Cannabis NFTs Have Arrived | Westword

The non-fungible token, or NFT, craze has been breaking the web, with bidders vying for viral digital content material starting from “Depart Brittany Alone” to the unique “Charlie Bit My Finger” video (RIP), which went for almost one million {dollars}.

Because the craze continues, extra artists and entrepreneurs have been getting in on the act, together with Jason McHugh, founding father of Califari. A graduate of the College of Colorado Boulder, McHugh labored on a lot of initiatives alongside Matt Stone and Trey Parker; it was McHugh’s job to get the band Primus to compose the theme tune for the pilot of South Park. In 2015, he launched Califari as a hashish way of life model, working with artists by the Global Artist Network to introduce items that pay homage to traditional strains like Bitter Diesel and Granddaddy Purple. On 4/20, the model dropped its first five pieces as NFTs, with animated playing cards describing every pressure’s genetics, beginning with a rendition of Northern Lights at $310.

We caught up with McHugh to speak about THC, NFTs and artwork.

Westword: NFTs are actually shaking the artwork world. What’s your take?

Jason McHugh: The NFT craze is fascinating, as a result of it’s a distinct technique to see and use artwork. It’s form of given us a brand new method to do this. Now that we’ve dropped our first items and gotten into the NFT world, that’s the cool factor I’ve found about it. I [also] simply received turned on final week to SuperWorld, which sells actual property from around the globe, promoting plots of land for folks to retailer NFTs, which then turn out to be seen as augmented actuality to people who find themselves in these locations utilizing this specific app.

Whaaat?

Yeah, it’s actually far out. I simply received turned on to it final week, and it’s positively an exploding area.

What precisely is an NFT? Many individuals are asking.

They’re non-fungible tokens, which signifies that an NFT is a one-of-a-kind or distinctive piece that may be confirmed by the blockchain, and there are numerous jokes about this, proper? I’ve talked to numerous artists about it, and I’ve one fine-artist good friend who simply doesn’t give a fuck about NFTs. However then, then again, another artists see it as a brand new technique to specific themselves and show their work.

Why would somebody wish to put money into NFTs? What makes them so worthwhile regardless of no bodily copy?

It’s like having the unique receipt for one thing. And that’s form of the place the cynical aspect of it comes from: You don’t really personal the Mona Lisa, however you’ve got a receipt that claims you personal it. Within the fine-art world, there’s a factor known as provenance — proof of possession — so if you happen to purchased the Mona Lisa, there was a listing of rich aristocrats who owned these fine-art items, they usually hold a listing of what that piece sells at every time, and every time it sells, the worth appreciates. That’s primarily what the blockchain and NFTs do for digital artwork, which is essentially the most simply reproduced kind of artwork there’s now.

How did this all come collectively for Califari?

We received a name from our buddies at Merida Capital [a cannabis venture capital firm]. They have been simply extraordinarily fired up about working with us within the NFT area, so collectively we launched a brand new three way partnership known as Token Hits Chateau (THC), and that’s our new firm to create NFTs. They known as in February, and we set the date for a 4/20 launch and simply jumped proper in.

How did you get the thought for artwork that depicts hashish strains?

I labored on the Primus & the Chocolate Manufacturing facility tour earlier than launching Califari. Throughout exhibits, they’d supply an authentic poster each evening. They usually’d at all times promote out, and there have been these lengthy strains for these posters that have been unbelievable and often screen-printed that made an impression on me as we have been launching Califari. I assumed there ought to be that form of artwork current for hashish strains, as a result of I discover that individuals have comparable emotional connections for his or her favourite hashish strains as they do for his or her favourite musical artists. So we form of tapped some shoulders and launched that artwork line in 2016.

What’s distinctive about hashish pressure artwork?

We’ve discovered that artwork can create an emotional connection for folks between their favourite strains, and so we’ve simply stored taking place this path. And now we’re on a mission to discover the persona of hashish by artwork. It’s additionally our perception that there’s nobody kind of hashish lover; it’s a various world of people that love all points of hashish, and so we’re making an attempt to get as many artist viewpoints as doable. It’s form of been my job to comply with the trending strains and pair them with the artist who greatest realizes that individual identify and what sort of imagery it’d conjure up.

A portion of gross sales goes towards the Final Prisoner Venture. Why select this nonprofit?

For everyone who’s been working and profiting off the authorized hashish trade, to me, it’s simply some of the essential nonprofits which might be combating to free nonviolent hashish prisoners, which there method too lots of. About 60 p.c of the inhabitants believes within the legalization of hashish, and there are nonetheless folks sitting in jail over it. While you examine prohibition, you see that the foundations of prohibition have been put in place to prop up a racist agenda to assault Black and Brown folks. That has continued as much as the current. And we really feel strongly that the Final Prisoner Venture wants as a lot help as it could actually get.

What’s up for the longer term?

We wish to hold exploring the NFT world and see the place it takes us. An even bigger purpose is to create an extra hashish breeding machine. For Califari, we wish to be a global hashish model, and we’ve already began that with our artwork and our hashish line; we hope to sometime develop to different locations. We plan on introducing a brand new [NFT] piece every week all through the summer time earlier than regrouping to determine our subsequent wave of NFTs to introduce.

Califari NFTs can be found on-line through Bitski and OpenSea.