Creators of the Azuki brand, Chiru Labs hosted a recent auction that amassed $2.5 million in ETH. People placed bids in Ethereum to own one of the eight skateboards, whereby each skateboard was plated in karat gold and weighed 45 pounds.
The highest bidder had to inject just over $400,000 for one of the skateboards. The lowest successful bid was $260,000. Chiru Labs said there were 145 total bids on the skateboards. The exclusivity of the skateboards is guaranteed via a physical chip which is embedded inside them. It can be scanned by a smartphone for verification of ownership. Chiru Labs describes this as “scan-to-own”. Dingaling, an NFT collector, now possesses the most expensive board. The collector already has a massive collection of NFTs, including 70 Azuki avatars. Dingaling called the Azuki community “the most degen community” he has ever seen.
If one of the owners of the skateboard gave up their prized board, another person can scan the embedded chip to transfer the ownership to another wallet. Chiru Labs said the boards represent the platform’s introduction of a physically-backed token or PBT which links a physical item to a digital token on the Ethereum blockchain. The technology can be used to show the authenticity of physical goods that in a way leverages blockchain technology. A PBT can be used to also keep track of who has owned an item in the past. This could also be useful in the world of art for establishing a piece’s provenance.
