The Associated Press plans to launch an NFT marketplace on Polygon

The Associated Press (AP) has dived deeper into the non-fungible token (NFT) frenzy with the launch of a proprietary marketplace. AP unveiled this news through a press release on January 10, noting that the platform would list its NFTs. Reportedly, the marketplace is set to launch on January 31.

According to the news release, AP contracted blockchain technology provider Xooa to develop the platform, which runs on Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain scaling solution. Explaining why it chose to build its marketplace on Polygon, AP said it is environmentally friendly. At launch, the marketplace will list a wide range of photos, including some that won the Pulitzer Prize.

AP intends to spread the initial NFT drops over a series of weeks, beginning January 31. The NFTs will comprise varied themes, including war, climate, and space. Per the non-profit news agency, photos of photographers like Emilio Morenatti and Oded Balilty will be part of the first NFT drops.

The organization added that each NFT would feature metadata about the pictures they represent. Specifically, the metadata will comprise information on the date, time, and location of each photo. Additionally, the metadata will feature details on the equipment and camera settings that photographers used to capture the picture.

Commenting on this progressive move, AP’s Director of Blockchain and Data Licensing, Dwayne Desaulniers, said,

For 175 years, AP’s photographers have recorded the world’s biggest stories through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today. With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors.

Funding unbiased journalism

According to AP, the price points for the NFTs will vary. The news agency added that it would use funds from each sale to fund factual, unbiased journalism. Through its marketplace, AP believes collectors will be able to buy, trade, and sell its NFTs seamlessly.

Unlike other marketplaces, which only accept payments in crypto, the AP platform will allow both crypto and credit card payments for secondary market transactions. Among the crypto wallets that the marketplace will support include Metamask. However, it seeks to integrate support for Binance, Fortmatic, and Coinbase.

Notably, this is not AP’s first foray into web3. In October last year, the news agency teamed up with oracle provider Chainlink Labs to operate a Chainlink node. This agreement saw AP start using Chainlink oracles to cryptographically sign data on sports and elections, allowing the over 15,000 outlets that use AP’s platform to verify that the information is indeed from AP.

Apart from this, AP leveraged blockchain encyclopedia Everipedia to announce its prediction that Joe Biden would win the US presidential election.