“The Handover” signals the creation of NFT collectibles and the move to Web3 for mainstream consumers by news organizations with archives of coverage from historical moments
VENICE, Calif., March 22, 2022 — AE Studio, a leading product and venture studio driven by world-class developers, data scientists, and designers, has partnered with Hong Kong-based news organization South China Morning Post (SCMP) to launch the first-of-its-kind NFT collection called ‘ARTIFACTs by SCMP‘. The first drop on Flow, the blockchain designed to be the foundation of Web3 and the open metaverse, includes historically significant events such as the Handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule.
ARTIFACTs are NFTs (non-fungible tokens) of accounts of history or historical assets that capture their context and significance with the ARTIFACT metadata standard and smart contract. AE Studio built the entirety of the web3 functionality on Flow, where users can purchase NFT packs that include a set of NFTs, allowing them to open packs to reveal and obtain the NFT assets included in their packs.
“AE Studio is thrilled to partner with SCMP to launch ARTIFACTs by SCMP that will drive the preservation of history on the Flow blockchain,” said Jevan Fox, EVP of AE Studio. “Along with our partners, we’re bringing the intellect to NFTs, tapping on SCMP’s 100+ years of historical assets.”
ARTIFACT’s metadata structure will be built on the Flow blockchain originally created by Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot video collectibles and the partner of choice for world-renowned digital collectibles and consumer-facing decentralized applications. Flow is designed as the foundation for a new generation of digital collectibles and consumer-facing decentralized applications.
“It’s incredible to see how AE Studio is leveraging Web3 and NFTs to help SCMP bring ownership to digital historical assets,” said Mickey Maher, SVP of Partnerships at Dapper Labs. “SCMP is turning history into digital collectibles while also tapping into the vibrant Flow ecosystem to create a community of historical collectors.”
‘ARTIFACTs by SCMP’ are collectible NFTs from the Post’s 118 years of archives. This unique NFT collection allows anyone to discover and own moments in history and join a community that is preserving historical milestones on the blockchain.
Said SCMP CEO Gary Liu, “We’re pleased to collaborate with AE Studios to launch our inaugural collection of NFTs, the ‘1997 Premium Series’. We look forward to growing a community of collectors and eventually produce an ecosystem around the preservation of historical accounts and assets and make history more discoverable, connected, and collectable through the ARTIFACT metadata standard.”
Flow’s reliability, scalability, speed, and high-quality UX are essential factors for establishing ARTIFACT’s global NFT marketplace and ecosystem.
AE Studio (Agency Enterprise) is building technology products for clients, partners, and scaling their own companies. All AE projects are focused on increasing human agency by decreasing friction for end-users and ultimately enabling them to accomplish their goals.
About AE Studio
AE Studio specializes in working with growing startups and enterprises to launch and rapidly develop new products and startup MVPs, increase revenue by expanding existing feature sets, or integrate cutting-edge data science and machine learning into products. AE is a team of seasoned designers, developers, product managers, and data scientists who work with companies closely to reach their next inflection point – whether it’s raising capital, partnerships, creating business efficiency, or launching a new product or initiative. Through the AE Skunkworks division, where the group launches and scales their own companies, AE Studio sold ElectricSMS, to ReCharge Payments. AE Studio also does meaningful work in the Brain Computer Interface (BCI) space and recently won the Neural Latents Benchmark Challenge. For more information visit: www.ae.studio.
About Flow
Flow is the blockchain designed to be the foundation of Web3 and the open metaverse, supporting consumer-scale decentralized applications, NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and more. Powered by Cadence, an original programming language built specifically for digital assets, Flow empowers developers to innovate and push the limits that will bring the next billion to Web3. Created by a team that has consistently delivered industry-leading consumer-scale Web3 experiences including CryptoKitties, Dapper, and NBA Top Shot, Flow is an open, decentralized platform with a thriving ecosystem of creators from top brands, development studios, venture-backed startups, crypto leaders, and more. For more information, visit www.flow.com.
About South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post is a leading global news company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city’s newspaper of record, with a growing correspondent staff across Asia and the United States. SCMP’s vision is to “Elevate Thought” and our mission is to “Lead the global conversation about China”. It is the recipient of hundreds of awards for its journalistic excellence, from such prestigious organisations as the World Association of News Publishers and the Online News Association. A digital-first media organisation, SCMP is also home to Goldthread, a content platform with a focus on food, travel and culture in China, and publishes a portfolio of premium lifestyle and fashion titles in Hong Kong including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire and Harper’s BAZAAR. In 2020, SCMP became the first news organisation in Asia to join the Trust Project, a consortium of top news companies developing global transparency standards for credible journalism.
Source: AE Studio