Post office adoption of NFTs leads to philately renaissance
Non-fungible tokens are being used to reinvigorate postage stamp collecting in Austria and the Netherlands.
Interview
Philately? If you're a millennial, chances are you've used Google to discover that there's a word dedicated to collecting and studying postage stamps.
This same research also paints a picture of a declining hobby, as younger generations become increasingly preoccupied with their screens and the constant stream of dopamine hits served up by TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. other popular social media platforms.
Two European postal services have sought to capitalize on the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in recent years to reinvigorate the philately industry. Cointelegraph caught up with PostNL of the Netherlands and Austrian Post (PostAG) at the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam to dive into their collaborative effort that successfully married postage stamps with NFTs.
Patricia Liebermann, head of philately at PostAG, and Sacha van Hoorn, product manager at PostNL, are a dynamic duo that have sparked a working friendship that seems to be the backbone of the stamp collecting renaissance - station powered by the NFT in both countries.
Liebermann and van Hoorn at the Crypto Stamp booth during the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam.PostAG first explored the use of NFT postage stamps in 2019 with real-world stamps issued with an NFT digital twin originally minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Over the next two years, Austria Post continued the project with Near Field Communication (NFC) chip functionality introduced in 2021 to enhance the functionality, verifiability and security of postage stamps.
Reflecting on the waning interest in philately, Liebermann unpacked the initial idea and its rapid adoption about three years ago:
"In 2019, we came up with the idea of having a physical stamp combined with an NFT. It was mind-blowing and we were overwhelmed with all the feedback. And that's why we said, 'D' okay, there is a target group that is interested in this new way of collecting."
Van Hoorn's efforts to continue to innovate PostNL postage stamp offerings had already explored the use of augmented reality and...
Non-fungible tokens are being used to reinvigorate postage stamp collecting in Austria and the Netherlands.
Interview
Philately? If you're a millennial, chances are you've used Google to discover that there's a word dedicated to collecting and studying postage stamps.
This same research also paints a picture of a declining hobby, as younger generations become increasingly preoccupied with their screens and the constant stream of dopamine hits served up by TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. other popular social media platforms.
Two European postal services have sought to capitalize on the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in recent years to reinvigorate the philately industry. Cointelegraph caught up with PostNL of the Netherlands and Austrian Post (PostAG) at the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam to dive into their collaborative effort that successfully married postage stamps with NFTs.
Patricia Liebermann, head of philately at PostAG, and Sacha van Hoorn, product manager at PostNL, are a dynamic duo that have sparked a working friendship that seems to be the backbone of the stamp collecting renaissance - station powered by the NFT in both countries.
Liebermann and van Hoorn at the Crypto Stamp booth during the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam.PostAG first explored the use of NFT postage stamps in 2019 with real-world stamps issued with an NFT digital twin originally minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Over the next two years, Austria Post continued the project with Near Field Communication (NFC) chip functionality introduced in 2021 to enhance the functionality, verifiability and security of postage stamps.
Reflecting on the waning interest in philately, Liebermann unpacked the initial idea and its rapid adoption about three years ago:
"In 2019, we came up with the idea of having a physical stamp combined with an NFT. It was mind-blowing and we were overwhelmed with all the feedback. And that's why we said, 'D' okay, there is a target group that is interested in this new way of collecting."
Van Hoorn's efforts to continue to innovate PostNL postage stamp offerings had already explored the use of augmented reality and...
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