CNN Ventures Into Non Fungible Token (NFT)

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Set to Drop Vault by CNN Today.

CNN, the Time Warner Cable news network announced that it will be opening it’s archives to digital collectors starting today, August 12 at 1:pm ET. Among other videos, it will feature videos of the very first launch of space shuttle. The news network is venturing into the growing NFT space with a new offering called, “Vault by CNN.”

Earlier in June, CNN announced plans that it will foray into NFT market. The company will “mint” NFats on the Flow blockchain of memorable moments from CNN’s 41-year history. It will then sell them to the public as digital collectibles. The first batch of news “moments” is TBD, but the company says it could include coverage from presidential elections, CNN exclusives, or moments from world history like the Berlin Wall coming down and many more.

The token holder will be able to display the moments they own on a user page in the “vault,” and CNN says that it is working with a third-party company to produce a physical version of the NFTs for some limited edition sets that “will include a premium video display case that will render a physical representation of the Moment on a screen.”

Unlike many other NFTs being offered on the market, users won’t need to pay with cryptocurrency; they can buy their CNN moments with a credit card. Users will need to create a digital wallet with the blockchain company Blocto, however.

In a FAQ about the service, CNN explains the rationale to launch the “Vault”: “Until now, there has been no way to ‘collect’ these moments. Users can often find old footage online, or packaged up in documentaries, but they cannot ‘own’ them or display them in the way they can with a print newspaper or magazine.”

An NFT is a digital asset that represents some real-world item, be it a piece of art, or music, or in this case, TV news coverage. An NFT acts as something like a digital certificate of authenticity, letting users sell or trade the rights to the digital item they hold. While they are often associated with cryptocurrency because they rely on blockchain technology, they are a separate use case for the underlying tech.