Blockchain platform UREEQA has partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB) player Trey Mancini of the Baltimore Orioles to launch the first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platform. The auction will include animated baseball cards as an NFT and signed memorabilia, and all proceeds will go towards the Trey Mancini Foundation to support the early detection of colon cancer.
Auctions of athletes’ NFTs are often financially inaccessible to most fans. Rob Gronkowski’s one-of-a-kind NFT sold for $430,000, and the total sale of the five tokenized cards raised a total of $1.8 million.
UREEQA’s auction offers a solution to the highly inflated prices of NFT auctions by launching a line of fixed-price NFTs.
A single NFT will be minted as a one-of-a-kind and be available for bidding for 48 hours. The winner of the auction will also receive a signed bat used by Mancini, signed cleats and batting gloves, and a batting lesson with Mancini.
Another 500 NFTs will be available at a fixed price of $195, and a randomly chosen batch of purchasers will receive additional memorabilia. Purchasers of these NFTs will also be eligible to receive game tickets and access events with the team in the future. Purchases can be made through crypto or credit card.
UREEQA’s platform uses blockchain to protect, validate, manage, and monetize creative work. It achieves this through its “Responsible Minting” protocol.
It has a patent-pending technology that verifies ownership of an item by creators and generates a Package of Proof for the source of the creative work represented as a Responsibly Minted NFT. Creators can also have their work validated through UREEQA’s network of human validators who gather evidence. These tools aim to protect intellectual property.
Users of the platform can upload their creations for free. For a small fee, users can upload a creation to UREEQA’s Premium Collection, which puts it on the Ethereum blockchain and creates a public and permanent timestamp of the claim to the work. Using the network of validators to authenticate work requires an additional fee, and evidence of the process is published online to enhance the credibility of the user’s work. In addition, if unauthorized use of the work is encountered, UREEQA sends a demand to the publisher of the content outlining options to correct the situation, such as paying a fee to the creator.
Organizations and corporations can use the platform as opposed to only freelance content creators. The Ministry of Education in Cyprus, for example, partnered with UREEQA to protect the musical creations of students.
“I didn’t want to take any risks in this wild new world of NFTs, which is why my debut drop will be released using Responsible Minting from UREEQA,” said Mancini. “All the proceeds from this drop will go to the Trey Mancini Foundation to raise awareness for colon cancer, and buyers and bidders will have peace of mind knowing that they’re getting the real deal.”
Meanwhile, NFT developer Candy Digital signed a partnership with MLB. Collectible cards company Topps also has a deal to license digital collectibles for the league. As for content creation protection, telecom company KT is exploring blockchain technology to protect video content intellectual property.
