NASA Issues Warning Against Tokenising Its Content, Alerts NFT Enthusiasts

With a boom in crypto-supporting blockchain technology around the world, several other elements associated with blockchain are also garnering intrigue. American space agency NASA has clarified that it does not want any of its content to be converted into a digital collectible or an NFT for being auctioned. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are virtual collectibles supported on blockchain and inspired by a wide range of things like video clips, game avatars, and art among other entities.

NASA, in a detailed post noted that its logo, still images, audio recordings, video clips, and similar files must not be used for commercial purposes.

“NASA makes its imagery and video available for educational and information purposes in accordance with these guidelines. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are, in essence, digital tokens owned by someone as a ‘one of a kind’ digital asset. NASA does not wish for its images to be used for these purposes,” the space agency said.

In the recent past, some NFT and metaverse projects have cited associations with NASA which could have perhaps, triggered the space agency to post elaborate guidelines against such deeds.

In October 2021 for instance, Ethereum–based metaverse called “Mars4” promised people to let them own a piece of the Red Planet in that virtual universe.

As per media reports, the metaverse, which is yet to launch, is been built on a 3D map of Mars’ terrain from NASA.

NASA had not confirmed its involvement in the project at the time.

With the classification of NFTs as assets, commodities, or something entirely new is still under question around the world, NASA has decided to keep its content away from the sector.

“NFTs are not consistent with the categories of products the Agency is approved to merchandise. NASA does not wish for its images to be used in connection with NFTs,” its blog on merchandising guidelines said.

The sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,84,700 crore) in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary recently said that NFTs would be much bigger than Bitcoin in the times to come.