For the Love of NFTs: VSA Partners and Rare Air Media Bring Jordan NFTs to the XRPL

Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are creating tremendous opportunities for creators and collectors of art, memorabilia, and other digital assets. Since the initial launch of Ripple’s Creator Fund, we have seen incredible momentum and exciting NFT use cases come to life on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Creators like Justin Bua, xPunks, and Sebring Revolution continue to prove out tokenization projects and capabilities for metaverses, gaming, art and beyond.  

Making Waves in Media & Entertainment

Now Rare Air Media, producer of Michael Jordan’s visual autobiography For the Love of the Game, is getting into the NFT game, too. The company is working with VSA Partners, the premier creative agency partner to Ripple’s Creator Fund, to design, develop, and market a range of NFTs on the XRPL, including a one-of-a-kind selection of digital assets covering former NBA player Michael Jordan’s life and storied career. The first batch of NFTs is expected to hit the market in Q2 2022 and will include an intimate selection of original, momentous images of Michael Jordan, accompanied by his personal thoughts and observations leading up to the photo.

As additional use cases for programmable, functional NFTs continue to be built out and tested across industries, the media & entertainment space has been among the earliest adopters of the technology: expanding NFT use cases across music, sports, ticketing, access rights, and beyond. From celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton, to professional athletes like LeBron James, and major brands including Disney and the Grammys — it seems there is no shortage of possibilities for NFT applications in the industry.

High-profile brands, celebrities and their agencies have specialized needs when it comes to identity and ownership of digital assets. The unique security and identification attributes of distributed ledger technology have opened up extraordinary opportunities for creators of digital content to not only assign value to their work, but to profit from it and share behind-the-scenes stories with an even wider audience. With more and more collectors coming aboard the blockchain train, both sides of digital asset commerce can be confident in the assets they purchase and create. 

Why Create NFTs on the XRPL?

The XRP Ledger has ease of use and native token functionality built-in by design. Released in January, NFT-Devnet — a beta environment built to enhance NFT support on the XRPL — lowers the technical barriers to entry for those looking to get started either creating and minting their own NFTs or on behalf of their customers and their brands.

A couple of the key benefits to using XRPL for NFT creation include:

• Speed: each transaction on the XRPL takes no more than 3-5 seconds to complete.
• Low Cost: at fractions of a penny per transaction, costs are inexpensive enough to enable a wide variety of NFT use cases.
• Sustainable: the XRPL is the first major blockchain to be carbon-neutral — maintaining neutrality since 2020 — and is more efficient than leading proof-of-work blockchains.
• Simplicity: NFT capabilities on the XRP Ledger pre-program all activities that an NFT user may wish to complete, including minting, burning, trading, requiring royalties, and more.

Created for All Creators

Whether you are new to the NFT space or are looking for a new ledger to build on, the XRPL is customizable to meet your NFT needs—large or small. As one contributor to the growing XRPL community, we’re working closely with developers, creators, marketplaces, creative agencies and brands to help define the future of NFTs and the tokenization of assets in a low-cost, sustainable and accessible way. 

As the Creator Fund and its supported NFT projects continue to grow and gain momentum, especially across the media & entertainment industry, it’s likely we will continue to see expanded uses and partnerships take shape—not only on the XRPL but across the broader tokenization landscape as a whole. 

Check out the Creator Fund for more information or learn more about tokenization on the XRPL.