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The DigiStamps launched by Australia Post to mark Lunar New Year. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n
Australia Post has unveiled a range of blockchain-based digital stamps that, unlike NFTs, cannot be traded.<\/p>\n
It comes several years after a handful of global postal services released similar digital tokens, and after the value of most non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has plummeted to almost zero.<\/p>\n
To coincide with the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Horse, Australia Post has announced a number of \u2018DigiStamps\u2019, to be sold for $15 each, featuring three unique horse designs.<\/p>\n
The purchase comes with a usable physical stamp and a secure digital counterpart based on the blockchain that the buyer can activate using a QR code on the back of the stamp.<\/p>\n
The DigiStamps effectively function like NFTs except that they cannot be traded by the user and are instead authenticated cryptographically without the ability to be transferred between digital wallets.<\/p>\n
This means they cannot be sold as a digital asset by the buyer in the future.<\/p>\n
\u2018A defining moment\u2019<\/p>\n
Australia Post General Manager of Retail Product Kayla Le Cornu said the release \u201cmarks a defining moment in the history of collecting\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy blending a centuries-old tradition with digital innovation, \u2018DigiStamps\u2019 are a tangible example of how Australia Post continues to modernise as a 21st-century, digitally enabled postal operator,\u201d Le Cornu said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis evolution builds on our long legacy while reimagining how collecting can look today, opening the door for a new generation to discover the joy of collecting, while giving long-standing stamp enthusiasts new ways to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n
With each purchase comes a digital token that is \u201cdisplayed online as a unique collectable, designed to create a seamless collecting experience without needing to download an app, create an account or set up a digital wallet\u201d.<\/p>\n
The $15 DigiStamps have been designed by Sydney artist Chrissy Lau and can be bought in participating post offices and online.<\/p>\n
To deliver the product, Australia Post partnered with Austria-based tech firm StampFinity to create \u201csoulbound tokens\u201d (SBT), which were invented in 2022 by the co-founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum.<\/p>\n
SBTs serve to give credentials or a crypto-based product to an individual permanently, without the ability to sell or trade it.<\/p>\n
The checkered past of NFTs<\/p>\n
Several postal services around the world have worked with the same company to release NFTs in recent years, led by Austria Post in 2019, which was the first to release a tradeable digital token stamp.<\/p>\n
Postal authorities in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates have also put out digital token offerings.<\/p>\n
NFTs rose to prominence in 2021 and exploded into the mainstream as a much-hyped digital asset.<\/p>\n
The images came with digital authentication tokens on blockchain ledgers to prove their ownership and were on-sold to others.<\/p>\n
The global hysteria reached a fever point when major brands and some of the highest-profile people in the world jumped on the bandwagon \u2013 including Donald Trump, Jack Dorsey, Paris Hilton, the AFL, and eBay.<\/p>\n