Mayor Francis X. Suarez of Miami said Thursday that he plans to give out 5,000 Ethereum tokens that can’t be traded later this year. Time USA, the company that makes TIME magazine, is working with Mastercard and Salesforce to make this happen.
A press release from the city says that the NFTs, which are unique blockchain tokens that show ownership, are being made by 56 different Miami artists to “represent the city’s 56 square miles.”
Time USA will help the city figure out its NFT strategy and put the project into action, while Mastercard will give NFT holders in Miami special perks like access to restaurant events and private cultural tours.
Salesforce’s new NFT Cloud platform, a soon-to-be-released product that lets brands mint and sell NFTs, will handle the minting and primary sales of NFTs.
The leader of TIME Keith Grossman, who is also a member of Salesforce’s Web3 Advisory Board, told Decrypt that the Miami NFT project is TIME’s first attempt to help other organizations with the deployment of NFT projects, and he hinted that more may be on the way.
He said that the Miami NFTs are all about giving their owners access to special events. Grossman also said, “The art will show how many different kinds of people live in Miami.”
Like El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose love for Bitcoin can’t be shaken, Mayor Suarez is unaffected by the current crypto bear market, which has caused several crypto firms to lay off workers and declare bankruptcy.
Suarez said in a statement about crypto and NFTs, “We will continue to use these new technologies to help our current companies and to find new ones to work with.”
Decrypt has asked Suarez’s office for comment, but they haven’t replied yet.
The expected release of Ethereum NFTs in Miami in December, after Ethereum switches to proof of stake, is not the city’s first foray into crypto and Web3. In August of last year, Suarez introduced MiamiCoin (MIA), an alternative cryptocurrency that the city could store in a wallet and that others could purchase.
According to CoinMarketCap statistics, it earned about $8 million in income for the city in only two months, but is now down a stunning 98.9 percent from its all-time high.
Since then, Miami has locked up or staked the majority of its MIA to generate a Bitcoin dividend and announced intentions to return an undisclosed portion of this revenue to Miami citizens.
From cryptocurrencies to NFTs, it seems that Miami will not abandon cryptocurrency any time soon.
The post With TIME, Mastercard, and Salesforce, Miami will launch 5,000 Ethereum NFTs appeared first on NFT News Pro.