The Economist launches its first NFT
The Economist has launched its first ever NFT and will auction it off to raise money for The Economist Educational Foundation (TEEF), an independent charity. Titled ‘Down the rabbit hole: The promise and perils of decentralised finance’, the NFT makes up the publication’s 18th September cover along with its lead story, and sees Alice (of Wonderland fame) peering into the decentralised finance sector.
“The Economist regularly writes about new technologies and their potential to change the world,” said Alice Fulwood, Wall Street Correspondent for The Economist. “We described the potential for decentralised technology in our cover story of September 18th. By selling our ‘Down the rabbit hole’ cover as an NFT we are now, in our own small way, journeying down the rabbit hole ourselves, in a fun experiment that will hopefully also raise money for a worthwhile cause.”
The artwork for the cover image was commissioned from Justin Metz, a freelance visual artist based in Britain, in conjunction with Graeme James, The Economist’s Cover Designer. Mr Metz regularly creates artwork that features on the cover of The Economist, as well as a range of other publications. It’s based on the original illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland drawn by Sir John Tenniel in 1865.
This is the first time The Economist has issued an NFT. Its aim is to both showcase the potential of decentralised technology and to raise money for TEEF. The company says that one of the most appealing features of NFTs is that they enable those that issue them to collect royalties on future sales, retaining a stake in the value of the artwork. The Economist will retain a 10% royalty stake with all future proceeds to be routed to TEEF, creating a potentially recurring source of fundraising for the charity.
The auction starts at 5pm BST on Monday 25th October and will run for a provisional 24 hour period. You can find out more about the auction and the TEEF charity more generally here.
