Royal Mint Rocks Out with NFT Flip Flop

It looks like the Royal Mint have pulled a royal U-turn. After proposing to launch their own NFT – a way to represent ownership of digital assets securely, the UK government have reconsidered and said ‘nevermind’.

What’s an NFT?

In case you don’t know, an NFT (or Non Fungible Token) is a type of cryptocurrency where the token is not interchangeable. It’s like the cryptocurrency version of an autograph.

What’s the deal with the Royal Mint?

The Royal Mint had planned to offer its own NFTs, allowing people to buy digital artwork as well as an ownership claim to a portion of physical gold. However, the plans have been scrapped after consultation with the Chancellery and the UK Treasury.

The Royal Mint had said that the NFTs would help them to “connect innovative digital technologies with traditional services such as gold and even the bullion coins they produce”.

Why are they Dropping the Plan?

To be honest, no one knows exactly why the government has backed out of the plan. Though some have suggested that it simply doesn’t make sense for the Royal Mint to get involved in the world of cryptocurrency, considering that it’s already a trusted and secure business.

What Happens Now?

Since the plans have been dropped, we can speculate safely that the Royal Mint will remain solely in the business of minting traditional currency.

This is probably for the best, though. Modernising the Royal Mint via blockchain technology is probably a bit premature and might make the process more complicated than it needs to be.

Summary

So, to summarise:

  • The Royal Mint had planned to launch their own NFTs.

  • The UK government have dropped the plans.

  • It’s likely that the Royal Mint will remain in the business of minting traditional currency.

Looks like we won’t have to worry about the Queen issuing her own digital currency anytime soon. Thank goodness for that!