Lamborghini-backed Vincenzo Sospiri Racing (VSR) on Tuesday announced a unique collaboration with the NFT platform Go2NFT. Through this partnership, VSR will use NFT technology to certify the authenticity of its racing car parts. According to a statement shared with Cointelegraph, these NFT certifications will be hosted on the blockchain platform, Skey Network.
The team believes this program will ensure better monitoring and quality of manufactured car parts. “This also brings great responsibility to ensure that we can securely authenticate and audit every part of our racing fleet to monitor performance and ensure provenance,” said Sospiri.
The team also aims to expand this NFT certification program to its official merchandise. The team opines that fans can be better assured of the quality of the products they purchase when their authenticity is proven.
“We believe that NFT utility can help create more trust and transparency for brands and their fans. This project with VSR is just the start of many such co-operations for beloved brands across the globe,” said Go2NFT executive Boris Ejsymont to Cointelegraph.
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While VSR’s use of NFTs to certify authenticity is certainly a unique endeavour, it is not the first time NFTs have been used in motorsport. Back in March 2021, MotoGP released its first set of 9,500 NFT artworks inspired by its 2020 season drivers and bikes. The entire collection sold out in a week.
In January 2022, Ben Pincus, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Formula 1, said that NFTs provide fans with alternate means to engage with the sport. “Our interest in this space is about fans,” he explained. “It’s about a new way of opening up fans engaging in sport and trying to attract a different audience.”
A few months later, in May 2022, Formula 1 NFTs were also launched. The two Mercedes race cars sported NFT designs on their rear wings as they entered the Miami Grand Prix. These wings were later auctioned, offering fans “an NFT bundled with a physical piece of motorsport history!”
On June 30, 2022, the CortDAO Racing W Series Team announced the release of its first NFT artwork collection. The initiative allows fans to express their support for the team, and the proceeds are used to financially support driver development.
The team will launch 10,000 NFT artworks in 2 sets of 5,000 each. The collections will be inspired by the helmets of W Series racing drivers Marta Garcia and Fabienne Wohlwend, with unique identifiers from 1 to 5000 in both groups.
However, racing is not the only sport embracing NFT technology. Football, cricket and basketball teams have already hopped on to the NFT bandwagon and are building new synergies through these digital assets.
Fans have traditionally expressed their support for their favourite teams and sportspersons through collectables, merchandise, stickers, posters, and even trading cards. NFTs now offer a whole new facet for fan engagement and sports memorabilia.
Since NFTs are digital tokens that represent the ownership of real-world objects, they have become a popular method for fans to showcase their support for their favourite teams. Moreover, NFTs can be traded in the open market. Add this to the fact that they also store value, which may appreciate or depreciate over time, and it becomes clear why crypto enthusiasts and fans have been thronging the space.
After making a pompous entry in 2021, NFTs took the world by storm. Spreading across art, music, real estate, ticketing, and digital collectables, NFTs have disrupted several industries in the last year. And if the technology continues to grow at this rate, there’s no telling how much of our lives it could augment in the future.
