By Gabriel Negrín
Oh, what a beautiful year for the NFTs.
First, they were little understood. Then, many categorized them as a fad. And now, the biggest companies in the world are behind them.
And speaking of big companies wanting to join the world of NFTs, one of the world's largest department stores is jumping into the fray. We’re talking about Macy's.
On this Thursday, November 25th, Macy’s will hold its iconic 95th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. But that's not the only thing Macy's is doing this time.
For the first time in its history, it will release 9,500 unique NFTs. The catch? — Well there’s none as all these limited edition non-fungible tokens will be available for free.
These NFTs will feature one of ten Macy's balloons referring to legacy characters from the 95-year-long history of the parade. But these NFTs have a bigger purpose than just pretty pieces of art in the blockchain.
While they will feature the balloons from the parade, they will also do some charity. These NFTs will support Make-A-Wish. All this will be possible thanks to some special auctions and after-market donations.
That means that thanks to the power of smart contracts, they will receive a part of the resale in compatible marketplaces. To be more specific, 10% of every sale will go to Make-A-Wish. This could be the start of a perpetual chain of donations.
Macy's Thanksgiving NFTs will have two different phases.
The first one will be an auction of a set of 10 NFTs. This set will be unique and it features some of the most iconic balloons we have seen through the almost 100-year-long history of the parade. This auction starts on November 19th and will close on November 30th.
The second phase of the NFT project will take place on November 25th, Thanksgiving day. During the Thanksgiving parade, people can claim one of the 9,500 free NFTs. But that's not the only thing they might win: with each NFT, people might win $10,000 in sweepstakes.
These 9,500 NFTs will be distributed for free for people in the parade as well as television viewers. Of course, they will be offered on a first come first serve basis. The collectibles will be received at random and fans will receive Classic, Rare, and Ultra Rare pieces. Out of the 9,500 free NFTs, only 20 will be ultra-rare.
Macy's knows people are somewhat concerned about NFTs' energy consumption. That's why they partnered with Sweet, an NFT distribution solution platform to offer the best NFT possible.
With the help of Sweet, all NFTs are ERC721 tokens on the Polygon network. That only means one thing: The Macy's Parade NFTs are going to be carbon-neutral. And while that's good enough, Polygon also offers low transaction fees — this only makes them even better.
Truth is, Macy's decided to partner with the crème de la crème. That's why all the artwork is done by REOMETRY, an agency led by NFT artists REO and Seth Brown.
Will this experiment work? It will be a successful experiment, that's almost guaranteed. We can only hope this initiative stays for a lot longer. We can imagine the 100th edition of the parade will be even bigger and NFTs will only make it better. For now, we can only thank Macy's for giving Make-A-Wish an amazing Thanksgiving.
If you want one of Macy's NFTs, don't forget to bookmark macys.com/NFT and check out all the rules.
