establish historical significance and value, and raises their discoverability, connectivity, and collectibility. The project will be governed by a non-profit foundation and solicit participation from museums, archives, universities, publishers, art galleries, and other institutions. A marketplace will be developed specifically for the minting, sale and trade of ARTIFACTs to serve the global community of historical NFT issuers and collectors.
Details on ARTIFACT’s governance, marketplace and technology are available in the full whitepaper here. More details on the launch of ‘ARTIFACTs by SCMP’ will be announced soon.
ABOUT SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
The South China Morning Post is a leading global news company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city’s newspaper of record, with a growing correspondent staff across Asia and the United States. SCMP’s vision is to “Elevate Thought” and our mission is to “Lead the global conversation about China”. It is the recipient of hundreds of awards for its journalistic excellence, from such prestigious organisations as the World Association of News Publishers and the Online News Association. A digital-first media organisation, SCMP is also home to Goldthread, a content platform with a focus on food, travel and culture in China, and publishes a portfolio of premium lifestyle and fashion titles in Hong Kong including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire and Harper’s BAZAAR. In 2020, SCMP became the first news organisation in Asia to join the Trust Project, a consortium of top news companies developing global transparency standards for credible journalism.
About Flow
Flow is a fast, decentralized, developer-friendly, next-gen blockchain chosen for its combination of scalability and usability, and its commitment to excellence, longevity and empowering communities. Flow is the only layer-one blockchain originally created by a team that has consistently delivered great consumer blockchain experiences including CryptoKitties, Dapper Wallet and NBA Top Shot.
Flow boasts a rich ecosystem of top entertainment brands, development studios, and venture-backed startups. Flow ecosystem partners include global IP brands like Warner Music, Ubisoft, NBA and UFC; e-commerce leaders Shopify, leading game developers, including Animoca Brands, Sumo Digital and nWay; and many leaders in the crypto space such as Circle and Binance. For more on Flow, visit https://www.flow.com/.
For further information, please contact:
Stef Lo
stef.lo@scmp.com