To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Australia Zoo, the home of the Crocodile Hunter is doing the only thing it can – launch an NFT project, of course.
For its non-fungible foray, Australia Zoo has picked super fresh local startup Meadow Labs to help it create a unique Australian wildlife themed NFT collection.
The collection is called ‘Wildlife Warriors’. Australia Zoo said the “rare NFT project” will comprise of a series of drops, each focusing on a different Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors animal. The NFTs will be randomly generated, non deterministic, utility-driven and 100 per cent unique to the buyer, the Zoo said. This means no duplicates.
Although clearly an Aussie project, the Australia Zoo NFTs will be available globally, and they can be purchased with fiat on-ramping via MoonPay. Fiat means tangible currency, like an AUD or USD. MoonPay, meanwhile, is a digital exchange.
“This will allow customers to buy cryptocurrencies directly from the bespoke webstore, simplifying the process and allowing NFTs to be accessible to everyone,” Australia Zoo said in a press release.
There’s a number of criticisms of NFTs (you know we at Gizmodo Australia have a lot of opinions on the matter), but one major one is the environmental impact, which the announcement from Australia Zoo directly addresses.
Its NFT project uses Algorand’s blockchain technology, which is touted as being carbon-negative.
Wildlife Warriors was established in 2002 by Steve and Terri Irwin as a way to include and involve others in the protection of injured, threatened or endangered wildlife. Globally, the initiative boasts 11 conservation projects and three conservation properties. Wildlife Warriors’ flagship project, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, has to-date treated over 110,000 animals since opening its doors in 2004.
Not a bad initiative. Not too sure about the NFTs, though.