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Marvel is exploring the world of NFTs

source-logo  en.cryptonomist.ch 12 April 2021 07:59, UTC

Even Marvel seems to have started exploring the NFT world for business purposes. 

It all starts with the ExploreMadripoor.com website dedicated to Madripoor, the new location of the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced in episode 3 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

Inside Madripoor there are art galleries, such as Sharon Carter’s Art Gallery.

On the ExploreMadripoor.com website, in the Hightown Nightclub section, it is possible to log in with the invitation code “Sharon Carter”, and enter the site’s Art Gallery, which features artworks for auction. 

The fictitious auctions are in BTC, and if you try to participate in one of these fictitious auctions by pretending to bid, the site displays the following warning: 

“If you hold the high bid at the close of the auction, Gallery Management will contact you to confirm payment and shipping.

Shipping and handling coordinated through Power Broker, Buccaneer Bay”.

While there is no explicit reference to NFTs, given that the works in Madripoor’s art galleries are digital, it is safe to assume that “delivery” means sending the NFT of the work to the auction winner, as NFTs are in fact the only way to make a digital work unique and non-duplicable. 

Marvel and the conflicting relationship with NFTs

The curious thing is that the company has so far seemed to have a bad relationship with this technology that it has banned its artists from creating and selling NFTs related to the Marvel universe. 

ExploreMadripoor.com could be an attempt to experiment with the NFT market in an official, direct way, rather than leaving the business to the artists. 

Lawyer Massimo Simbula also pointed this out in a Facebook post of his own:

“Of course it’s a game. But it’s a demonstration of how Marvel first discourages all its artists from wanting to create NFTs, and then starts testing the ground with this site that seems to be a giant prototype and beta head to launch real auctions.”

It is worth noting that this site is still in the experimental phase, i.e. testing, so it is by no means complete. Hence the reference to NFTs is purely hypothetical, but seems at least plausible, since it is very difficult to imagine the company deciding to stay out of this market. 

The aim could be to try to exploit it in a direct and centralized way, instead of letting the physical producers of the works take advantage of it. 

Certainly, the NFT market has immense potential if exploited with digital works such as those related to the Marvel world. 

en.cryptonomist.ch