Next month sees the launch of Wokenwine, the first trading platform dedicated to fine wine NFTs. But what does this mean for drinks? While some NFTs correspond to intangible things (such as Jack Dorsey’s first tweet), a drinks NFT corresponds to a physical bottle. The NFT is minted by the company that makes the product and held on the cryptocurrency blockchain (which works like a paper trail of transactions) so that, however many times the product changes hands, its authenticity is guaranteed.
The world’s first NFT marketplace for collectable drinks was BlockBar, launched in late 2021. Unlike a traditional auction house, which sources its products from a variety of distributors and collectors, BlockBar sources every product directly from the brand owner. Many products also have some kind of limited-edition feature attached – a unique edition number, an unusual format, an artwork. The bottles are stored in a high-security warehouse in Singapore. If a user decides to redeem or “burn” their NFT, BlockBar will deliver the bottle to their door. Once the NFT has been redeemed it can no longer be accessed.
