MIAMI, Florida – A global group of mission-driven technologists, creatives, and community builders are set to launch a first-of-its-kind, non-fungible token (NFT) collection that merges investment opportunities, technology and gamification to protect the environment.
Lucía Gallardo, co-founder of The AeternalsThe Aeternals co-founder Lucía Gallardo, a Honduran serial entrepreneur and experimenter, explained that The Aeternals, which will be available to collectors in the upcoming weeks, connects the nonprofit sector with popular culture in an innovative and engaging way, opening up new opportunities for viability outside of traditional fundraising mechanisms.
Gallardo, also the founder of Emerge – a technology development lab building at the convergence of exponential technologies, sustainable development and re-imagined economic incentive structures – believes properly designed Web3 projects can help reverse generational and cyclical inequality, whilst protecting and preserving the planet.
“Impact can be an investable asset class,” she said, highlighting the project’s play-to-protect interactive game, which triggers the NFT in a collector’s wallet to blossom and evolve.
Raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Gallardo, an MIT Innovator Under 35, has partnered with The Aeternals co-founder Trinidadian Shaun Khan of Digigo, an agency focused on innovating at the cutting edge of NFT design and delivery.
Non-fungible tokens are a digital vehicle for transforming digital assets – including works of art and collectible items – into unique, traceable assets that can be verified and easily traded on the blockchain market.
Gallardo explained that the more “we realign and re-imagine the underlying economic incentives that make up our financial instruments toward more regenerative and impact-associated market dynamics, the more possible sustainable economic systems become.”
“When we collect, we protect,” mused Gallardo as she invited Web3 enthusiasts and beginners alike to become guardians and join the Aeternals Ecoverse, a community of collectors who have a deep connection and collective resolve to create a positive impact on the natural world.
Each Aeternals plot, inspired by acres of Amazonian Rainforest, rotates so it can be explored and interacted with within the game environment. The more ways collectors interact with their NFTs, the more the flowers and trees within it bloom, both in-game and in-wallet. Fifty-five percent (55%) of the minting profits are directed to support the protection and continued conservation of the Amazon’s biodiversity hotspots.
“Our NFT is a measure of personal impact – the more it has blossomed, the more committed to the cause we know the collector to be. This is particularly intriguing, as it merges social behaviors and movements with technology and finance,” Gallardo explained.
The Aeternals has chosen to direct funds to Rainforest Partnership, a renowned environmental organization that works to help rainforest communities in Ecuador, Peru, and now Mexico, become economically self-sufficient and self-advocating, whilst educating global audiences about the role rainforests play in climate protection.
The Aeternals community will ultimately help protect one of the Earth’s oldest and most valuable ecosystems, whilst continuing to innovate at the forefront of the potential multidimensionality, metamorphosis and interactivity of NFTs.
The Aeternals collection will be available on Nifty Gateway, one of the most trusted NFT marketplaces within the Ethereum ecosystem.
