Rick and Morty creator’s next show will be ‘curated on the blockchain’ – CNET [CNET]

“The company will launch a dedicated marketplace for Krapopolis that will curate and sell digital goods, ranging from NFTs of one-of-a-kind character and background art and GIFs, as well as tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward super fans,” Fox said. 

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are certifications of ownership that are minted on blockchains — digital ledgers that are unalterable and available for all to see. You can get NFTs for anything digital: art, tweets, YouTube clips, audio recordings, GIFs and so on. People buy them for bragging rights — everyone can see Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, the argument runs, but only one person can own it — or because they hope to sell them for more later. One NFT of an art piece depicting a splice of Homer Simpson and Pepe the Frog sold for $320,000 this year after being bought in 2018 for $38,000. 

So when Fox says Krapopolis will be “curated on the blockhain,” it’s seemingly a vague way of saying it will set up a marketplace for the purpose of selling NFTs and tokens (i.e. cryptocurrencies) related to the show. It doesn’t mean that the show will exclusively be available via the blockchain. It’s less about Dan Harmon’s new show than it is about Fox venturing into a new, potentially lucrative monetization opportunity. In fact, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox is setting up a new company, Blockchain Creative Labs, to that end. 

“As an advertiser-focused, artist-first and animation-obsessed company, Fox is going to take advertisers into the world of blockchain-powered tokens, including NFTs,”  Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said during a presentation to advertisers, reports the publication.