The Österreichische Post, the postal service of Austria, is releasing a commemorative digital stamp on the Ethereum blockchain. The stamp is intended to be a virtual collector’s item.
Ethereum’s ERC721 standard allows tokens to be issued for non-fungible, unique collectibles. It’s been used from CryptoKitties to virtual trading cards — but it is now being tapped into to create a commemorative stamp.
The Österreichische Post will be issuing a one-of-a-kind digital stamp designed by Julia Obermüller. With a face value of €6.90, around 150,000 of these stamps will be issued. They will be available at all stores run by the Post until they are all sold. The digital stamp can easily be stored in any digital wallet which supports Ethereum tokens.
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One receives the stamp as a card with two sides. The left side can be used as a standard stamp to send mail. It is stylized with a rainbow unicorn, meant as an homage to the Ethereum community. The right side has all the credentials necessary to authenticate the stamp’s ownership on the Ethereum blockchain — which must be scratch off.
This is the first time we have heard of a post office commemorating a stamp on a public distributed ledger. Although previously other collectibles have been immortalized on Ethereum, this is a first for printed stamps. The move will undoubtedly bring more visibility to digital collectibles, perhaps inspiring other one-of-a-kind stamps to be authenticated on Ethereum. Given that the price of rare stamps can go quite high, and oftentimes even forged fraudulently as a result, blockchain can provide stamp-collectors with a sure way to verify.
In September 2018, the Los Angeles Dodgers held a similar giveaway by award lucky fans commemorative bobbleheads stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
Are you interested in buying one of these collectible stamps? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Österreichische Post AG / Horizont.
