Adopt digital avatars of rescued dogs: UAE animal shelter to launch NFTs

Stray Dogs Centre UAE will launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the coming week, becoming the first non-profit organisation in the Middle East region to introduce this latest digital asset.

NFT is a new model for digitally buying and selling art, music and sports products. The latest entrant is the NFTs that serve humanity and animal well-being. Under this new model of NFTs for animals, pets are adopted digitally and the NFT holder bears the cost of the pet with regular payments.

Most of the funds will be used for the animal rescue and the rest will be set aside for airdrops or gifts, for the NFT holders.

“We are the first in the Middle East to own and release NFTs directly. Stray Dogs Centre is the fourth largest animal rescue worldwide to release its own NFT directly at 12’o clock on March 12. Mint link will be released on Twitter. All communications for NFT are being held on Twitter because our other platforms like Instagram or Facebook are reserved for daily updates and or emergency announcements, said Shraddha Chaurasia, head of marketing at Stray Dogs Centre, UAE.

Globally, the US-based pet company Pawtocol and Costa Rican animal rescues became the first companies in March 2021 to launch profiles of pets as an NFT in order to sell them in the NFT Marketplace to raise awareness and funds for virtual adoption. So far, NFTs have been the most popular in the art and music segment, but other sectors such as sports are also witnessing exponential growth. It’s estimated that the global sports NFT market will record transactions of more than $2 billion in 2022, according to a study by Deloitte.

In the first phase of the three-part series, Chaurasia said 150 rescued doggos UAE NFTs will be launched on the Solana blockchain.

“This is the inaugural launch as a result we're releasing a limited edition of only 150 NFTs and every month one NFT holder will be picked randomly to win a free airdrop (a gift in the form of NFT),” she said, adding that NFTs will be launched on Solana because “it will be too expensive for our supporters if we were to launch on Ethereum. By launching it on Solana, we are making it easier for everyone to own and have our NFTs. The buyers will have to have a Solana wallet to purchase our NFTs.”

Chaurasia pointed out that the majority of mint proceeds will go towards the rescue dogs while the remaining will be utilised for 150 supporters in the form of airdrops over a period of time.

“We are going to have two more launches. I’m just waiting for the first one to go out to make the announcement about the other two. All I can say is, whoever would like to have an advantage in our third and final launch, should be collecting at least one from each of our first two launches. We're trying to make sure that the community of 150 people for the inaugural launch who support us are also supported in return,” she added.

Stray Dogs Centre's marketing head revealed that the majority of the dog-based NFTs out there are based on pure breed dogs. “We’re steering a little different and basing ours on the mixed breed doggo which is what our rescues are.”

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

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