The Associated Press (AP) is auctioning off its first NFT commemorating AP’s historic use of the blockchain for distributing 2020 election data.
The Associated Press collaborated with Everipedia and renowned digital artist Marko Stanojevic to create an innovative one-of-a-kind NFT artwork commemorating the first US election recorded on the blockchain.
The Associated Press calls the 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space
The NFT artwork depicts a visual of the electoral college map viewed from space. The map uses election data AP published on-chain using Everipedia’s OraQle software in the 2020 US Presidential Election. This first-of-its-kind digital artifact will be a 1/1 edition and will be the first time a major organization cryptographically signs off on such a historical event.
The NFT artwork titled “The Associated Press calls the 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space” was created and published on Ethereum by AP using their Ethereum address 0x436Ee8cB3a351893b77F8B57c9772DAEc3a96445 which is listed on their website. AP used this address to declare the winner of the United States 2020 Presidential Election on Ethereum using Everipedia’s OraQle software. This marked the first time a US election was called on the blockchain.
Dwayne Desaulniers, AP’s Director of Data Licensing, said:
“AP has a long history of capturing important moments throughout history. Digital historical artifacts like this innovative NFT artwork represent the next step in the evolution of marking historical events digitally.”
AP’s unique Ethereum address acts as a cryptographic signature offering authenticity of The Associated Press calls the 2020 Presidential Election on Blockchain – A View from Outer Space and has verified the historic election data displayed in the piece and the metadata in the NFT. Within the NFT’s metadata AP has included the exact date and time that AP called the election, the electoral college votes won by Republicans and Democrats, the names of both candidates, and the number of votes received by each candidate. This digital artifact will be of great historical and cultural significance for future generations to come as it comes at a time where we are witnessing the digital transformation of media and the emergence of cryptographically verified data.
Everipedia Co-Founder and CEO Theodor Forselius, said:
“This digital artwork represents a glimpse of how organizations like The Associated Press are going to be marking important historical events in the future. The fact that this is the first ever 1/1 makes it really significant.”
The AP’s NFT artwork is being auctioned off on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace. The auction started on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 and run for seven days with all bids denominated in Ethereum.
According to data from NFT marketplace OpenSea, the AP’s artwork will be sold in the next five days. As of press time, the top bid was for $18,066 in wrapped ether (WETH).
Read Also: Everipedia to use Chainlink infrastructure for election night race calls
