Blockchain is commonly associated, and often conflated with cryptocurrency, it is of course the underlying digital ledger technology that provides security and transparency of transactions. Blockchain technology can be used in conjunction with all manner of assets – to that end we partnered with Intel and BlockV to create a technology demonstrator to show the full potential of the technology.

The event was NRF, the world’s largest retail expo, the idea – to create virtual lifeforms that asked the philosophical question of whether something is less real because it’s not made of atoms. Among the many virtues of Blockchain, the primary role it provides is uniqueness of the assets tracked therein. A digital 3D asset on the blockchain can only be in one place at one time, whether that’s on a user’s phone, a digital billboard, a banner advert or an augmented reality environment.

The concept was to create and release virtual butterflies across New York, the location for NRF. Each butterfly would have its own rudimentary AI determining such characteristics as speed, stamina and flight path, combined with unique physical characteristics – wing size, colour and patterns. So, if each butterfly was physically unique, had their own ‘brain’ and was a truly unique digital item tracked on the blockchain…is this any less real than a physical object?