A ‘Digital Library of Italian Culture’ in Puglia: Is It Expanding NFT Use to New Areas?

It was hard to predict Puglia as being a pioneer in the metaverse. Taking the form of a three-thousand-year-old region inside Italy’s heel, it is ordinarily recognised for its unique fairytale landscape, mediaeval fishing villages and ancient, secret coves. But this year, Puglia has been taking the steps to become far more in tune with the world of the future.

Rather than promoting local culture and history through traditional means, Italy’s Aldo Moro University is instead using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to tell the story of the region in an entirely digital format. Considering NFTs have so far been used as an alternative means of trading on the blockchain, this is potentially more impactful than it might seem at first glance. 

What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

NFTs are valuable tokens, capable of being traded on the cryptocurrency blockchain. Unlike trading one BTC for another, an NFT is something entirely unique, which cannot be traded for the same token. For example, if you owned an NFT which came in the form of a digital art piece, then you are the sole owner of a trading card which is not available anywhere else in the world. Of course, you can trade that card, but only if you wanted something different entirely. 

So far, NFTs have been very popular inside the crypto market. Typically coming in the form of digital art pieces, there have been a number of NFTs which have sold for a considerable sum of money, including music videos, online GIFS and even the first-ever tweet from the Twitter CEO. Just last year, the crypto art platform Foundation sold a GIF featuring the infamous “Nyan Cat” for a figure of $587,000. 

The Future of NFTs

Although the cryptocurrency market is currently going through a dry patch, it’s clear that NFTs will continue to become a regular feature of the blockchain once things ‌pick up again. If this is indeed the case, then we can also expect NFTs to be far more popular in our everyday lives. 

While the price of market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum is currently being affected by the crypto winter, experts predict them to shoot higher than ever before once we head into the bull market, with Bitcoin potentially hitting an all-time high of $100,000 in the next couple of years. This will similarly transform crypto into a solid, global presence which, in many ways, makes Puglia’s decision to utilise NFTs even more revolutionary. 

Puglia Is Taking Full Advantage Of The NFT Concept 

The first phase of Aldo Moro University’s “Digital Library of Italian Culture” took place just two months ago, at the Santa Teresa dei Maschi complex in Bari. This included a presentation of an NFT sample to Stefano Bronzini, who is the Rector of the University, and an auction of NFTs which symbolise the beauty of the region’s physical and digital culture. 

As well as this, the Humanities Department of Bari has set forward an initiative for the first university program in Italy to use blockchain, NFTs and virtual reality technologies to educate its students. Nunzia di Bari Vecchia and his Orchiquet are even expected to appear through VR to perpetuate culinary techniques and traditions.

NFTs Are Being Expanded Into New Areas

According to Professor Prezioso, this initiative is meant to rejuvenate the University of Aldo Moro, as well as the region of Puglia as “a destination for the avant-garde and 4.0 culture”. Not only this, but the introduction of cultural, civic NFTs is also revolutionary for the metaverse itself. As previously stated, the use of NFTs so far is to take the form of a desirable, unique token in the cryptocurrency market. Whilst they can aid artists in earning an income, they are predominantly utilised as a means to trade, earn and hold as a valuable asset.  

With this new initiative, Puglia is morphing the usage of NFTs to specifically aid the rejuvenation of a region. Not only this, but Aldo Moro is taking the first step in the inclusion of blockchain in the education sector. Over the next decade or so, the world will steadily phase into the Web3 stage of the internet, which will similarly make the blockchain a far more prominent presence in everyone’s lives. In Puglia’s new initiative, they have already integrated the blockchain to aid in education and preservation, expanding the utilisation of NFTs into areas so far untouched. In this way, NFTs themselves have been shown to hold a lot more potential in the Web3 area than anyone might have realised.