Cardano NFT: Whiskees – The Cryptonomist

This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a project that will be launching a collection of 10k NFTs which represent crowdfunded partial ownership whiskey casks: Whiskees.

The previous guest was a cross-media, cross-chain Metaverse that is aiming to become the world’s first Enlightenment Simulator.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: Whiskees

Hey, glad to have you here. Please introduce your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

The Whiskees NFTs team is a small and dedicated group of three Cardano advocates that live in the USA and Europe that have been around since the 2018 HODL days. 

We are whiskey lovers, entrepreneurs, designers, and developers and have worked on some notable Cardano NFT projects and tools such as Aquafarmers and NMKR. Our vision is to bring real-world use cases to Cardano NFTs and we believe and are excited for the benefits and uniqueness Whiskees NFTs can provide to the Cardano community!

What is Whiskees? How are you utilizing NFT technology and why have you chosen the Cardano blockchain?

Whiskees NFTs are a realistically fun and unique hand-drawn collection of 10,000 Cardano blockchain based artwork NFTs. The artwork is inspired by a love and passion for all types of aged whiskeys, whiskies, or as we prefer… Whiskees and represents the many differences in locations, people, and ways to enjoy a glass or bottle.

Whiskees NFTs go beyond just great artwork though, as each Whiskees NFTs also represents crowdfunded partial ownership in aging, and appreciating, whiskey casks. This offers real-world utility for Whiskees NFT owners for a highly desirable and unique asset and provides the opportunity for returns upon future whiskey cask sales paid directly back to Whiskees NFT owners.

Each Whiskees NFT is:

• 50% unique digital art.
• 50% crowdfunded partial ownership in aging, and appreciating, whiskey casks.

Cardano is the perfect blockchain to launch our NFT collection as we firmly believe in the vision, mission, and core values of the blockchain and the decentralization it pioneers and brings forth to the world of cryptocurrency. 

Additionally, it has a vibrant and growing NFT community with a bright future ahead that we are excited to be a part of and add to. Other blockchains can’t really say the same, especially in this bear market.

What are the advantages of connecting NFTs with something tangible in the real world like whiskey casks? Where do you think most of the utility lies?

NFTs have so much potential for connection to the real-world that we are only just figuring out and tapping into. It started with a cool way to digitize art ownership with IP rights and has been growing here and there across all blockchains by some great visionaries. Some cool use cases that we’ve liked that have started to pop up are things like utilizing NFTs as unique club memberships, yield boosting on DEX farming, play-to-earn gaming, or as ways to stake and earn project tokens which can be used for branded merchandise purchases.

We are taking those ideas above one step further and really connecting NFTs to a real-world item using whiskey casks. It’s the perfect connection in our opinion, as whiskey cask ownership can be pretty difficult to obtain with a high cost barrier to entry plus storage concerns. By using NFTs and crowdfunding partial ownership we can get people exposure to something that would have previously been unattainable for many.

Whiskey has been, and continues to be, an ever-growing business with no signs of slowing in global demand anytime soon as an aged spirit with limited supply. It is an uncorrelated asset to traditional markets and performs well in both bull and bear markets. If we look at the first half of 2022 bear market alone, things like the stock markets (-20%), Bitcoin (-60%), bonds (-12%), and even gold (-2%) were all down, yet whiskey is growing (+8.5%)!  That’s a steady, reliable, and REAL rate of return when compared to nearly everything else.

Getting exposure to something like that all through an NFT is pretty different and exciting!

Tell us about the future of Whiskees, where do you see the project in 1 year? What about 5 years?

The team is in this one for the long haul as whiskey is a patient and long game in and of itself. The longer whiskey is barrel-aged the more valuable it becomes. The aging process within the wooden cask creates rarity, deepens flavor profiles, and also limits the supply of what is available from different distilleries for consumers to purchase at one time depending on when the whiskey is bottled from the cask.

Our first-year focus will be on building our community and minting the NFTs and then also acquiring the whiskey casks using 50% of the funds of the NFT mint sale.  The whiskey casks to be purchased will be either Irish or Scotch Whiskey from a variety of distilleries with most whiskey casks acquired having been filled in their first-year of the aging process. The Whiskees NFTs team has partnered with whiskey experts to purchase the best and rarest Irish and Scotch whiskey casks available after the mint to provide the greatest benefit and value to Whiskees NFTs holders.

Whiskey cask selections will be made with planned holding periods of 3, 5, and 10 years and whiskey casks will be optimally selected to match these time points.

During the holding period the whiskey casks will continue to age, untouched and unsold, in government-bonded and insured warehouses to meet the minimum of three years per Irish and Scottish aging requirements.

After 3 years of aging 1/3 of the whiskey casks held will be on-chain voted by Whiskees NFTs holders to determine what happens with these casks (DAO style).

The voting options are:

• Keep – vote again in 1 year on 1/3 of the casks
• Sell – distribute profits back to NFT owners
• Bottle – distribute to NFT owners

The NFT holder majority vote will determine the path forward for these whiskey casks. As an NFT owner you get to help decide!

This process repeats at the 5 year (next 1/3 of the casks) and 10 year (last 1/3 of the casks) mark until all casks are sold or bottled.

We believe the future is very bright for Whiskees NFTs owners and are also working on other partnerships and utility between the 3, 5, and 10-year time points to further increase the utility of the NFTs.

Thank you kindly for your time. Any closing comments? Where can people learn more about Whiskees?

We are really excited to bring some real-world utility to Cardano NFTs and would recommend following us on our different social media channels and checking out our Litepaper to learn a bit more about the project.

We are looking to mint over the coming months and hope you’ll be there with us!

Connect with us on our Website, Twitter, Discord. 

All links can be found on Linktree.

Cheers All!

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.