Marking broadcast television’s first major NFT (non-fungible token) endeavor, FOX Entertainment and Blockchain Creative Labs launched “The MaskVerse” NFT marketplace for TV’s #1 entertainment series in the US, hit singing competition THE MASKED SINGER, powered by Eluvio’s eco-friendly blockchain in October of last year.
“The MaskVerse” was designed to make buying, selling and trading digital THE MASKED SINGER goods – including the first NFT of the show’s mascot, “Miss Masky” – more accessible and intuitive to consumers, while adhering to technical principles important to crypto enthusiasts. “The MaskVerse” offered fans an exclusive NFT destination where they could build their collection of limited-edition digital masks for every character across all seasons to unlock surprises and exclusive giveaways. Fans were also able to play a voting game, to predict which characters will be eliminated and win the opportunity to buy Gold Mask packs that, when a full collection is completed, granted access to exclusive prizes, and gain status.
Upon its initial launch, fans could claim a free NFT of “Miss Masky,” THE MASKED SINGER’s digital mascot. In less than ten hours “Miss Masky” sold out, as fans claimed 10,000 free Genesis Edition “Miss Masky” NFTs. In response to users’ high demand, Blockchain Creative Labs unveiled a second edition of 10,000 “Miss Masky” NFTs the following day. Since then, fans downloaded over 120,000 NFT packs and created over 100,000 wallets on the platform.
To participate in “The MaskVerse’s” NFT drops, fans created a secure and easy-to-use digital media wallet, through Eluvio, that acts as a digital vault and enables seamless purchasing of NFTs via credit cards or cryptocurrencies. It allows trading or reselling of cards within the marketplace to build full collections and transferring of NFTs to third-party wallets interoperable with Ethereum, Solana, and other blockchains.
For “The MaskVerse,” all the creative content, NFTs, and digital wallets were integrated as part of Eluvio’s secure and eco-friendly blockchain. Last year, FOX made a strategic investment in Eluvio to accelerate the adoption of Eluvio’s blockchain platform across the broader media and entertainment industry and provide the underlying technology platform for Blockchain Creative Labs.
Blockchain Creative Labs also selected Eluvio for its low environmental impact. Through a novel compositional and just-in-time protocol, the Eluvio Content Fabric does not make file copies and dramatically reduces the storage, network requirements, and latencies of traditional digital distribution systems; the Fabric’s blockchain avoids the computational energy consumption, and costs, of proof-of-work blockchains through its efficient proof-of-authority consensus and seamless combination of on-and-off chain transactions.
Eluvio won the 2021 IABM BaM Award for its work supporting this endeavor, in celebration of its outstanding innovation and achievement in broadcast and media. According to the IABM judges: “[Eluvio’s] entry proves once again how Blockchain really is going to transform media and how we need to start preparing now for web 3.0.”
The seventh season of THE MASKED SINGER premiered on March 9, 2022, and “The MaskVerse” entered its second season.
