Blockchain Collectibles: A Discussion With the Creator of Curio Cards

This week Bitcoin.com chatted with Thomas Hunt otherwise known as ‘Mad Bitcoins’ about a new blockchain based collectibles project he started — Curio Cards. The collectibles are a digital trading card that can be exchanged or stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

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Collectible trading cards is a billion dollar industry as people trade decks of their favorite sports players, Pokemon characters, Magic the Gathering spells, and many other types of interesting subjects around the world. Virtual trading cards tethered to blockchain technology has recently become a new trend as Spells of Genesis, and Rare Pepe have become popular collectibles within the crypto-community.

Mr. Hunt believes blockchain-based collectibles will be a big success in the future and has teamed up with some artists to help further his project. He’s also a fan of some of the other crypto-collectibles on the market and gives Bitcoin.com readers some insight into the different attributes Curio Cards offer.

Curio Cards: Blockchain-Based Digital Collectibles

Bitcoin.com (BC): What are Curio Cards?

Thomas Hunt (TH): Curio Cards are digital trading cards on the Ethereum blockchain.

BC: What gave you the idea to create the Curio Card concept?

TH: I’ve always been a collector. I collected baseball cards, books, movies and now of course cryptocurrency. People love to collect things, so I thought, why not combine my love for cryptocurrency with my love for collecting and make something fun.

BC: How many card sets have been released so far?

TH: In the past three weeks we’ve released four sets, a total of ten cards. Tuesday is new card day, so we always print new cards on Tuesday. These early cards were more of a test phase. In one week we will start releasing Artist Cards.

These cards will not only be created by artists, but the artists will also receive all of the proceeds. The artists can also use the cards as future rewards for their community or simply burn them, reducing their number and increasing their value.

BC: How are the cards stored on the Ethereum blockchain?

TH: First we store the image of the Curio Card in IPFS, allowing the images to be hosted on their network. Then we store a link to the image in an ERC20 token on Ethereum. The tokens that represent Curio Cards are unlike any collectible in history, in that at the time of their creation they are limited in number, provably rare and their entire chain of custody can be verified.

BC: Since you started how has the community response towards your collectibles been?

TH: We’ve had an incredibly positive reaction to Curio Cards. What I’m impressed by is that people are already starting to collect sets. Since the cards are on a blockchain, anyone can see the transactions, and if you look, people are buying in groups. They also seem to have favorite cards that they buy more of than others, and I think this will play out more with ‘Artist Cards’ when you might want more copies of your favorite works to send them out to friends or perhaps a certain piece resonates with you and you just have to buy as many as you can.

BC: What’s your opinion of the Rare Pepe blockchain-based trading cards?

TH: I’m very impressed with the way they created value and developed their community. I believe it’s because of projects like Spells of Genesis and Rare Pepe that we’ve had such a positive reaction to Curio Cards.

There’s a lot of collectors out there on the internet, and we all have the same goal: ‘gotta collect ‘em all.’

BC: Can you tell our readers about some of the artists involved with the project and how an artist can submit some artwork?

TH: We’re keeping the artists secret right now (new cards every tuesday!), but we are reaching out to several well-known artists in the cryptocurrency art community, and we’re constantly on the lookout for new artists. Artists can sign-up here. This is a great opportunity for artists to not only spread the word about their work, but also to get paid in cryptocurrency. It’s a win-win.

BC: Do you believe blockchain-based collectibles will be big in the future?

TH: What excites me about blockchain-based collectibles is that you actually own the token. Much like Bitcoin, you can store them in a paper wallet, a hardware wallet, an online wallet, etc. With a centralized online collectible, it’s just not the same experience of ownership. I think that when people try out blockchain collectibles like Curio Cards, they’ll notice that difference and realize the value in owning cryptographic collectibles. I believe blockchain-based collectibles will be very big in the future.

Images via Pixabay, Bitcoin.com, and the Curio Cards website.

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