In a recent previous post we looked at the power of crytopcurrencies and wondered if the Bitcoin (at the time of writing this post the digital coin is worth around $6,500) may be able to help the fashion industry and in particular the luxury market.
Celebrities have been also jumping on the bandwagon of the cryptocurrencies, encouraging people to purchase stocks: a couple of months ago socialite Paris Hilton endorsed the Lydian Coin on Twitter, while boxing champion Floyd Mayweather promoted through his social media accounts three tokens - Centra, Stox and Hubiits. Journalistic investigations revealed shifty characters and fraudolents schemes behind such coins (Hilton deleted her posts after an investigation by Forbes uncovered the dubious past of the founder of the Lydian Coin), while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that regulates among the others also the electronic securities markets in the U.S., highlighted how these celebrity promotions may run afoul of federal securities laws in the U.S. (promoting parties should indeed disclose if and how much they were paid to make these endorsements).
That said, cryptocurrencies and in particular the Bitcoin, remain fascinating concepts, yet there are still very few places where you can buy fashion items using these currencies: in Italy Lanieri, a young company producing made-to-measure men's suits, allows consumers to pay for their customised designs in Bitcoin, but the rest of the fashion industry is still behind for what regards cryptocurrencies.
Icelandic singer Björk seems instead to be (as usual...) a step ahead of the game by allowing people to pre-order her new album "Utopia" (due to be released on 24th November) from her label One Little Indian in four cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, litecoin, dash, and AudioCoin.
Those who pre-order the album will receive a bonus, 100 so-called AudioCoins (worth about 20p at the time of writing, this currency was generated in 2015 to tackle some of the most poignant issues of the music industry, completely revolutionalised in the last fifteen years or so by digital downloads). Fans will be able to deposit the AudioCoins in e-wallets, exchange them for other digital currencies or use them to buy more music.
The decision to allow people to buy the album in cryptocurrencies came in response to requests from fans (by the way, it will still be possible to pay for the album using credit cards or PayPal), and One Little Indian joined forces with London-based blockchain specialist Blockpool to allow the payments in digital currencies.
In a way it seems like an oxymoron that an album inspired by an imaginary peaceful island and by nature in which soothing flutes and harps intertwine with bird calls and sounds of the forest to produce orchestral tapestries, can be bought with something as technologically advanced as cryptocurrencies.
Yet Björk has always been into technology: she was among the first muscians to launch a website in 1994, and was a pioneer when it came to digitally editing and producing her albums or employing electronic musical instruments such as the Reactable and the Tenori-on. Her 2011's "Biophilia" album came with an app that allowed listeners to learn about music while playing with it, while her "Björk Digital" exhibition combined virtual and augmented reality and 360° video.
Not everything paid in cryptocurrencies is related to the mysteries of the deep web and to obscure transactions, and the blockchain technology behind such transactions will become bigger in future for what regards applications such as distributed cloud storage, digital security, smart contracts and digital voting.
You can bet that, if the fashion industry wakes up from its slumber and understands the power of cryptocurrencies, the launch of a dedicated fashion-related cryptocurrency may not be that far away.
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