Digital collectibles marketplace Mintoo, in partnership with cryptocurrency firm Philippines Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX), released on Tuesday, March 28, their first collection of NFT artworks by Filipino artists dubbed as “New Horizons”.
Non-fungible tokens or NFTs refer to unique, blockchain-based assets that can be privately owned. It includes everything from online trading cards, elements of virtual words, music, and of course, artworks.
While NFTs can be intimidating, Mintoo director Patrick Lao summed them up as “simply ownership or property rights on the Internet.”
More importantly, Lao asserted “[NFTs] allow anyone to participate in the burgeoning digital economy as we move into becoming a technological society.”
The New Horizons collection simultaneously celebrated Mintoo’s recent launch on the PDAX app on Monday, March 27, and NFTs’ potential as an innovative medium that could enrich the country’s art scene.
Ten established and up-and-coming Filipino artists from varied backgrounds worked for months to create the NFT pieces that explored this collection’s possibilities.
The ten artists are street artist and illustrator Auggie Fontanilla, digital illustrators Shelly Soneja, Lei Melendres, Marso, Marv del Mundo, alchemist graphic designer Gian Ferrer, collage artists Tonstee and Ab Hong, as well as cyberpunk architect Lucius Felimus.
New Horizons, however, is only the introductory collection in Mintoo’s Artist Series. This continuously expanding series aims to provide a platform for visual artists, creators, and art enthusiasts to conveniently browse, buy, sell, and trade digital collectibles through their Mintoo account accessible through the PDAX platform.
Convenience and accessibility are the name of the game on Mintoo. On the patron’s side, there’s no more hopping between different apps, converting their money to cryptocurrencies, or transferring their money to several crypto wallets just to purchase an NFT.
Mintoo users can purchase these digital collectibles with Philippine pesos straight from their Mintoo account on the PDAX app.
On the other hand, artists can now painlessly launch their own NFTs and gain access to a wider market through easy-to-use tools, without having to understand the complexities of the blockchain technology that power NFTs.
By streamlining the process of acquiring and debuting NFTs, Mintoo also hopes to increase confidence around this technology to encourage its adoption.
For instance, when asked if the recent cryptocurrency crashes have affected Filipino NFT collector’s enthusiasm, Lao replied that Mintoo aims to eliminate the speculation based on the value of cryptocurrencies from the NFT collection process by allowing patrons to purchase with Philippine peso.
“By removing that [speculative] layer, we’ve already segregated and solidified that NFT collector’s purpose into one of simply supporting the artist or being a patron or being a supporter of that brand,” Lao explained.
“If we had to boil it down, we want to make collecting NFTs on Mintoo as simple and pleasurable as possible,” Lao emphasized.
“By doing all these things, we hope to be the vehicle for mass adoption for NFTs in the Philippines for everyone involved in the whole industry.”
