Many exciting developments are entering the room with non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, from NFT of metaverse to collectible digital cards in fantasy football and even NFT monster fighting games. In fact, Cointelegraph Research expects NFT sales to reach a record high of $ 17.7 billion this year.
But the French start-up is taking a more ambitious approach with NFTs for wine. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Samuel Baltazard and Yassine Harroubi, CEO and Product Director of World Wide Wines, respectively, discuss the logistics of making French wine available on the blockchain. Balthazar is a descendant of the family that runs the Château du Royt factory in Provence, which has existed since 1840. The project itself is built on Elrond’s grid.
Cointelegraph: The price of a bottle of wine varies, for example in France and China, due to differences in taxes and duties. So what are the settings for these payments?
Samuel Balthasard: For the system and taxes, we created a symbol called DRUE. And when you buy NFT, you bet a few tokens in exchange for a bottle pass. Then, when you want to pick up a bottle [delivered], we use a system to see if there are enough grapes for your country. For example, if you are in China [where import duties are high], you will need more GRAPE codes to pay taxes. If you are in France you need fewer tokens.
CT: Where do you do product development? Are you already selling these NFTs or are you building prototypes?
Yasin Harrubi: In fact, we have been building this project for several months, but officially announced 10 days ago. So far we have made all the designs. We are launching our first 300 NFT drop and we are already partnering with NFT groups and wineries at the moment.
CT: How should you keep the bottles safe if there is a risk outside the chain?
SB and YK: So there are three real wine bottles behind each NFT for safety reasons. For these three bottles, we place them in three different vineyards, since we want to work in the cloud, but with bottles.
Protecting each NFT in a three-bottle setup is the first step in the process because we want to ensure that if one bottle is lost or two bottles are lost, we still have a third bottle, but the customer only owns one bottle. We buy three bottles. But when you wait for one bottle, if nothing happens to each other, they go to the market. And with NFT, you have discounts in this market. So you can […] go to the market and buy a bottle at a discount. And the first part is that we want to make a “wine list”. It can be an invitation to wine events or a discount at a wine bar or similar.
The second step when it comes to security is insurance. When you place an NFT game, you have grapes. 30% for the commission. 30% for the owner of wine, fixtures and storage. 30%, for vines. In the meantime, the remaining 10% goes to us. Thus, if a vineyard loses a bottle, he does not get his own grapes, so he has a [financial] interest in taking care of the bottle. And you can claim the bottle when you have enough grapes to pay customs and shipping costs.
CT: It says on your website that each NFT will represent a different wine. So how do you define the quality of the wine?
SB and YK: This section is about data and computer science. At first we wanted to show wine vermouth as a property, but vermouth is very subjective and it is difficult for buyers to choose it. Therefore, we decided to create a quality theme. And for this function we will use historical data, but create a forecast model. So, the analysis of all the data that allows you to determine the quality – for example, weather, rain and sunlight in the vineyards where the grapes are grown.
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CT: Do you want to include other statements or ideas about what you do?
SB and YK: We want to have three main goals: First, digitization of the wine ecosystem; Then teach people how to define good wine; And finally, manipulation of wine ecosystems [through Metaverse]. We have many ideas – for example a wine group from NFT and then another. The last step is to enter a real wine market with real vineyards.
The last part – I think the important one – is why the vineyards are so interesting. The first part is about the second market. So, for example, when the Domaine Chateau du Rouet sells wine, they control the first market. But if the value of a bottle increases over time, the vineyard has no control over it. And with NFT, you can place royalties in the other market, which is why Domaine Chateau du Rouet receives a resale commission.
