Today, Australia’s premier airline Qantas has announced they’re getting into NFTs. Non-fungible tokens are digital contracts often applied to artwork that can be traded on marketplaces like OpenSea.
Qantas has long sold Merchandise in their online store and part of that lineup has been memorabilia from the company’s 101-year history. It seems Qantas are turning to NFTs for their next collection of memorabilia set to be a new set of digital art collectables.
NFTs use blockchain technology, the same infrastructure as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. When you buy an NFT using crypto, the smart contract can have a royalty (often as much as 10%) built into future sales for that asset.
Imagine Qantas sells a propeller from a historical plane from 1950s. They make 1 sale and pocket any profit. If they were to take a photo of that plane, make it an NFT and sell it for 1 ETH, with a 10% royalty, they make not only the 1ETH at the time of sale but also 10% in perpetuity. If that NFT is seen to have value and traded much like physical art is, then every time it sold Qantas makes 10%.
A company like Qantas doesn’t just have 1 thing to sell, they have thousands and therefore this could be big for the company, particularly on the back of a very difficult time during Covid-19 where the airline was all but grounded and faced significant financial losses.
NFT artwork also doesn’t have to be a photo, it could be original creations that happen to have Qantas branding, or a picture of each of the unique liveries the Qantas planes have had over the years.
NFTs also don’t need to be limited to static images, even videos could be on offer, imagine owning the first-ever video of a Qantas plane taking flight. The value attached to each asset is really the question here, how many people are airline geeks in the way we have pokemon or basketball card collectables.
In a world-first, the initial buyer of a Qantas NFT will be able to earn Qantas Points, with more exciting future benefits for Qantas NFT holders underway. That’s a really nice twist on NFTs that other creators certainly can’t offer.
Qantas is targeting a mid-year release for the Qantas NFTs and interestingly they highlight the collection (likely the first of many) will be released with net-zero emissions, using low-carbon platforms and carbon offsetting. Today, they’re offering a Registration form for those who are interested in their NFT offering.
More information at Qantas.
