The Story Behind the 2022 NFT Season’s Greetings Card
This year, UZH wanted to do something different for its annual season’s greetings e-card. The idea was to introduce staff and students to blockchain technology and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). UZH is a leader in research into the applications and implications of blockchain technologies.
Creating the Star
From 2 to 11 December 2022, UZH members were invited to get hands-on with blockchain technology and create their own unique NFTs.
With the help of a tutorial, they learned how to create a digital wallet. The MetaMask browser plugin was used for this purpose.
After setting up the digital wallet, UZH members were able to visit a website, connect it to their wallet, and design their own NFT in the shape of a star.
This was all done “the blockchain way”, meaning that the entire process of star creation was recorded in the UZH blockchain UZHETHPoS (Proof-of-Stake Ethereum parallel chain). This is used by the Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Group of the Blockchain Center for teaching and research.
Over 370 UZH members participated in the experiment.
At the end of the creation period, participants received five unique NFTs, each with their personal star-shaped creation in the center, orbited by randomly selected stars created by other participants.
These NFTs are stored in the decentralized file system IPFS (Interplanetary File System) and are accessible to anybody who knows the coordinates, but owned exclusively by their creators.
The designers of the stars can decide how to send their unique season's greetings to friends, colleagues or relatives. They can send them to other blockchain users in their digital wallet or simply send a copy of their design, while keeping ownership of the NFT. The experiment thus also gives participants an understanding what it actually means to own an NFT.
Learn more!
Learn the most important basics of blockchain and NFT on the website of the UZH Blockchain Center. And learn more about the background of the 2022 NFT experiment.
UZH season's greetings NFT Experience
Blockchain technology related to season’s greetings card NFTs