Austria’s crypto collectibles stamps were described as a first for any government. 150,000 of the stamps were put into circulation with a variety of different designs and images, from Austria’s traditional dirndl dress to meteorite.
New Feats of Innovation Bridge the Gap to the New Digital Era
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The feat of innovation has not only set the precedent for more governments to experiment with non-fungible tokens but it has (perhaps inadvertently) built a bridge for everyday people to walk into the metaverse in the new Web3 era where blockchain technology redefines economic activities in every corner of the world.
On 11 June 2019, The national postal service of Austria was able to use the Ethereum blockchain to develop and launch its own digital “crypto” stamps. The digital details of the stamp and owner are stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
With the stamps, users of the Austrian postal service could send items by post and also keep the stamps as personal virtual collectibles. The stamps can be found on markets being sold for hundreds of euros, far higher than the initial prices of under 6.90 euros that they were sold for at launch. Interestingly, the prices of the red stamps pushed past 6,000 Euros.
Setting the Pace for Postal Services
Fast-forward to 2020 and new territory is being explored with Crypto Stamp 2. The postal service planned to issue 60,000 stamps with more unique designs.
A few months after, the Croation Post released Croatia’s first crypto stamps, along with a digital token called the ‘Postereum’.
Each physical crypto stamp has a value of 50 Croatian Kuna (HRK) which can be used to pay for postage costs. Like the Austrian crypto stamps, they have QR codes. What is more unique about the stamps, however, is that they are accompanied by the Postereum digital token.
The allocation of value is being democratised at strikingly high rates. Not only is this good for households but also for governments who can benefit from societies where people are more economically empowered through the democratised digital economy.